JULIA. I was justified in reading your letters. Our perfect confidence
in one another gave me the right to do it.
CHARTERIS. Thank you. Then I hasten to break off a confidence which
gives such rights. (Sits down sulkily on sofa.)
JULIA (with her right hand on the back of the sofa, bending over him
threateningly). You have no right to break it off.
CHARTERIS. I have. You refused to marry me because--
JULIA. I did not. You never asked me. If we were married, you would
never dare treat me as you are doing now.
CHARTERIS (laboriously going back to his argument). It was understood
between us as people of advanced views that we were not to marry
because, as the law stands, I might have become a drunkard, a--
JULIA. --a criminal, an imbecile or a horror. You said that before.
(Sits down beside him with a fling.)
CHARTERIS (politely). I beg your pardon, my dear. I know I have a
habit of repeating myself. The point is that you reserved your freedom
to give me up when you pleased.
JULIA. Well, what of that? I do not please to give you up; and I will
not. You have not become a drunkard or a criminal.
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