ROSE: Yes _(dreamily)_ and then I went t...

ROSE: Yes (dreamily) and then I went to Cavendish Square, engaged to Arthur— (Tom rises and leans upon the mantelpiece, looking into the fire). How badly I behaved in Cavendish Square! How unlike a young lady! What if the old folks were overbearing and tyrannical, Arthur could be gentle with them. “They have not many more years in this world,” he said—dear boy!—“and anything we can do to make them happy—” And what did I do? There was a chance for me—to be patient, and womanly; and I proved to them that I was nothing but—an actress.

[AVONIA: (Rising, hurt but still tearful) It doesn’t follow, because one is a—

ROSE: (Rising) Yes, ‘Vonia, it does!] We are only dolls, partly human, with mechanical limbs that will fall into stagey postures, and heads stuffed with sayings out of rubbishy plays. It isn’t the world we live in, merely a world—such a queer little one! I was less than a month in Cavendish Square, and very few people came there; but they were real people—real! For a month I lost the smell of gas and oranges, and the hurry and noise, and the dirt and the slang, and the clownish joking, at the “Wells.” I didn’t realize at the time the change that was going on in me; I didn’t realize it till I came back. And then, by degrees, I discovered what had happened— (Tom is now near her. She takes his hand and drops her head upon Avonia’s shoulder. Wearily) Oh, Tom! Oh, ‘Vonia—

Pinero, Arthur Wing, Trelawny of the Wells, R.H. Russell, 1899, pp. 128-129.