Latest / Classic Romance Library / He and She - Rachel Crothers
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Act one scene the Hereford Studio. The room is in
- 0:05Speaker 1: the basement floor of a large old fashioned house in
- 0:08Speaker 1: lower New York, and shows that it has been made
- 0:11Speaker 1: over and adapted to the needs of a sculptor. At
- 0:15Speaker 1: right center back are double doors opening into the work room.
- 0:19Speaker 1: At right of these doors is a recess showing it
- 0:22Speaker 1: has been cut in the ceiling of the half of
- 0:24Speaker 1: the room, which is towards the audience is much higher
- 0:27Speaker 1: than the other part, showing that the room which is
- 0:29Speaker 1: on the floor above has been used to give height
- 0:32Speaker 1: to this part of the studio. The brake made in
- 0:35Speaker 1: the ceiling is supported by an interesting old carved column,
- 0:39Speaker 1: very evidently brought for Italy, and in the overhanging part
- 0:42Speaker 1: of the wall is set a very beautiful old Italian
- 0:45Speaker 1: frieze in bass relief a few faded colors. Showing. At
- 0:50Speaker 1: lower left is a large studio window. At lower right
- 0:53Speaker 1: is a single door leading into hall. At upper left
- 0:56Speaker 1: corner a cupboard is built in in harmony with the
- 1:00Speaker 1: construction of the room and showing when opened, drawers and
- 1:04Speaker 1: compartments for holding sculptor's tools, et cetera. Before the window
- 1:08Speaker 1: at right center is a scaffold built to hold a
- 1:11Speaker 1: section of the frieze. At its base is a revolving
- 1:15Speaker 1: table holding modeling, clay tools, et cetera. In front of
- 1:19Speaker 1: the scaffold is a short pair of steps. At center
- 1:23Speaker 1: is a long table holding rolls of sketches, a desk set,
- 1:26Speaker 1: a book or two pencils, compasses several pieces of modeling.
- 1:31Speaker 1: There are a number of chairs about, and a piece
- 1:34Speaker 1: of rich brocade and vivid coloring thrown over the back
- 1:37Speaker 1: of one. The room is simple, dignified, beautiful, full of
- 1:42Speaker 1: taste and strength. Soft afternoon sunshine streams in from the
- 1:46Speaker 1: wide window. Keith Mackenzie and Tom Herford are lifting one
- 1:51Speaker 1: section of a boss relief freeze about three by five
- 1:54Speaker 1: and placing it on the scaffolding. Mackenzie is about thirty
- 1:57Speaker 1: five tall, good looking in a pleasing commonplace way, also
- 2:02Speaker 1: wearing a sculptor's working clothes, but of a practical and
- 2:06Speaker 1: not artistic sort. Tom Herford is forty, a fine specimen
- 2:10Speaker 1: of the vigorous American artist type, virile, fresh, alive, and
- 2:15Speaker 1: generous in nature and viewpoint. He wears the stamp of
- 2:18Speaker 1: confidence and success. Tom As they lift.
- 2:22Speaker 2: The freeze, come on there. She is put her over
- 2:28Speaker 2: know this way about half a foot. That's right there.
- 2:33Speaker 2: Let's have a look.
- 2:34Speaker 1: Tom goes down to hanging switch and turns on the light.
- 2:38Speaker 1: As he does so, he says, wait, the lights are
- 2:43Speaker 1: turned up, turning to Keith, what.
- 2:46Speaker 2: Do you think?
- 2:48Speaker 3: It's a great thing, Governor, I'm going to be a
- 2:52Speaker 3: walk away for you. You'll win it as sure as guns.
- 2:55Speaker 2: I know it.
- 2:57Speaker 3: I bet you land the one hundred thousand dollars a share.
- 3:00Speaker 3: Is your standing there, Governor?
- 3:03Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know. The biggest fellows in the country
- 3:06Speaker 2: are going in for this competition.
- 3:09Speaker 3: Well you're one of the biggest. I think you're the biggest,
- 3:15Speaker 3: and you've turned out the best thing you've ever done
- 3:17Speaker 3: in your.
- 3:18Speaker 1: Life, going to stand above table.
- 3:22Speaker 2: That's damned nice of you, Mackenzie. It does look pretty
- 3:25Speaker 2: good out here, doesn't it.
- 3:27Speaker 1: He goes up on the steps to touch the freeze. Keith.
- 3:31Speaker 1: After a pause, Governor Tom, working at his freeze.
- 3:37Speaker 3: Hmmm, I want to ask you something, not from curiosity,
- 3:44Speaker 3: but because i'd like to know for my own sake.
- 3:51Speaker 3: You needn't answer, of course, if you don't want to
- 3:56Speaker 3: go on fire away, have you ever been sorry that
- 3:59Speaker 3: missus as a sculptor instead of just your wife.
- 4:05Speaker 2: Not for a minute.
- 4:07Speaker 3: I've been thinking a lot about it all lately, about
- 4:11Speaker 3: you and Ruth. You mean, yes, she'll marry me in
- 4:15Speaker 3: the fall if I let her keep on working, And well,
- 4:23Speaker 3: I hang it all. I don't want her to. I
- 4:30Speaker 3: can take care of her now. At first it was
- 4:33Speaker 3: different when I was grubbing along. But since I've been
- 4:37Speaker 3: with you, you've put me on my feet. I'll never
- 4:41Speaker 3: be great, I know that, all right. But I can
- 4:45Speaker 3: take care of her.
- 4:46Speaker 1: Tom working at freeze.
- 4:49Speaker 2: But she wants to keep on, doesn't she?
- 4:52Speaker 3: Yes?
- 4:52Speaker 2: But good heavens boy, you're not bitten with that bug.
- 4:57Speaker 2: I hope. I want my girl by my own fireside,
- 5:01Speaker 2: to live for me alone.
- 5:04Speaker 4: Oh.
- 5:05Speaker 2: Why Ruth Kreele's a howling success, the way she's climbed
- 5:09Speaker 2: up in that magazine. Why in the name of Christopher
- 5:12Speaker 2: do you want her to.
- 5:13Speaker 1: Stop keith at right end of table, figuring mechanically on
- 5:18Speaker 1: some papers on table.
- 5:20Speaker 3: How can she keep on at that and keep house too?
- 5:24Speaker 2: Well? They do you know somehow?
- 5:27Speaker 3: Oh, missus Hereford's different. She's working right here with you,
- 5:32Speaker 3: and her time is her own. But Ruth tied down
- 5:36Speaker 3: to office hours, and it's slavery, that's what it is.
- 5:41Speaker 2: She doesn't think, so does she.
- 5:44Speaker 3: I want a home.
- 5:45Speaker 2: I want children, of course, but that doesn't mean she'll
- 5:49Speaker 2: have to give up her profession forever.
- 5:52Speaker 5: Oh.
- 5:52Speaker 3: I'm strong for women doing anything they want to do
- 5:56Speaker 3: in general. But when is the girl you love to Mary?
- 6:01Speaker 3: It's different. It ought not to be when you come
- 6:05Speaker 3: down to brass tacks.
- 6:07Speaker 1: And coming quickly in from the workroom and stopping as
- 6:10Speaker 1: she sees the freeze. Oh, Tom Ann Herford is thirty eight,
- 6:16Speaker 1: intensely feminine and a strong, vibrating personality which radiates warmth
- 6:21Speaker 1: and vitality. She wears a long linen working smock, a soft,
- 6:25Speaker 1: rich red in color. Her sleeves are rolled up, and
- 6:28Speaker 1: her general appearance shows that she is at work and
- 6:31Speaker 1: has stopped only to look at Tom's freeze.
- 6:34Speaker 3: Looks great out here, doesn't it? Missus? Hereford? Aren't you
- 6:42Speaker 3: more sure now than ever? It will win?
- 6:48Speaker 1: Starting to speak and checking herself.
- 6:51Speaker 6: What nothing, Your horses are marvelous, Tom. I wish I
- 6:58Speaker 6: could see it all together, are now, don't you? The
- 7:03Speaker 6: rest of the twenty sections, so we could see how
- 7:07Speaker 6: much we how much we feel the running.
- 7:13Speaker 2: Don't you feel it in this piece?
- 7:16Speaker 3: Of course I do tremendously. I think it's wonderful.
- 7:24Speaker 1: He goes into workroom and what were you going to
- 7:28Speaker 1: say a minute ago about the freeze?
- 7:30Speaker 7: Uh?
- 7:32Speaker 2: I don't know, don't hedge. Several times lately you've started
- 7:37Speaker 2: to say something and haven't got it out. What is it?
- 7:41Speaker 2: Any suggestions?
- 7:43Speaker 6: How do you feel about it yourself? Boy? Are you satisfied?
- 7:48Speaker 2: Does that mean you aren't? I asked you, Well, it's
- 7:54Speaker 2: the best that's in me. Why what's the matter? You
- 7:58Speaker 2: don't like it? After all?
- 8:00Speaker 6: Like it? It's a strong, noble, beautiful thing. But dearest,
- 8:09Speaker 6: is it just exactly what your first conception of it was?
- 8:16Speaker 6: Has it turned out just as you first felt it?
- 8:20Speaker 3: Why?
- 8:20Speaker 2: Yes? Well, not absolutely? In detail, of course, it's improved
- 8:25Speaker 2: a lot, I think in the working. But in the main, yes,
- 8:28Speaker 2: it's just the same. Why do you say that?
- 8:32Speaker 6: You know, of course, but.
- 8:36Speaker 2: Say it? Say it? What have you got in your mind?
- 8:39Speaker 6: I don't know that I can. But in the beginning
- 8:43Speaker 6: it had a feeling of swiftness, of rushing, swirling, as
- 8:48Speaker 6: if your soul were let loosen. It tom too big,
- 8:53Speaker 6: too free to be held in and confined. But somehow,
- 9:01Speaker 6: now that it's finished, go on, that wild thing has
- 9:06Speaker 6: gone out of it. It's crystallized into something magnificent, but
- 9:12Speaker 6: a little conventional.
- 9:15Speaker 2: Good heavens, Anne, you can't call that conventional.
- 9:20Speaker 6: Well orthodox then it's noble, of course, But that inexplainable
- 9:26Speaker 6: thing which made it great is gone. For me. Perhaps
- 9:34Speaker 6: it's just me my imagination because I care so much.
- 9:41Speaker 2: It is imagination. It's much stronger than when I began,
- 9:45Speaker 2: is it. Of course you're trying to put something fantastic
- 9:50Speaker 2: into it which was never there at all. That's not me.
