“SIBYL. Oh, darling, I’m so sorry. (She holds her face up to his.) Kiss me. 

ELYOT (doing so). There. 

SIBYL. Ummm, not so very enthusiastic. 

ELYOT (kissing her again). That better? 

SIBYL. Three times, please, I’m superstitious.”

Initially presented as a stereotype of youthful naivety, Sibyl is more perceptive than she initially appears, as her uneasiness points to the reality that all is not right in their marriage. Elyot’s obliging but uninitiated kisses signify his disinterest in his new wife, and Sibyl’s claim to be “superstitious” is an instance of wordplay evoking the aurally similar “suspicious.”

“We made each other miserable.”

Elyot acknowledges the mutual destruction that he and Amanda caused in their relationship, a contrast to the scapegoating that Sibyl engages in. The subtext to Elyot’s statement is that he and Amanda were also mutually and passionately in love. He follows Sibyl’s comment that Amanda lost him with, “We lost each other” (7), suggesting that she was both the love and hate of his life.

“Love is no use unless it’s wise, and kind, and undramatic. Something steady and sweet, to smooth out your nerves when you’re tired. Something tremendously cosy; and unflurried by scenes and jealousies.”

Elyot attempts to moderate his passions by marrying Sibyl and choosing to avoid the drama and confrontation of his first marriage. His description uses imagery of buffering oneself against a storm (“unflurried”) and settling into tranquility (“steady,” “smooth,” “cosy”) after an exhausting day (“when you’re tired”). The imagery connotes quiet domesticity with a soporific quality, the opposite of the fiery but more fulfilling connection he had with Amanda.