Quoted By:
The children have fallen asleep.
Lady Temperance
has been watching silently from the nursery door, her eyes brimming with admiration:
-You are so good with children, Beatrice. I don't know what I would do without you... ever since their father and I... (Lady Temperance suppresses a painful recollection, and pauses before recovering herself) ...I mean to say, you are truly invaluable. If there is anything I can do for you Beatrice, you need only ask... perhaps... perhaps I can find you a husband? At my gathering, at the Water Banquet? There will be so many dances and beaus, so many handsome and eligible young gallants there - of that you may be well assured!
Beatrice replies impassionately
- I thank you, Lady Temperance. But I do not think I will ever marry. I am my father's only child, his only heir, and when he bequeaths upon me independence I shall wish to be freed from the tyranny of love. Every amorous advance is truly a shackle, beginning with the mere gift of one ring, but ending in the links of a long chain of entreaty, abasement and obligation. And I shall never see my will fettered to another. After all I think that is what the story of the Raven Prince teaches us, is it not? Love is just a trick by those who want to take something from you!
Lady Temperance can see the colour rising in Beatrice's cheeks, the fire in her eyes, and so she changes to a more teasing, conciliatory tone:
-Well it almost sounds like you have been conversing far too ardently with Herman Sucklinge-Bell, and his brigade of militant suffragists! He is very fond of independent women, you know... Herman likes his women a little mannish, if you ask me. Perhaps I shall invite him to my Water Banquet...
(optional, as Beatrice)
>(Stammer and blush furiously) I... I have barely even ... even met him! I ... I was only hoping... that he would be able to speak to the workmen... the ones protesting outside my father's foundry. Herman.. he ... he is very good at giving speeches, I had thought... (consent to Lady Temperance's matchmaking)
>(retort angrily) You, Lady Temperance - you have no right to be foisting nuptial engagements upon anyone! After all, look at what came of your own marriage to Lord Huntingtower...