- 9:54Speaker 2: What I've done. I've got through a certain strong, solid boldness.
- 9:59Speaker 2: That's why I think this stands a good chance. It's
- 10:01Speaker 2: the very best thing I've ever done. Anne by all.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Keith opening the workroom door.
- 10:07Speaker 3: Governor, will you show Gweedle in to me about something? Please?
- 10:13Speaker 3: Just a minute.
- 10:14Speaker 1: There is a slight pause. Tom looks at the freeze.
- 10:18Speaker 2: I don't see what you mean at all, dear girl.
- 10:21Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, but I think you're wrong this time.
- 10:25Speaker 1: He goes into workroom. Anne looks again at the freeze
- 10:28Speaker 1: as Ruth Creole comes in from hall and going quickly
- 10:32Speaker 1: to Ruth.
- 10:34Speaker 6: Oh Ruth, bless you.
- 10:36Speaker 1: She kisses her warmly. I came straight from the office
- 10:40Speaker 1: and I'm dirty as a pig, and points to Tom's freeze.
- 10:44Speaker 1: Is that it?
- 10:46Speaker 4: Ann?
- 10:46Speaker 1: Nods?
- 10:48Speaker 6: Well, oh, Ruth, I'm sick in the bottom of my soul.
- 10:54Speaker 6: I hope, I hope I'm wrong. I must be wrong.
- 11:00Speaker 6: Tom knows better than I do, but I can't help it.
- 11:04Speaker 6: I tell myself I'm a fool. And the more I
- 11:07Speaker 6: try to persuade myself, the more it comes back. Ruth.
- 11:11Speaker 6: It isn't the same, It isn't. Whatever it was that
- 11:15Speaker 6: lifted it above good work and made it a thing
- 11:17Speaker 6: of inspiration is gone. It's gone gone.
- 11:25Speaker 1: Have you told Tom how you feel?
- 11:29Speaker 6: Just this minute? He says, I'm wrong, absolutely, that it's
- 11:35Speaker 6: the best thing he's ever done.
- 11:38Speaker 1: I hope to God you are wrong, but I bet
- 11:40Speaker 1: you're not. You know, did you? Have you told him
- 11:45Speaker 1: the other thing?
- 11:47Speaker 6: Not yet? But I've finished it absolutely. I worked down
- 11:53Speaker 6: here last night till three o'clock this morning.
- 11:57Speaker 1: Well how is it?
- 11:59Speaker 6: Oh? I don't dare think it can't be as good
- 12:02Speaker 6: as it seems to me.
- 12:04Speaker 1: Of course it can. Why shouldn't it be. Aren't you
- 12:08Speaker 1: going to offer it to him right away, before it's
- 12:10Speaker 1: too late.
- 12:12Speaker 6: How can I It frightens me to pieces to even
- 12:15Speaker 6: think of it. But oh, my dear, my dear, it's
- 12:22Speaker 6: alive and fresh and new. It is. It is. If
- 12:28Speaker 6: he only would take it, my idea, and put his
- 12:33Speaker 6: wonderful work, his wonderful execution into.
- 12:37Speaker 1: It, perhaps he'll be fired with it, jump at it.
- 12:42Speaker 6: I'm afraid he won't, and I'm afraid of this for him.
- 12:48Speaker 6: It would nearly kill him to lose. He's counting on winning.
- 12:54Speaker 6: Keith and everybody are so dead sure of him.
- 12:58Speaker 1: Show him yours good goodness.
- 13:01Speaker 6: Be careful. He'll be back in a minute.
- 13:04Speaker 1: I'll skip upstairs and make myself presentable.
- 13:07Speaker 6: Go in my room.
- 13:08Speaker 1: Dear Ruth goes out through hall. Tom and Keith come
- 13:13Speaker 1: back from workroom. Ann goes to Tom. They stand a
- 13:16Speaker 1: moment looking at the freeze, and slaps Tom on the
- 13:20Speaker 1: back without speaking, and goes on into workroom. Keith after
- 13:24Speaker 1: a pause.
- 13:26Speaker 3: I agree with you in general, Governor, but when it
- 13:29Speaker 3: comes down to the girl you love and want to marry,
- 13:32Speaker 3: it's different.
- 13:34Speaker 2: Why is it The world has got.
- 13:37Speaker 3: To have homes to live in, and who's going to
- 13:40Speaker 3: make him if the women don't do it.
- 13:42Speaker 1: Tom, smiling at Keith tolerantly.
- 13:46Speaker 3: Oh, come, come, do you mean to say you wouldn't
- 13:50Speaker 3: rather your sister Daisy was married and keeping her own
- 13:53Speaker 3: house instead of working here as your secretary.
- 13:58Speaker 2: But she isn't married, and she won't live with Ann
- 14:00Speaker 2: and me unless it's a business proposition. I respect her
- 14:03Speaker 2: tremendously for it. Tremendously Well.
- 14:08Speaker 3: Daisy's a big, plucky and dependent thing anyway, But Ruth's
- 14:12Speaker 3: a little, delicate, fragile.
- 14:16Speaker 2: With a mind bigger than most of the men. You know.
- 14:19Speaker 3: Oh, mind, be damned, I want a wife.
- 14:24Speaker 1: Daisy coming in from the hall?
- 14:26Speaker 8: Oh, Tom, it's out here, how corking.
- 14:30Speaker 1: Daisy Herford is twenty eight, strong, wholesome, handsome, with the
- 14:35Speaker 1: charm of health and freshness. She wears a severe serge
- 14:39Speaker 1: gown and carries a pencil and stenographer's pad.
- 14:42Speaker 2: Well, Sis, how do you like it?
- 14:44Speaker 8: I adore it. I hope you haven't any doubts now
- 14:47Speaker 8: about winning.
- 14:48Speaker 2: Well, I've plenty of them. But somehow today it looks
- 14:51Speaker 2: as if it stood a pretty good chance.
- 14:53Speaker 7: Chance.
- 14:54Speaker 8: I never was so sure of anything in my life.
- 14:57Speaker 3: Daisy, Maybe you know just what ought to beware with
- 15:01Speaker 3: this stuff.
- 15:03Speaker 8: I've been itching to get at it. Let's put all
- 15:06Speaker 8: the tools on that side I have started, and throw
- 15:10Speaker 8: the trash in here.
- 15:12Speaker 1: Pushing the box with her foot.
- 15:13Speaker 3: Can you help me now?
- 15:15Speaker 8: Yes? Tom? Do you want me to write to the
- 15:18Speaker 8: ward people about that marble again?
- 15:21Speaker 2: Yes? I do. Shake them up, tell them if it
- 15:24Speaker 2: isn't here by the first of the month, I won't
- 15:26Speaker 2: take it.
- 15:27Speaker 1: Daisy making a note in her notebook. Umm Millicon Herford
- 15:33Speaker 1: rushes in from hall at left millicin to sixteen, pretty, eager,
- 15:38Speaker 1: full of vitality and will half child, half woman. She
- 15:42Speaker 1: is charmingly dressed in an afternoon frock and picture hat,
- 15:46Speaker 1: and is at the moment happy and exhilarated.
- 15:49Speaker 7: Father, where's mother in the workroom?
- 15:51Speaker 2: But you can't go in?
- 15:53Speaker 1: As Millicent starts to workroom.
- 15:55Speaker 7: Why not?
- 15:56Speaker 2: She's finishing something and said not to let anyone stop her.
- 16:00Speaker 5: Oh dear, I think I might. It's awfully important. Couldn't
- 16:04Speaker 5: I just poke my head in the door a minute,
- 16:06Speaker 5: not for a second, sakes, I wish mother wouldn't work
- 16:09Speaker 5: in my Christmas vacation. It's an awful bore. Don't you
- 16:13Speaker 5: think she might stop? A little while I'm at home, Aunt.
- 16:15Speaker 8: Daisy, none of my business. Don't ask me.
- 16:19Speaker 3: If you ask me, yes, I think she might.
- 16:23Speaker 2: That's nonsense. Your mother's doing about everything that can be
- 16:26Speaker 2: done to make your vacation a success, isn't she Yes?
- 16:30Speaker 1: Course, then I don't.
- 16:31Speaker 2: See that there's any reason why she shouldn't be allowed
- 16:34Speaker 2: a little time for herself.
- 16:36Speaker 5: But I want her now. Aren't my new pump stemmy,
- 16:39Speaker 5: Aunt Daisy?
- 16:40Speaker 8: Aren't they what stemmy?
- 16:43Speaker 7: Wake up? Aunt Daisy?
- 16:45Speaker 5: Oh, the luncheon was gorgeous, All the girls were there,
- 16:48Speaker 5: and the matinee was heavenly.
- 16:50Speaker 7: What play The Flame of Love?
- 16:53Speaker 5: You needn't laugh, father, It's the best play in town.
- 16:56Speaker 5: The leading man is a peach. Honestly, he's the best
- 16:59Speaker 5: looking thing I ever saw in my life. We were
- 17:01Speaker 5: all crazy about him. Belle Stevens took off her violets
- 17:04Speaker 5: and threw them right at him. She makes me tired, though.
- 17:08Speaker 5: I don't think seventeen is so terribly much older than sixteen,
- 17:11Speaker 5: do you, Aunt Daisy?
- 17:12Speaker 1: Daisy still at the cupboard.
- 17:15Speaker 8: It depends on whether you're sixteen or seventeen how much
- 17:18Speaker 8: older it is.
- 17:19Speaker 7: I don't care.
- 17:21Speaker 5: I wouldn't wear a ring as big as hers if
- 17:22Speaker 5: I had one, Oh, Aunt, Daisy, may I borrow your
- 17:26Speaker 5: ear rings?
- 17:27Speaker 1: Going to Daisy?
- 17:28Speaker 8: Help yourself?
- 17:30Speaker 5: Thanks, you're a duck. I could compostulate you for that.
- 17:34Speaker 5: How much longer do you think mother will be?
- 17:36Speaker 2: Daddy couldn't say?
- 17:38Speaker 5: Well, tell her that I have to see her the
- 17:41Speaker 5: minute she comes out, don't forget.
- 17:43Speaker 1: She hurries off through hall.
- 17:45Speaker 2: She's grown up over night. Somehow I can't get used
- 17:49Speaker 2: to it.
- 17:50Speaker 3: And she went away to school a few months ago.
