[_Jeers._] "Insinuations?" I've caught you! I make no
"_insinuations_." I tell you _both you're caught!_ You're my wife's
lover, and she's your damned mis--
[_Interrupted._
WARDEN. [_Seizing_ STERLING _by the throat._] Don't you finish!
BLANCHE. Sh!--for Heaven's sake! [_To_ WARDEN.] Let him alone; I'm not
afraid of what he says.
[WARDEN _leaves_ STERLING.
STERLING. No, you never were a liar, I'll give you credit for that,--so
confess the truth--you're his--
[_Interrupted._
BLANCHE. [_Excited beyond her control._] Listen! And you shall have the
truth if you want it! These years that he's been befriending me I never
dreamed of loving him nor thought of his loving me. [DICK _sneers._]
_Wait!_ No, not even the day my father was buried, when I learned
outright you were _dishonest!_
STERLING. [_Surprised._] What do you mean?
BLANCHE. What I say--I learned it then from a paper of my father's. I
shouldn't have kept my knowledge to myself--I see that now; but I did,
for your sake, not for love of you--the love went for good that day. But
here, a moment ago, I realized for the first time that my old friend
_did_ love me, love me with an ideal devotion the noblest woman in the
world might be proud of! I didn't tell him then I loved him, but now I
take this chance, I _take it_ GLADLY before you!--_forced by you!_ I
tell him now, what perhaps he has already guessed, I love him with all
my heart--I _love him_! I LOVE HIM!
STERLING.
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