STEVEN. Oh, I can't bear it! I can't bear it! But you don't mean it! No,
you can't mean it! How could you? Forgive me? Trust me again? No, no!
You couldn't--it's all over! I've thrown away my own money first, then
my wife's and her mother's--that ought to have been enough,--but I had
to go and break my word of honor to you, and lose every penny of yours!
There's no excuse for me, nor reason to forgive.

GEORGIANA. [_After a moment, very quietly, with her eyes filling._]
There's _love_, Steve!

STEVEN. Not for a man like me. I'm not worth it. [_He rises._] Not
deserving it! There's only one thing for such as me, and that is to end
it all with a bullet.

GEORGIANA. Now you're talking wildly!

STEVEN. [_In a lowered voice._] No, Georgy, I mean it! It's better for
all of you to have me out of the way; I tried to do it to-day--only, _I
was afraid_!

GEORGIANA. That would be worse than anything you have done yet. That I
would never forgive--anything but that!

[_She goes to him._

STEVEN. But the shame of my life now, the degradation, the _rot_ of it!

[_A moment's pause._