- 17:53Speaker 3: Just a girl. Amazing, isn't it.
- 17:57Speaker 8: Not a bit? What do you expect? She's free now,
- 18:01Speaker 8: cut loose boarding school? Does that pretty quickly?
- 18:04Speaker 2: I suppose so, and I suppose it's good for her.
- 18:09Speaker 1: Looking at the freeze, he goes into the workroom.
- 18:12Speaker 3: The Governor's darn cheerful about the freeze today.
- 18:15Speaker 8: I should think he would be. It's great.
- 18:17Speaker 1: Keith and Daisy go on clearing out cupboard.
- 18:20Speaker 3: I'd give a good deal to know what missus Hereford
- 18:23Speaker 3: actually thinks.
- 18:24Speaker 8: Of it, Why she loves it?
- 18:26Speaker 3: She looks at it with such a sort of uh.
- 18:32Speaker 3: I don't know. I can't help wondering if she is
- 18:37Speaker 3: so dead certain of it as the rest of us are.
- 18:41Speaker 8: I hope she doesn't discourage Tom. After all, he likes
- 18:44Speaker 8: it and he knows more about it than anybody else,
- 18:47Speaker 8: AND's criticism is wonderful, of course, but still Tom is
- 18:50Speaker 8: the artist.
- 18:52Speaker 3: You're just as jealous for your brother as you can be,
- 18:55Speaker 3: aren't you, Daisy? All right for the missus to be clever,
- 19:01Speaker 3: but you want Tom to be supreme in everything, don't you?
- 19:06Speaker 1: He is leaning over the box.
- 19:09Speaker 3: You're a brick, Daisy. Have you ever been in love
- 19:13Speaker 3: in your life? Well?
- 19:15Speaker 8: What do you mean?
- 19:16Speaker 1: Lifting her head? Startled and embarrassed?
- 19:19Speaker 3: I've been thinking an awful lot lately about this business
- 19:22Speaker 3: of married women working. What do you think of it?
- 19:26Speaker 8: Now?
- 19:26Speaker 3: Honestly?
- 19:28Speaker 8: What difference does it make? What I think?
- 19:30Speaker 3: Of course, there's no reason on earth why you shouldn't
- 19:33Speaker 3: be in it. You don't care a hang for men?
- 19:37Speaker 8: And you mean men don't care a hang for me?
- 19:40Speaker 3: No, I don't. I don't mean that at all. But
- 19:44Speaker 3: you're so independent men are sort of afraid of you.
- 19:49Speaker 8: Oh, don't apologize. You mean I'm a plain, practical girl,
- 19:52Speaker 8: meant to take care of myself.
- 19:54Speaker 3: Well that's what you want to be, isn't it.
- 20:00Speaker 8: Never mind, about me. Let's change the subject.
- 20:02Speaker 3: You needn't be so touchy. I talk awfully frank about
- 20:06Speaker 3: my affairs and you never say a word about yourself.
- 20:10Speaker 8: Why should I? I'm not interesting and you're not interested.
- 20:14Speaker 3: I am too. You're the best pal a fellow ever had.
- 20:19Speaker 3: I don't know any other girl I could have worked
- 20:21Speaker 3: with all this time, day in and day out, and
- 20:25Speaker 3: not either been dead, sick of or sort of you know,
- 20:31Speaker 3: sweet on in a way you needn't rub it in?
- 20:35Speaker 3: Why daisy, old girl? What is the matter? What are
- 20:40Speaker 3: the dickens? Are you so huffy about?
- 20:43Speaker 8: Just let me and my idiosyncrasies alone.
- 20:46Speaker 3: Please, heavens, can't I say what I think?
- 20:51Speaker 8: No, you can't. I don't want to hear it. I
- 20:54Speaker 8: know just what I seem like to other people, so
- 20:56Speaker 8: there's no use explaining me to myself.
- 20:59Speaker 3: Oh I'm and twas if you were in love, would
- 21:04Speaker 3: you give up your job?
- 21:06Speaker 8: But I'm not in love, so stop thinking about it.
- 21:10Speaker 3: Gosh, I thought you had common sense, but you're just
- 21:15Speaker 3: as queer as the rest of them. What I want
- 21:18Speaker 3: to know is if a girl loves a man well
- 21:21Speaker 3: enough to marry him, why in hell she can't stay
- 21:24Speaker 3: at home?
- 21:25Speaker 8: And what's the matter?
- 21:27Speaker 1: As Keith cuts his finger on the tool he is holding.
- 21:30Speaker 8: Did you cut your finger?
- 21:32Speaker 1: Not much, Daisy, with a sudden tenderness.
- 21:36Speaker 3: Let me see it's nothing.
- 21:39Speaker 8: It is too hold still. I'll tie it up for you.
- 21:42Speaker 1: She ties his finger with her own handkerchief.
- 21:45Speaker 8: Anything that holds still, anything the matter with one of
- 21:49Speaker 8: your fingers would put you out of commission.
- 21:51Speaker 3: Ah, might be a good idea. I don't think Ruth
- 21:55Speaker 3: believes in me much. Doesn't think I'll get much farther.
- 21:59Speaker 8: I don't know. I think you've got plenty for her
- 22:02Speaker 8: to believe in. Well, speaking of angels, how are you Ruth?
- 22:06Speaker 1: As Ruth comes in from the hall, Oh, hello, dear, hello,
- 22:11Speaker 1: what's the matter?
- 22:13Speaker 3: Nothing?
- 22:15Speaker 8: Keith was waxing emphatic about you, and overemphasized a finger.
- 22:19Speaker 1: She turns back to cupboard. I'm sorry, touching Keith's hand
- 22:23Speaker 1: as he comes down to her.
- 22:25Speaker 3: How are you dead?
- 22:28Speaker 1: This day's been twenty four hours long. Sitting at left
- 22:31Speaker 1: end of table, Keith coming down to Ruth.
- 22:35Speaker 3: Has anything gone wrong?
- 22:37Speaker 1: No, but a young author from the eloquent West has
- 22:40Speaker 1: been fighting me since nine o'clock this morning?
- 22:43Speaker 3: What about?
- 22:45Speaker 1: He's got a perfectly magnificent story or idea for one rather,
- 22:50Speaker 1: but it's so crudely written that it's impossible to publish it.
- 22:54Speaker 8: I suppose you can rewrite it for him.
- 22:56Speaker 1: No, he won't let me. Wants to do it all himself.
- 23:00Speaker 1: Oh he's so stubborn and so funny, and so splendid,
- 23:04Speaker 1: so outlandishly conceited, and so adorably boyish. I wanted to
- 23:09Speaker 1: slap him one minute and kiss him the next.
- 23:12Speaker 3: Why didn't you do both? And you'd have forgot to
- 23:14Speaker 3: what you wanted?
- 23:16Speaker 1: I was afraid to risk it. Keith, nodding towards Tom's freeze.
- 23:20Speaker 3: Doesn't that hit you in the eye awfully?
- 23:22Speaker 1: Like Tom? Isn't it strong and splendid?
- 23:26Speaker 3: What are you thinking? Oh?
- 23:28Speaker 1: Nothing? Only I wish Anne had. I wish Anne had
- 23:32Speaker 1: gone in for this competition too.
- 23:35Speaker 8: What Why on earth should she?
- 23:38Speaker 1: Why shouldn't she?
- 23:39Speaker 5: Ruth?
- 23:40Speaker 8: You're daffy about Anne? Always have been.
- 23:43Speaker 3: Uh, she does beautiful work for a woman. But ye gods,
- 23:50Speaker 3: she's not in this class.
- 23:53Speaker 1: And she never will be if she's held back and
- 23:56Speaker 1: told she's limited. I think she has genius, and this
- 24:00Speaker 1: sooner she makes a bold dash and tries for something big,
- 24:03Speaker 1: the better nonsense.
- 24:05Speaker 8: Tom's pushed her and believed in her always. You can't
- 24:08Speaker 8: say he's held her back.
- 24:10Speaker 1: Ruth to Keith, I've heard you say she is genius
- 24:14Speaker 1: lots of times.
- 24:16Speaker 3: So she has. In a way, she has more imagination
- 24:22Speaker 3: than the governor. But great Peter, when it comes to
- 24:26Speaker 3: execution and the real thing, she just isn't in it
- 24:30Speaker 3: with him. How could she be? She's a woman.
- 24:37Speaker 1: Don't be any more anti diluvian or prehistoric than you
- 24:40Speaker 1: can help, Keith. Don't you think Anne's more original and
- 24:44Speaker 1: really innately gifted than Tom is?
- 24:47Speaker 6: Daisy?
- 24:48Speaker 8: I do not. She's terribly good, of course, no doubt
- 24:51Speaker 8: about that, But good Lord, Tom's great, a really great artist.
- 24:57Speaker 1: Daisy starts to haul door. Why do you go, Daisy?
- 25:00Speaker 8: Must I have bushels of letters to get off?
- 25:03Speaker 1: You look as fresh and rosy as if you were
- 25:05Speaker 1: just beginning the day. How do you do it?
- 25:08Speaker 3: Oh?
- 25:08Speaker 8: I'm not expressing my soul in my job, nearly earning
- 25:12Speaker 8: my bread and butter. I suppose that's why I look
- 25:14Speaker 8: so husky.
- 25:15Speaker 1: At twilight, Daisy goes out through hall. Ruth looking after Daisy.
- 25:21Speaker 1: Do you know I don't believe Daisy likes me anymore.
- 25:25Speaker 1: Keith sitting on left end of table near Ruth kiss me.
- 25:30Speaker 1: Ruth leans her head towards Keith. He kisses her cheek.
- 25:34Speaker 1: She's so marvelously good natured queer. She's getting snappy at
- 25:38Speaker 1: me lately.
- 25:39Speaker 3: I'm awfully glad you came.
- 25:41Speaker 1: Does it hurt touching his finger?
- 25:44Speaker 3: Not much?
- 25:46Speaker 1: I wonder why she doesn't like me?
- 25:48Speaker 3: What are you talking about? I asked her stay to
- 25:51Speaker 3: dinner too, That's nice. I can't bear to see you
- 25:55Speaker 3: so tired, dear.
- 25:57Speaker 1: I'll be all right when I have some tea.
- 25:59Speaker 3: This time next year, you could be in your own home,
- 26:04Speaker 3: away from those damnable office hours and the drudgery. If
- 26:09Speaker 3: you only would, If you only would, It.
