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Helen is a modern woman - a scientist who is determined to never marry. Her stance on marriage becomes complicated when she falls in love with Ernest, a brilliant fellow scientist. The two work closely together, and Helen has made it clear that she does not want to ruin their working relationship by pursuing a romantic one. Just before this scene, Helen and Eenest finally admit that they love one another. The two embrace, but their romantic moment is interrupted by Jean, Helen’s sister, and
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HELEN: What have we done! This is all moonlight and madness. To-morrow comes the clear light of day.
ERNEST: Ah, but we'll love each other to-morrow!
HELEN: But we cannot marry—then or any other to-morrow.
ERNEST: Can't? What nonsense!
HELEN: (shaking her head and restraining him) I have slaved for you all these months—not because I wanted to win you from your work but to help you in it. And now—after all—shall I destroy you? No! No!
ERNEST: I love you—you love me—nothing else matters.
HELEN: Everything else matters. I'm not a little débutante to be persuaded that I am needed because I am wanted! I haven't played with you; I have worked with you, and I know! Think of Theodore! Think of Lucy! And now poor little Jean. Marry you? Never!
ERNEST: You mean your career?
HELEN: (with supreme scorn) My career? No! yours—always yours!
ERNEST: (with the same scorn and a snap of the fingers) Then that for my career. I'll go back into private practice and make a million.
HELEN: That's just what I said you'd do. Just what you must not do! Your work is needed by the world.
ERNEST: (wooing) You are my world and I need you.... But there is no love without marriage, no marriage without money.... We can take it or leave it. Can we leave it? No! I can't—you can't! Come! (She steps back slowly.) Why should we sacrifice the best! Come!
HELEN: So this is what marriage means! Then I cannot marry you, Ernest!
ERNEST: You cannot do without me, Helen! (Holds out his arms.) Come! You have been in my arms once. You and I can never forget that now. We can never go back now. It's all—or nothing now. Come! (She is struggling against her passion. He stands still, with arms held out.) I shall not woo you against your will, but you are coming to me! Because, by all the powers of earth and heaven, you are mine and I am yours! Come!
(Like a homing pigeon, she darts into his arms with a gasp of joy. A rapturous embrace in silence with the moonlight streaming down upon them. The music has stopped. JOHN, dressed for dinner, strolls out upon the terrace. He stops abruptly upon discovering them. The lovers are too absorbed to be aware of his presence.)
Citation: Jesse Lynch Williams, Why Marry, Public Domain, 1914 pp. 102-106.
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