] You're in Colorado writing
her letters once a day with no checks in them. That may be all right
for some girl who hasn't tasted the joy of easy living, full of the
good things of life, but one who for ten years has been doing very
well in the way these women do is not going to let up for any great
length of time. So take my advice if you want to hold her. Get that
money quick, and don't be so damned particular how you get it either.
JOHN'S _patience is evidently severely tried. He approaches_ WILL,
_who remains impassive_.
JOHN. Of course you know you've got the best of me.
WILL. How?
JOHN. We're guests.
WILL. No one's listening.
JOHN. 'Tisn't that. If it was anywhere but here, if there was any way
to avoid all the nasty scandal, I'd come a shootin' for you, and you
know it.
WILL. Gun-fighter, eh?
JOHN. Perhaps. Let me tell you this. I don't know how you make your
money, but I know what you do with it. You buy yourself a small circle
of sycophants; you pay them well for feeding your vanity; and then you
pose,--pose with a certain frank admission of vice and degradation.
And those who aren't quite as brazen as you call it manhood. Manhood?
[_Crossing slowly to armchair, sits._] Why, you don't know what the
word means. It's the attitude of a pup and a cur.
WILL. [_Angrily_.] Wait a minute [_Crosses to_ JOHN.], young man, or
I'll--
JOHN _rises quickly. Both men stand confronting each other for a
moment with fists clenched.
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