- 26:14Speaker 1: Never seems to occur to you that I might be
- 26:16Speaker 1: a little less tired but bored to death without my job.
- 26:20Speaker 3: If you really cared for me the way you used to,
- 26:24Speaker 3: you wouldn't be bored.
- 26:26Speaker 1: Oh, let's not begin that.
- 26:28Speaker 3: But do you love me?
- 26:30Speaker 2: Dear?
- 26:31Speaker 7: Do you?
- 26:33Speaker 1: I've been telling you so for a pretty long time.
- 26:35Speaker 3: Haven't I Are you tired of it?
- 26:38Speaker 1: There isn't any reason on earth why you should think
- 26:41Speaker 1: I am well?
- 26:43Speaker 3: I do think it. I worry about it all the time.
- 26:48Speaker 3: I know you're brilliant and successful, but you after you
- 26:53Speaker 3: say you love me, and I don't see you're awful
- 27:03Speaker 3: pretty today your face is like a flower. Oh, yes
- 27:09Speaker 3: it is. I love you so, dear, old boy.
- 27:14Speaker 1: I love you.
- 27:16Speaker 3: Oh do you, Ruth, do you?
- 27:19Speaker 1: I've never loved anyone else. You've filled all that side
- 27:22Speaker 1: of my life, and you've made it beautiful. We must
- 27:26Speaker 1: hang together, dear, putting both her hands over one of his,
- 27:31Speaker 1: and understand and give things up for each other. But
- 27:34Speaker 1: it must be fifty to fifty, dearest. I can make
- 27:37Speaker 1: you happy, Keith, Oh I can, and I'll be so
- 27:40Speaker 1: happy and contented with you if you'll only Keith turns
- 27:44Speaker 1: away impatiently. I've never had a home for a minute
- 27:48Speaker 1: in my whole life, nor a relative since I was three,
- 27:51Speaker 1: of any sort or description, not a soul who belonged
- 27:55Speaker 1: to me.
- 27:56Speaker 2: But you.
- 27:57Speaker 3: I want you to have the sweetest little home in
- 28:00Speaker 3: the world.
- 28:01Speaker 1: Think of having our own little dinners and all the
- 28:04Speaker 1: nice people we know at our table hours.
- 28:08Speaker 3: Yes, but how can you do it if you're away
- 28:13Speaker 3: all day?
- 28:14Speaker 1: Oh Keith, dear boy, you the whole trouble is you
- 28:18Speaker 1: think housekeeping is making a home, and the two things
- 28:21Speaker 1: aren't the same at all, at all, at all.
- 28:25Speaker 3: Well, they can't be separated, Oh.
- 28:28Speaker 1: Yes they can.
- 28:30Speaker 6: Love.
- 28:31Speaker 1: Love makes a home, not tables and chairs. We can
- 28:35Speaker 1: afford more if I work too. We can pay someone
- 28:38Speaker 1: to do the stuff you think I ought to do.
- 28:40Speaker 1: And you'll go on climbing up in your work, and
- 28:42Speaker 1: I'll go on in mine, and we'll both grow to
- 28:45Speaker 1: something and be somebody and have something to give each other.
- 28:49Speaker 1: It will be fair. We'll be pulling together pals and
- 28:53Speaker 1: lovers like Tom and Anne. That's why they're so ideally happy.
- 28:58Speaker 3: Yes, but we're different, and we couldn't.
- 29:02Speaker 1: You're not bear, Keith.
- 29:03Speaker 3: Great guns, Ruth, neither are you.
- 29:07Speaker 1: I am. I am perfectly. Their voices rise together, Tom
- 29:13Speaker 1: coming back from the workroom.
- 29:15Speaker 2: What's the row? Hello, Ruthie creole.
- 29:18Speaker 1: Ruth giving her hand to Tom. Hello you nice Tommy Herford.
- 29:23Speaker 1: I always lose my heart to you in your working clothes.
- 29:26Speaker 2: You have my heart in any kind of clothes.
- 29:29Speaker 1: Keith's cross with me. Tom, You're much nicer to me
- 29:32Speaker 1: than he is.
- 29:33Speaker 3: You never spring any of your revolutionary speeches on Hereford
- 29:37Speaker 3: you save all your really soothing remarks for me.
- 29:40Speaker 1: Tom, Am I a revolutionary? Aren't I?
- 29:43Speaker 6: Just?
- 29:44Speaker 1: A little cooing dove?
- 29:46Speaker 2: Absolutely?
- 29:47Speaker 1: Daisy coming in from hall.
- 29:50Speaker 8: Doctor Remington's here. Millicent's bringing him down, but he says
- 29:53Speaker 8: he wants to sit upstairs on the parlor sofa, not
- 29:56Speaker 8: down in the cellar. Tom, will you sign these letters now?
- 30:00Speaker 1: Daisy puts the letters on the table. Tom goes towards
- 30:03Speaker 1: the table as Millicent comes in from the hall, bringing
- 30:06Speaker 1: doctor Remington by the hand. Doctor Remington is sixty five.
- 30:10Speaker 1: He's inclined to portliness, and his keen humor and kindliness
- 30:15Speaker 1: are combined with an understanding and wisdom which make him
- 30:18Speaker 1: a very strong and a very lovable man. His manner
- 30:21Speaker 1: and speech are a little deliberate. He has a twinkling
- 30:24Speaker 1: readiness to tease, but the weight and dignity of a
- 30:27Speaker 1: successful and important physician.
- 30:30Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Hello.
- 30:32Speaker 9: How are you?
- 30:33Speaker 5: Keith?
- 30:34Speaker 1: Taking Remington's overcoat?
- 30:36Speaker 3: How are you Doctor Remington?
- 30:38Speaker 1: Ruth comes to the door to take his hat and stick.
- 30:41Speaker 9: Hello mc kenzie. And here's that pretty little Ruth thing.
- 30:45Speaker 9: Knowing so much it makes my head ache.
- 30:48Speaker 1: So long as it's your head and not mine, I
- 30:50Speaker 1: don't mind.
- 30:51Speaker 5: Oh, thank you for the chocolate's grandfather. They're just the
- 30:54Speaker 5: kind I adore. I could absolutely compostulate.
- 30:57Speaker 1: You, giving him a violent hug.
- 31:00Speaker 5: Five pounds Daddy, you're a fine doctor.
- 31:03Speaker 9: Chocolate's about the best medicine I know of. If you
- 31:05Speaker 9: want a girl to love you? Where's your mother.
- 31:08Speaker 7: In the cave?
- 31:10Speaker 1: Pointing to workroom.
- 31:12Speaker 9: Can't she be excavated? Go and dig her out?
- 31:15Speaker 7: They won't let me.
- 31:16Speaker 9: You do it, hasn't anybody got the courage to do it.
- 31:20Speaker 1: Keith starts towards the door with box not me.
- 31:23Speaker 9: Well, Mackenzie, go and tell her to let the work
- 31:26Speaker 9: go to thunder and come and see her dad.
- 31:28Speaker 1: Keith goes into workroom.
- 31:30Speaker 9: Is that the thing that's going to get the hundred
- 31:32Speaker 9: thousand for you? If yes, well go to it, boy.
- 31:38Speaker 9: I hope you hit it.
- 31:39Speaker 1: Sitting in a large chair at left, thanks, I'm doing
- 31:42Speaker 1: my darndest.
- 31:44Speaker 2: Daisy, you've got some of these dimensions wrong. Keith will
- 31:47Speaker 2: have to give them to you again.
- 31:48Speaker 8: Oh, I'm sorry.
- 31:50Speaker 9: It's a good thing you're working for your own brother, Daisy.
- 31:53Speaker 9: Nobody else would have you.
- 31:54Speaker 8: You're the only person in the whole world who isn't
- 31:56Speaker 8: impressed with my business ability?
- 31:59Speaker 9: Stuff wager you say in your prayers every night, Oh Lord,
- 32:03Speaker 9: deliver me from this job and get me a good husband.
- 32:06Speaker 1: Daisy laughing with the others and going to Remington.
- 32:10Speaker 8: That's a very steamy tie you're wearing. Do you get me?
- 32:14Speaker 9: Not exactly. All I know is I'd rather be steamy
- 32:16Speaker 9: than seedy.
- 32:18Speaker 1: Keith opening the workroom door.
- 32:20Speaker 3: Don't you want me to carry that in for you?
- 32:22Speaker 1: Missus Hereford Ann from within?
- 32:25Speaker 6: No, No, I'd rather do it myself.
- 32:28Speaker 3: It's too heavy for you.
- 32:30Speaker 6: No, it isn't.
- 32:32Speaker 1: Anne comes in carrying the figure of a woman in
- 32:34Speaker 1: the nude, about a foot high. The figure is in
- 32:37Speaker 1: wet clay and stands on a modeling board.
- 32:40Speaker 2: Steady there, steady, let me take it.
- 32:43Speaker 6: Don't touch it. Hello there, Hello, Daddy. I couldn't come
- 32:48Speaker 6: out until I finished my lady. Isn't she nice? She's
- 32:51Speaker 6: ready to be cast? Now come and look at her, Tom,
- 32:55Speaker 6: She isn't so bad.
- 32:56Speaker 2: She looks pretty good to me.
- 32:58Speaker 9: She looks a little chilly to me. Why don't you
- 33:01Speaker 9: put a full suit of clothes on one of them,
- 33:03Speaker 9: just for a change. Anne?
- 33:05Speaker 6: You nice, horrid, sweet, adorable cross, old thing? Why didn't
- 33:11Speaker 6: you come yesterday? I don't know why. I love you
- 33:14Speaker 6: so and you never do anything I want you to.
- 33:17Speaker 9: If I did, I wouldn't be half as irresistible. Aren't
- 33:21Speaker 9: you going to stop for the day now and pay
- 33:22Speaker 9: a little attention to me?
- 33:24Speaker 7: I am mother?
- 33:26Speaker 5: When can I see you alone?
- 33:27Speaker 6: I mean after a while. Have you had a nice day, dear, gorgeous?
- 33:32Speaker 5: But I have to see you about something you do?
- 33:35Speaker 1: Holding Millicent?
- 33:37Speaker 6: Look at her, dad, hasn't she grown?
- 33:40Speaker 7: Mother? May I stay at home from school one more day?
- 33:43Speaker 6: Gracious? Is that what you want to see me about?
- 33:47Speaker 7: That's just one thing, can't I?
- 33:49Speaker 6: Mother?
- 33:50Speaker 5: All the girls are staying over, mayn't I please?
- 33:53Speaker 10: Please?
- 33:54Speaker 6: I have to think a little. Let's wait and talk
- 33:57Speaker 6: it over, daisy. Aren't we going to have some tea?
- 34:01Speaker 8: It will be ready in a minute, thank god.
- 34:03Speaker 9: Then we'll go upstairs.
- 34:05Speaker 6: No, down here, it's much nicer. You'll have to get
- 34:09Speaker 6: used to it.
- 34:10Speaker 5: Dad, Well you be thinking, but you be thinking, yes,
- 34:13Speaker 5: for I've just got to stay over.
- 34:15Speaker 7: I've just got to.
- 34:16Speaker 5: It would be perfectly ridiculous if I didn't.
- 34:19Speaker 1: She goes out through Hall Remington, nodding after Millicent.
- 34:23Speaker 9: Getting more like you every.
- 34:25Speaker 6: Day, hann she's your grandchild, you know.
- 34:28Speaker 9: I like him that way. I'd rather she was stubborn
- 34:31Speaker 9: as a mule than have a wabbly spine and.
- 34:34Speaker 1: Taking off her smock.
- 34:35Speaker 6: But a little wobbling once in a while is rather
- 34:39Speaker 6: a pleasant thing to live with. For instance, it would
- 34:42Speaker 6: make me very happy, indeed, if you wobbled enough to
- 34:45Speaker 6: admit that this is a beautiful studio, and that having
- 34:50Speaker 6: it in the house where we live is the most
- 34:52Speaker 6: sensible thing in the world.
- 34:54Speaker 9: It would be all right if you'd stay upstairs and
- 34:56Speaker 9: mind your own business. Tom, If you don't look out,
- 34:59Speaker 9: you'll be so mad. You'll be upstairs keeping house, and
- 35:02Speaker 9: Anne will be downstairs keeping shop.
- 35:04Speaker 2: I don't know how i'd keep house, but Anne could
- 35:07Speaker 2: keep shop, all right.
- 35:08Speaker 9: Is that the way you feel about it, mackenzie? When
- 35:11Speaker 9: you are married, are you going to stay at home
- 35:12Speaker 9: and polish up while Ruth goes on running the magazine.
- 35:15Speaker 3: It looks as if that's the way it'll have to.
- 35:18Speaker 1: Be, Ruth bringing the cake down to table. That's a
- 35:22Speaker 1: splendid suggestion. Doctor Remington. Keith thinks somebody's got to do
- 35:26Speaker 1: it for a successful marriage, and I won't, so why not, you, dear,
- 35:31Speaker 1: pointing at Keith. Keith looks at Ruth and turns away
- 35:34Speaker 1: in hopeless disgust. Remington winking at Ruth and lowering his
- 35:39Speaker 1: voice to her.
- 35:40Speaker 9: Keep at it. He'll come to it.
- 35:42Speaker 1: Anne laughs as she cuts the cake.
- 35:45Speaker 3: I don't see that it's so funny.
- 35:47Speaker 1: Remington going to table to get a piece of cake.
- 35:51Speaker 9: You bet it's not funny, dazy, would you like your
- 35:54Speaker 9: husband to wash the dishes if you happen to be
- 35:56Speaker 9: too much occupied to do it yourself.
- 35:59Speaker 8: I'd kill him if he did.
- 36:00Speaker 1: Bringing the cream and sugar to large table.
- 36:03Speaker 9: Yeah, well, with one perfectly normal woman in the room,
- 36:06Speaker 9: I'm much more comfortable.
- 36:08Speaker 1: He settles himself elaborately in his chair at left.
- 36:12Speaker 3: I'm serious. I'd like to know if there's anything queer
- 36:16Speaker 3: or preposterous and a fellow wanting a girl to give
- 36:20Speaker 3: up hard slavish work and let him take care of
- 36:24Speaker 3: her when she marries him.
- 36:26Speaker 1: When she wants to do the work, don't leave that out.
- 36:30Speaker 2: I don't see that you, Keith, or any fellow has
- 36:32Speaker 2: any kick coming, so long as the girl makes you happy.
- 36:35Speaker 3: I'd like to hear your angle on it. If you
- 36:38Speaker 3: don't mind, doctor.
- 36:40Speaker 1: Yes, Keith loves to hear his mid Victorian ideas well supported.
- 36:45Speaker 9: Oh I'm not so mothy ton as I may look.
- 36:48Speaker 9: In fact, I'm a damn sight more advanced than you
- 36:50Speaker 9: women are. You're still yelling about your right to do
- 36:53Speaker 9: anything on land or sea you want to do. We
- 36:56Speaker 9: gave you that long ago.
- 36:58Speaker 6: So nice of you.
- 37:00Speaker 1: Sitting below the table at right. Why talk about it all?
- 37:03Speaker 3: Then?
- 37:04Speaker 1: What else is there to it?
- 37:06Speaker 9: Put this in your pipe. The more women make good,
- 37:08Speaker 9: the more they come into the vital machinery of running
- 37:11Speaker 9: the world, the more they complicate their own lives, and
- 37:15Speaker 9: the more tragedies they lay up for themselves.
- 37:18Speaker 1: The more they escape. You mean, Anne, as she pours
- 37:22Speaker 1: the tea.
- 37:23Speaker 6: There isn't a single hard thing that can happen to
- 37:25Speaker 6: a woman that isn't made easier by being able to
- 37:28Speaker 6: make her own living. And you know it.
- 37:32Speaker 9: Oh, it's a hopeless subject for conversation. What everybody says
- 37:35Speaker 9: is true. There's the rub.
- 37:37Speaker 3: Two three.
- 37:39Speaker 1: Keith gives a cup of tea to Remington.
- 37:42Speaker 2: Go on, what were you going to say?
- 37:44Speaker 3: Yes?
- 37:44Speaker 11: Go on, dad, Remington to Anne, you hang on to
- 37:49Speaker 11: yourself then till I get through the development of women
- 37:52Speaker 11: hasn't changed the laws of creation?
- 37:55Speaker 6: Oh yes it has.
- 37:57Speaker 1: Remington looks at her.
- 37:59Speaker 6: Sorry, go on.
- 38:01Speaker 9: Sex is still the strongest force in the world.
- 38:04Speaker 1: He looks at Anne again, Anne smiling, go on.
- 38:09Speaker 9: And no matter how far she goes, she doesn't change
- 38:12Speaker 9: the fundamental laws of her own.
- 38:14Speaker 1: Individuality, type, character, ego, psychology, species.
- 38:22Speaker 4: Breed, spots, no mechanism, mechanism, and when the sensitive involved
- 38:31Speaker 4: complex elements of a woman's nature become entangled in the
- 38:34Speaker 4: responsibility of a man's work, and the two things fight
- 38:38Speaker 4: for first place in her She's got a hell of
- 38:40Speaker 4: a mess on hand.
- 38:42Speaker 6: But her psychological mechanism has changed.
- 38:46Speaker 2: No, yes, yes, I think it has.
- 38:50Speaker 1: It couldn't, but it has. Women who are really doing
- 38:54Speaker 1: things nowadays are an absolutely different breed from the one
- 38:59Speaker 1: sided domestic animals they used to be.
- 39:01Speaker 6: But men don't realize how deeply and fiercely creative women
- 39:06Speaker 6: love their work.
- 39:07Speaker 9: That's just it, just what I'm getting at. A woman
- 39:10Speaker 9: of genius puts in her work the same fierce love
- 39:13Speaker 9: she puts into her child or her man. That's where
- 39:17Speaker 9: her fight is. For one or the other of them
- 39:20Speaker 9: has got to be the stronger in her. It isn't
- 39:23Speaker 9: the question of her right to do things, nor her ability.
- 39:26Speaker 9: God knows, plenty of them are beating men at their
- 39:29Speaker 9: own jobs. Now why, I sometimes think she'll go so
- 39:32Speaker 9: far that the great battle of the future will be
- 39:35Speaker 9: between the sexes for supremacy. But I tell you she
- 39:39Speaker 9: has tragedies ahead of her, the tragedy of choice between
- 39:44Speaker 9: the two sides of her own nature.
- 39:46Speaker 1: Well, thank you. I'll take any and all of the
- 39:49Speaker 1: hard things that go with my job, but none of
- 39:52Speaker 1: the ones that come from being a dub and giving
- 39:54Speaker 1: it up.
- 39:55Speaker 9: How about you, Daisy? Could any man on earth make
- 39:58Speaker 9: you stop typewriting and live for him alone?
- 40:02Speaker 8: Oh I'm not in this class. Anne and Ruth both
- 40:05Speaker 8: have men to depend on if they want them. I'm
- 40:07Speaker 8: taking care of myself because I've got to, and I
- 40:10Speaker 8: must say. This soul tragedy of choice stuff makes me
- 40:13Speaker 8: a little tired.
- 40:14Speaker 1: She starts toward Hall Remington, stopping Daisy by taking her hand.
- 40:20Speaker 9: If I were twenty or thirty years younger, I'd go
- 40:22Speaker 9: in for you strong.
- 40:24Speaker 8: Yes, I know, I'm just the kind that older men
- 40:27Speaker 8: appreciate very deeply.
- 40:29Speaker 1: She goes out.
- 40:30Speaker 6: Poor Daisy Poor Daisy. She's the happiest, most independent thing
- 40:36Speaker 6: in the world.
- 40:37Speaker 1: Straightening the things on the table, Keith having taken the
- 40:40Speaker 1: tea tray away, much to be envied, no strings to
- 40:44Speaker 1: her independence, and.
- 40:46Speaker 3: So cocky and spunky. Nobody can even ask her if
- 40:50Speaker 3: she's ever been in love.
- 40:51Speaker 9: Sure science she has been, then.
- 40:54Speaker 2: But she never has.
- 40:56Speaker 9: How do you know?
- 40:57Speaker 2: I've been pretty close to her all my life. No
- 41:00Speaker 2: blighted bud about Daisy.
- 41:02Speaker 9: She's putting up a darn good bluff. I must say, bluff.
- 41:06Speaker 1: What do you mean?
- 41:07Speaker 6: Father thinks there isn't a girl alive who wouldn't rather
- 41:10Speaker 6: have a beau than a job I do.
- 41:13Speaker 9: And Daisy looks so self reliant she has to be
- 41:16Speaker 9: cocky to keep up appearances under her skin. She's not
- 41:20Speaker 9: half the man, that little ladylike looking thing.
- 41:23Speaker 1: Ruth is now, Doctor Remington, you may go upstairs.
- 41:27Speaker 9: I haven't time now, I've wasted it all down here.
- 41:30Speaker 1: Oh, come and look at the living room just a minute.
- 41:33Speaker 1: It's too beautiful.
- 41:34Speaker 9: Has it got a carpet on it yet?
- 41:36Speaker 6: Yes? Absolutely finished?
- 41:39Speaker 9: Because I don't mind saying. My feet are like ice
- 41:42Speaker 9: from this confounded brick floor.
- 41:44Speaker 1: Oh, the beautiful tiles.
- 41:47Speaker 9: I'll take a little less Italian beauty and a little
- 41:49Speaker 9: more American comfort in mine.
- 41:51Speaker 1: Ruth, Remington and Keith go out through hall, Tom stopping
- 41:56Speaker 1: Anne as she starts with the others.
- 41:58Speaker 2: Anne, about this thing, Why in the name of heaven
- 42:02Speaker 2: didn't you say you were disappointed at it? Long ago?
- 42:06Speaker 6: I kept hoping each day I was mistaken that what
- 42:11Speaker 6: I missed would come back. But when I saw it
- 42:14Speaker 6: out there, I'm afraid of it.
- 42:17Speaker 2: Tom, afraid of what that I'll fail, lose it and
- 42:22Speaker 2: nods nonsense, you're tired of it. There can't be such
- 42:27Speaker 2: a change in it as all that. The idea is
- 42:30Speaker 2: absolutely the same, and I've worked as I never.
- 42:33Speaker 6: I know, I know. But oh the beauty, the beauty
- 42:39Speaker 6: of the work, that's the pity, pity. I mean, somebody
- 42:45Speaker 6: without half your skill as an artist may have an idea,
- 42:49Speaker 6: an idea that's new.
- 42:51Speaker 2: Oh bosh, nothing can be done anyhow, it's too late. Besides,
- 42:56Speaker 2: I don't agree with you, I honestly do not. Ian.
- 43:00Speaker 2: I know you're saying that because you're trying to boost
- 43:02Speaker 2: me and get the best out of me. But the
- 43:04Speaker 2: thing's done, you know, don't confuse me. I must get on. Now.
- 43:09Speaker 2: What's the use of talking about it? It's too late.
- 43:12Speaker 6: No, it isn't.
- 43:14Speaker 2: It is, of course it is. You can't expect me
- 43:17Speaker 2: to begin all over again and put into it a subtle,
- 43:20Speaker 2: intangible something I don't even feel. Damn it. It will
- 43:25Speaker 2: have to fail then, and.
- 43:27Speaker 1: Taking hold of Tom quickly.
- 43:29Speaker 6: It can't. You've got to win, Tom, You've got to.
- 43:34Speaker 6: It's the most important thing you've ever done. Think of
- 43:38Speaker 6: where it will put you. Think of the money.
- 43:42Speaker 2: I have thought. I've done the best that is in me.
- 43:45Speaker 2: I tell you it is the best, the very best
- 43:48Speaker 2: I've ever.
- 43:48Speaker 6: But it isn't. It isn't. It isn't as great as
- 43:52Speaker 6: your last two things. Oh Tom, listen, you don't know
- 43:59Speaker 6: how hard it is to say it. I'd rather you
- 44:02Speaker 6: won this than anything that could possibly happen. You know that,
- 44:06Speaker 6: don't you.
- 44:07Speaker 2: Of course? But this isn't getting anywhere. It will have
- 44:11Speaker 2: to go in as it stands.
- 44:13Speaker 6: Wait, I I've wanted to talk to you about something
- 44:17Speaker 6: for a long time, but I wasn't sure.
- 44:21Speaker 1: And now I am well, Millicent coming back through hall,
- 44:28Speaker 1: Thank goodness, mother, I can't wait any longer. Ann to Millicent.
- 44:33Speaker 6: Oh just a.
- 44:34Speaker 2: Minute, dear, No, that's all right, there's nothing more to
- 44:37Speaker 2: be said.
- 44:38Speaker 6: I appreciate what you mean, yes I do, but it
- 44:43Speaker 6: doesn't get me. And all I can do is to
- 44:47Speaker 6: go after it as I see it.
- 44:50Speaker 1: He goes into workroom and stands looking at the freeze.
- 44:54Speaker 1: Milicent pulling Anne toward table.
- 44:57Speaker 5: Mother, come here, mother, please? Why what I wanted to
- 45:02Speaker 5: sit down?
- 45:03Speaker 1: Putting Anne into a chair above the long table.
- 45:07Speaker 5: Every one of the girls are staying over tomorrow. It
- 45:10Speaker 5: looks as if you were having such a slow time
- 45:11Speaker 5: that you didn't have anything to do but go back
- 45:14Speaker 5: to school.
- 45:14Speaker 7: If you didn't stay.
- 45:15Speaker 5: And I want why Fanny's going to have a party
- 45:19Speaker 5: tomorrow night, just a little one, and I want to
- 45:21Speaker 5: have eight of them to dinner.
- 45:22Speaker 1: First, sitting at right end of table.
- 45:25Speaker 6: Oh only eight.
- 45:28Speaker 5: You see Fanny's brother's home too, and you see it's
- 45:32Speaker 5: everybody has dinners and things before they go out to
- 45:34Speaker 5: the dance, you know, And will you?
- 45:36Speaker 3: Mother?
- 45:37Speaker 7: Can't?
- 45:37Speaker 6: I but dearest, you've done so much since you've been home.
- 45:42Speaker 6: You can't get back to school too soon. New York
- 45:46Speaker 6: is dreadful, it really is. The sensible mothers can't compete
- 45:51Speaker 6: with the idiotic ones who let girls do all these
- 45:54Speaker 6: silly things.
- 45:55Speaker 7: But don't be foolish, mother.
- 45:57Speaker 6: And school does begin tomorrow, and they.
- 45:59Speaker 5: Expect, they don't expect us to be back. All the
- 46:03Speaker 5: really smart girls stay over. It's only the deadly slow
- 46:06Speaker 5: ones who are there on time. Please, mother, please, There'll
- 46:10Speaker 5: only the eight of us. And Fanny's done so much
- 46:12Speaker 5: for me. I think it's as little as I could
- 46:14Speaker 5: do to have her brother to dinner, don't you?
- 46:16Speaker 6: Is he nice?
- 46:18Speaker 7: Yes? He is.
- 46:19Speaker 5: He's older, you know, and more fun. He got full
- 46:22Speaker 5: dress clothes, is Christmas long tails, you know? And he
- 46:25Speaker 5: looks perfectly. Mother.
- 46:26Speaker 7: You're not listening.
- 46:28Speaker 1: Anne's eyes have gone back to the freeze again.
- 46:31Speaker 6: Yes I am, dear, Yes, I am full dress clothes.
- 46:36Speaker 7: Well, may I.
- 46:39Speaker 6: Dearest, I may be frightfully busy tomorrow. I may have
- 46:44Speaker 6: to do the most important thing I've ever done in
- 46:47Speaker 6: my life. And if I do, it would be awfully
- 46:50Speaker 6: hard to have.
- 46:52Speaker 7: Oh now, mother.
- 46:54Speaker 5: Fanny's mother had a party or something for her every
- 46:57Speaker 5: single night. She took her to the plaza to dance
- 47:00Speaker 5: after the matinee today, And I've never been to a
- 47:02Speaker 5: hotel or anywhere exciting in my life. You try to
- 47:05Speaker 5: keep me so young, mother, and jimminy cricket.
- 47:07Speaker 6: I'm sixteen, positively ancient.
- 47:11Speaker 5: Well, sixteen's old enough for anything, will you?
- 47:15Speaker 8: Mother?
- 47:15Speaker 7: Please?
- 47:16Speaker 10: Please?
- 47:18Speaker 1: Kissing her mother's throat?
- 47:20Speaker 6: But what would I do if I had to do
- 47:23Speaker 6: this other thing?
- 47:24Speaker 7: What other thing? Can't it?
- 47:26Speaker 6: Wait? No, it can't, that's just it. Your father may
- 47:32Speaker 6: I'm may be working with him all day tomorrow.
- 47:35Speaker 5: You needn't have such a terribly elaborate dinner, you know,
- 47:38Speaker 5: But I'm crazy to do it. In fact, I just
- 47:41Speaker 5: have to. I've already asked most of them and they're
- 47:43Speaker 5: dying to come.
- 47:45Speaker 6: You didn't, kitten, how could you?
- 47:48Speaker 5: But mother, it's so important and I don't see how
- 47:51Speaker 5: I can get out of it now. You wouldn't want
- 47:54Speaker 5: me to be compromised or anything, would you?
- 47:57Speaker 1: Anne? Laughing and kissing Milicent.
- 48:02Speaker 6: You blessed baby. You ought to be spanked.
- 48:05Speaker 7: You're an angel, Mummy? You will, won't you?
- 48:08Speaker 1: Putting her cheek against Anne's.
- 48:10Speaker 6: What have you got in your ears?
- 48:12Speaker 7: Ear rings? Of course?
- 48:14Speaker 6: Heavens take them off.
- 48:16Speaker 5: Oh mother, all the girls wear them.
- 48:19Speaker 6: Take them off, but they have so much style style,
- 48:23Speaker 6: your granny? Take them off or bite em off.
- 48:27Speaker 1: Millicent squirms and giggles as Anne bites her ears.
- 48:31Speaker 5: Wait wait, I will? I think you're mean to make me.
- 48:36Speaker 5: You have such terribly strict ideas.
- 48:39Speaker 6: Your ears are much prettier than these things. Can't you
- 48:42Speaker 6: understand that nothing is so attractive as just being natural?
- 48:46Speaker 6: Why cover up with stuff like this?
- 48:49Speaker 7: You are funny.
- 48:51Speaker 5: You'll stay at home and meet every one tomorrow night,
- 48:53Speaker 5: won't you.
- 48:54Speaker 7: I want them to see you.
- 48:55Speaker 5: You are sweet, mummy?
- 48:57Speaker 6: Do you love me a lot?
- 48:58Speaker 7: Of course?
- 49:00Speaker 1: Kissing Anne? Anne rising suddenly and going to look at
- 49:04Speaker 1: the freeze.
- 49:06Speaker 6: I am so unhappy.
- 49:08Speaker 7: Why what's the matter?
- 49:10Speaker 5: I should think you'd be tickled to death if father's
- 49:12Speaker 5: going to get all that money.
- 49:14Speaker 1: Tom coming in from the workroom quickly, you say, he
- 49:19Speaker 1: stops seeing Milicent.
- 49:21Speaker 5: Aren't you coming up now to plan it all.
- 49:24Speaker 6: In a few go on?
- 49:26Speaker 2: Milicent?
- 49:27Speaker 1: Millicent skips out.
- 49:29Speaker 2: Why didn't you speak the minute you saw it go wrong?
- 49:31Speaker 2: Or thought you did?
- 49:33Speaker 6: I was never sure until today, dear.
- 49:37Speaker 2: I don't agree with you at all, but still it
- 49:39Speaker 2: isn't exactly inspiring knowing you think I'm going to fail Tom.
- 49:44Speaker 2: I'm sorry, it's all right, but you know I care
- 49:48Speaker 2: more about what you think than anybody in the world,
- 49:50Speaker 2: and I it's sort of a knockout.
- 49:54Speaker 6: I had to tell you the truth. When I was sure,
- 49:59Speaker 6: I had to Tom, listen, since you've been working at this,
- 50:06Speaker 6: an idea has come to me. At first I thought
- 50:09Speaker 6: the idea was too big for me, that I never
- 50:13Speaker 6: could carry it out. And then I said, I won't
- 50:17Speaker 6: let myself be afraid. And it's grown and grown night
- 50:23Speaker 6: and day. Last night I finished it down here the drawings.
- 50:30Speaker 6: I want you to look at them, and if if
- 50:34Speaker 6: you like it, if you think the idea is better
- 50:38Speaker 6: than yours, I want you to take it, use it
- 50:41Speaker 6: instead of yours.
- 50:42Speaker 2: Why Anne, you're not serious?
- 50:45Speaker 1: She nods.
- 50:46Speaker 2: Good, Heavens child. You know you know how tremendous this
- 50:50Speaker 2: thing is as well as I do.
- 50:52Speaker 6: Yes, I do. But I tell you my idea is big.
- 50:57Speaker 6: Oh I knew you'd look like that when I told you.
- 51:00Speaker 6: You can't believe it, of course, But Tom, it's there,
- 51:06Speaker 6: something vital and alive, with a strange charm to it.
- 51:12Speaker 6: And I offer it to you, dear, if you want it.
- 51:16Speaker 1: Tom taking her in his arm strongly and kissing her passionately.
- 51:20Speaker 2: You generous, darling, it's like you to do this, you dear,
- 51:26Speaker 2: I love you for it, and responding warmly to his love,
- 51:31Speaker 2: I want you.
- 51:32Speaker 6: To have it. It's more than I ever dared dream
- 51:36Speaker 6: I could do.
- 51:37Speaker 2: But Darling, you couldn't possibly do anything for a scheme
- 51:41Speaker 2: as big as this.
- 51:43Speaker 6: Why do you take that for granted? Why do you
- 51:45Speaker 6: say that before you've even seen my sketches?
- 51:49Speaker 1: Tom, after a pause, well where are they? And taking
- 51:55Speaker 1: a key out of her pocket in the lower drawer
- 51:58Speaker 1: of my cupboard, Tom taking the key.
- 52:02Speaker 2: No, don't come with me, but I I don't want
- 52:05Speaker 2: you to explain anything. I want it to strike me fresh.
- 52:09Speaker 2: But I'm going to hit it hard, right from the shoulder.
- 52:12Speaker 2: If it's good, all right. If it's bad, all right,
- 52:15Speaker 2: And I expect you to take it like a man.
- 52:18Speaker 1: Anne nods. Tom hurries into workroom as Ruth comes in
- 52:21Speaker 1: from hall. Have you told him?
- 52:24Speaker 6: Yes? He's gone to look at my sketches now.
- 52:28Speaker 1: Anne, I've been thinking you're a fool to give away
- 52:31Speaker 1: your ideas, make your models and send them in yourself.
- 52:35Speaker 1: What certainly, why.
- 52:37Speaker 6: Not, oh, Ruth? I couldn't. Someday I will.
- 52:43Speaker 1: Someday someday You've got the biggest idea you've ever had.
- 52:48Speaker 1: Do it, send it in yourself, on your own feet.
- 52:52Speaker 6: Tom would think I was out of mine.
- 52:54Speaker 1: You know it's good, don't you, Yes, I do. It
- 52:58Speaker 1: belongs to you. Oh and if you don't take care
- 53:01Speaker 1: of it and give it its chance, you kill something
- 53:04Speaker 1: which is more important than you are. Don't forget that.
- 53:08Speaker 1: You're not just the talented woman. You've got downright genius,
- 53:12Speaker 1: and you ought to make everything give way to that everything.
- 53:15Speaker 1: If you don't, you're weak.
- 53:18Speaker 6: Wait and see what Tom says. He'll know he's so
- 53:21Speaker 6: dead right about my stuff always.
- 53:26Speaker 1: Oh, you lucky people pulling together. If Keith only had
- 53:30Speaker 1: a little of it towards me, and what shall I
- 53:33Speaker 1: do ann with quick sympathy? What dear He's never, never,
- 53:39Speaker 1: never going to know what a sacrifice it will be
- 53:41Speaker 1: for me to stop just as I'm getting what I've
- 53:44Speaker 1: slaved and struggled for all these years. And I can't
- 53:48Speaker 1: bear to hurt him.
- 53:49Speaker 6: Dear old Keith, he just can't see and he loves you.
- 53:54Speaker 1: So Keith, coming in from hall, Why did you come
- 53:58Speaker 1: back down here just to run away from you?
- 54:02Speaker 5: No?
- 54:03Speaker 1: I didn't going to him, sweetly, you know I didn't.
- 54:07Speaker 6: Anne.
- 54:08Speaker 1: As Daisy comes in from hall.
- 54:10Speaker 6: Daisy, tell me the minute Tom comes out.
- 54:15Speaker 3: Keith to Ruth, I'll be back in a minute. I've
- 54:20Speaker 3: got to cover some stuff in there.
- 54:23Speaker 1: Exit Anne and Ruth.
- 54:25Speaker 3: You're a wonder Daisy. You don't mind sitting up late
- 54:29Speaker 3: to get your letters off, do you?
- 54:32Speaker 7: Oh?
- 54:32Speaker 8: No, I'm healthy.
- 54:34Speaker 3: You're a peach. I'm sorry I made you huffy. All
- 54:41Speaker 3: I meant was that no man would ever think he
- 54:45Speaker 3: could ask you to marry him unless he had an
- 54:48Speaker 3: awfully big bank roll to offer.
- 54:50Speaker 1: Remington comes in from hall to get his hat and stick,
- 54:54Speaker 1: just in time to hear Keith's last remark. Daisy rises consciously.
- 54:59Speaker 1: Keith goes into work. Remington goes to end of table.
- 55:02Speaker 8: I suppose that speech sounded rather queer. He was talking
- 55:06Speaker 8: about Ruth.
- 55:06Speaker 9: Of course, don't apologize or you'll make me suspicious.
- 55:10Speaker 8: Now.
- 55:11Speaker 9: It sounded very much as if he were making love
- 55:14Speaker 9: to you. Oh, I wish to god he would. You'd
- 55:18Speaker 9: be a much better wife for him than the other one.
- 55:21Speaker 9: You you know you would. Why don't you go in
- 55:24Speaker 9: and get him cut the other one out?
- 55:26Speaker 8: How dare you say such a thing to me?
- 55:28Speaker 9: Why shouldn't I say it, because you have.
- 55:31Speaker 8: No right to. I haven't the slightest interest in Keith Mackenzie,
- 55:35Speaker 8: not the slightest No, I can see that. What do
- 55:38Speaker 8: you mean?
- 55:39Speaker 1: Remington suddenly understanding.
- 55:42Speaker 9: Why, my dear girl, I didn't mean anything. I'm sorry.
- 55:45Speaker 8: I don't know why in the world you said such
- 55:47Speaker 8: a thing to me.
- 55:48Speaker 9: Well, well forget it.
- 55:50Speaker 8: You don't think from anything I've ever done or said, I.
- 55:53Speaker 9: Don't think anything. I don't know anything.
- 55:56Speaker 8: I don't see why you said it.
- 55:58Speaker 1: And coming from what's the matter. As Daisy breaks away
- 56:03Speaker 1: from Remington, who is holding her by the.
- 56:05Speaker 8: Wrists, let me go, please, I'm in a hurry.
- 56:08Speaker 1: Daisy rushes out through hall.
- 56:10Speaker 6: What on earth are you doing to Daisy?
- 56:13Speaker 9: She's doing things to me? What convincing me off some
- 56:17Speaker 9: of my old fashioned ideas.
- 56:19Speaker 1: Tom rushes in from the workroom with a large roll
- 56:22Speaker 1: of drawings, and.
- 56:23Speaker 2: They're wonderful, Oh Tom.
- 56:27Speaker 1: Tom, spreading the roll of sketches on the table and
- 56:30Speaker 1: helping him.
- 56:31Speaker 2: Beautiful, astoundingly beautiful. Well as I know you, I didn't
- 56:36Speaker 2: think you had it in you.
- 56:38Speaker 6: I can't believe it. Are you going to use it?
- 56:42Speaker 2: Oh, my dear girl, that's different. Now, don't be hurt.
- 56:46Speaker 2: Why Anne, it isn't possible you You're mistaken, way off.
- 56:53Speaker 2: I don't know what's got into you. This is imaginative
- 56:56Speaker 2: and charming and graceful, full of abandon and face and
- 57:00Speaker 2: even vitality by God's child. It isn't in this class.
- 57:06Speaker 6: But you could strengthen it. It will grow. You'll see
- 57:10Speaker 6: more in it, really you will. Don't make up your
- 57:14Speaker 6: mind yet.
- 57:15Speaker 9: What are you talking about? What has she done?
- 57:18Speaker 2: Drawings for a freeze like this? And they're amazing, doctor,
- 57:23Speaker 2: positively amazing. You don't say, wait, let's see what Mackenzie
- 57:27Speaker 2: says Mackenzie.
- 57:29Speaker 1: And pounding on the workroom door.
- 57:31Speaker 6: Keith, Keith, come here quickly.
- 57:34Speaker 9: Looks beautiful to me, daughter, When did you do all this?
- 57:38Speaker 9: Do you mean to say you didn't know anything about it? Tom?
- 57:41Speaker 1: Not a thing she's been Keith comes in.
- 57:44Speaker 2: Here, Mackenzie, look at this. Here's a scheme missus Herford's
- 57:48Speaker 2: worked out begins here see see get it?
- 57:54Speaker 3: What do you think, missus Herford? Yes?
- 57:57Speaker 2: Do you get it?
- 57:58Speaker 3: Of course?
- 58:00Speaker 2: Well? What do you say?
- 58:02Speaker 3: I say, it's as beautiful as anything I ever saw?
- 58:06Speaker 2: Great? And what do you think of it for a
- 58:08Speaker 2: big place like mine for that.
- 58:12Speaker 3: Yes, oh, I too fanciful, isn't it? Would the crowd understand?
- 58:23Speaker 3: It needs a big, clear, striking thing like that, don't
- 58:28Speaker 3: you think?
- 58:29Speaker 2: Then you don't think it's as good as mine for
- 58:31Speaker 2: this competition as yours?
- 58:35Speaker 3: Heavens know?
- 58:36Speaker 1: And standing at right facing the three men.
- 58:40Speaker 6: Then do you know what I'm going to do? What
- 58:44Speaker 6: make my models and send them in myself?
- 58:50Speaker 8: Why not?
- 58:51Speaker 9: You don't mean it? Daughter?
- 58:53Speaker 2: I do?
- 58:54Speaker 6: I mean it with my whole soul.
- 58:57Speaker 9: Why would you want to do anything so foolish?
- 59:00Speaker 6: Because I made it, because it's my work. You all
- 59:05Speaker 6: say it's good. Why shouldn't I send it? I don't
- 59:08Speaker 6: mind failure. I only wanted to stand its little chance
- 59:13Speaker 6: with the rest. I love it. It means more to
- 59:16Speaker 6: me than I can possibly Why shouldn't I? I want to?
- 59:21Speaker 2: Then do it? Why not? It's your own affair.
- 59:26Speaker 1: Go ahead, putting out the hand of a good palship
- 59:29Speaker 1: to her.
- 59:30Speaker 6: Not Tom, thank you, you're splendid.
- 59:34Speaker 1: The curtain falls, end of Act one, Act two. Time
- 59:41Speaker 1: four months later, about nine in the evening, the living
- 59:44Speaker 1: room in the Hereford House. The room is long and wide,
- 59:48Speaker 1: dignified and RESTful in proportions. At center back a large
- 59:52Speaker 1: fireplace with a severe mantle in cream marble. A wide
- 59:56Speaker 1: window covers the entire left wall, and wide doors at
- 59:59Speaker 1: right lead into the library. A single door at back
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: left of fireplace leads into hall. The walls are hung
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: in a soft, dull silk, which throws out the strong,
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: simple lines of the woodwork. A bright wood fire is burning,
- 1:00:15Speaker 1: and soft lights throw a warm glow over the gray
- 1:00:18Speaker 1: carpet and the furniture, which is distinguished and artistic but
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: distinctly comfortable, giving the room the air of being much
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: lived in and used. At curtain, the room is empty
- 1:00:30Speaker 1: a moment, Daisy is singing in the library. At right, Ellen,
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: a maid, middle aged and kindly, comes from hall carrying
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: a silver coffee service. Daisy as she comes in from library.
- 1:00:44Speaker 8: Here's your coffee. Girls, come in here. Put the flowers
- 1:00:47Speaker 8: over there, Ellen.
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: Ellen moves the vase of flowers and makes room for
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: the coffee service on table. Right center. Ruth comes in
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: from the library with a book. Ellen goes to fire
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: and pokes it, then straightens the writing things on the desk. Anne,
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: here's your coffee, Anne calling from library.
- 1:01:06Speaker 6: I don't want any thank you? What time is it, Daisy?
- 1:01:10Speaker 8: About nine? Why?
- 1:01:12Speaker 6: Oh the postman? I'm waiting for the last mail?
- 1:01:16Speaker 8: Well, don't I watched pot?
- 1:01:18Speaker 7: You know?
- 1:01:19Speaker 8: To Ruth, she's watched every mail for a week. I
- 1:01:23Speaker 8: almost think Anne will be more disappointed than Tom himself
- 1:01:25Speaker 8: if he doesn't get the commission.
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: They take their coffee to the fire. I hope to
- 1:01:30Speaker 1: goodness he does. Everybody's so dead sure of him.
- 1:01:33Speaker 8: Almost too sure. I'm beginning to be frightened myself. The
- 1:01:37Speaker 8: time's about.
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: Up, Anne, hurrying in from the library.
- 1:01:42Speaker 6: That's the postman, isn't it.
- 1:01:44Speaker 10: No, ma'am begging your pardon? It ain't I'm listening to
- 1:01:50Speaker 10: are you?
- 1:01:51Speaker 6: Ellen? Keep on and bringing up the minute it comes.
- 1:01:55Speaker 10: Faith, I will. I've got the habit myself lately of
- 1:01:58Speaker 10: watching for the mail. You every time I hear the whistle,
- 1:02:02Speaker 10: I drop whatever I'm doing like it was hot, and run,
- 1:02:05Speaker 10: do you? And just before I open the door, I say,
- 1:02:08Speaker 10: the Holy Saints be praised. I hope it's come this time,
- 1:02:12Speaker 10: whatever it is they're looking for.
- 1:02:13Speaker 1: She goes out through the hall.
- 1:02:15Speaker 6: Oh, dear, it gets worse as the time grows shorter.
- 1:02:20Speaker 8: And working yourself up like this won't make Tom get
- 1:02:23Speaker 8: the commission. Stop thinking about it.
- 1:02:25Speaker 6: But I can't, Daisy dimple, he ought to hear tonight
- 1:02:29Speaker 6: if he's ever going to.
- 1:02:31Speaker 8: Well, I'll be glad when it's all over and we
- 1:02:33Speaker 8: know one way or the other and can settle down
- 1:02:35Speaker 8: to ordinary life again. It's almost given me nervous indigestion.
- 1:02:40Speaker 6: Listen, there's the postman.
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: Ruth jumping so that her cup and saucer almost fall. Oh, An,
- 1:02:47Speaker 1: you're getting me so excited. I'll listen for the postman
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: all the rest of my life.
- 1:02:52Speaker 6: I know I shall. Oh Tom must get it. He must.
- 1:02:56Speaker 6: If he does, I'll wire millicented.
- 1:02:59Speaker 1: Taking up a picture of Millicent which stands in a
- 1:03:01Speaker 1: frame on the table.
- 1:03:03Speaker 6: I think I'll run up to school Sunday just to
- 1:03:06Speaker 6: give her a good hug. I get so hungry for her.
- 1:03:09Speaker 1: Isn't it splendid? The school is so really what it
- 1:03:12Speaker 1: ought to be?
- 1:03:13Speaker 6: Yes, so much that's sweet and rite that one can't
- 1:03:17Speaker 6: get in New York for a girl.
- 1:03:19Speaker 1: Daisy sewing on a frock which is nearly finished.
- 1:03:23Speaker 8: She seems pretty keen about it herself.
- 1:03:26Speaker 6: Yes, rather Easter vacation, when I was working day and
- 1:03:30Speaker 6: night to get my models off. She was perfectly contented
- 1:03:33Speaker 6: to stay at school.
- 1:03:35Speaker 1: She's an adorable kiddy. But I don't envy you your job.
- 1:03:38Speaker 6: Why.
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: I think being a mother is the most gigantic, difficult, important,
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: and thankless thing in the world.
- 1:03:46Speaker 8: That's the most sensible remark I ever heard. You give
- 1:03:49Speaker 8: vent to, Ruth.
- 1:03:50Speaker 6: There's something much more glorious in it than being thanked.
- 1:03:54Speaker 6: You'll miss the most wonderful thing in the world, Ruth.
- 1:03:58Speaker 6: If you don't have children.
- 1:04:00Speaker 1: No, I know, but work has taken that all out
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: of me it does you know? It would bore me
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: stiff to take care of a baby.
- 1:04:08Speaker 8: That's a pleasant prospect for Keith. Do you expect him
- 1:04:11Speaker 8: to do it?
- 1:04:12Speaker 1: Ruth? Making herself comfortable on the couch. I'm not going
- 1:04:16Speaker 1: to have children and going to sit at the fire.
- 1:04:20Speaker 6: That's perfectly fair. If he knows no reason why you should.
- 1:04:23Speaker 6: If you don't want them.
- 1:04:25Speaker 8: Well, I think it's a rotten way to live.
- 1:04:27Speaker 1: Wait till you decide to marry somebody yourself, young lady,
- 1:04:30Speaker 1: and see how you like giving up everything that interests
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: you most.
- 1:04:34Speaker 8: Well, by jove, if I ever do marry, I'll marry
- 1:04:37Speaker 8: and do all the things that belong to my side
- 1:04:39Speaker 8: of the game. No half way business for me. You
- 1:04:42Speaker 8: might as well be a man's mistress and be done
- 1:04:44Speaker 8: with it.
- 1:04:45Speaker 1: Ruth, half serious, half joking. That's the ideal relationship for
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: a man and woman, each to keep his independence in
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: absolutely every way and live together merely because they charm
- 1:04:56Speaker 1: each other. But somehow we don't seem to be able
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: to make it resc respectable.
- 1:05:00Speaker 8: I suppose that's very clever and modern.
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: Oh no, it's as old as the everlasting hills. The
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: trouble is children are apt to set in and mess
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: things up. It's hard on them.
- 1:05:11Speaker 8: So far as I can see, most everything that's modern
- 1:05:13Speaker 8: is hard on children.
- 1:05:15Speaker 6: How's the gown getting on, Daisy?
- 1:05:17Speaker 8: Most finished?
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: That's awfully pretty.
- 1:05:20Speaker 6: Slip it on so we can see.
- 1:05:22Speaker 1: Oh I can't, Anne rising and walking to Daisy.
- 1:05:26Speaker 6: Yes, you can over that one. Just to give us
- 1:05:30Speaker 6: an idea.
- 1:05:31Speaker 8: I'll look a tub, and it really makes me quite
- 1:05:33Speaker 8: respectably straight up and down.
- 1:05:35Speaker 6: You're a perfectly scrumptious size and shape, isn't she Ruth magnificent?
- 1:05:41Speaker 8: Yes, Ruth. Skinny women always enthuse over their fat friends.
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: Ruth rising and goes to Daisy. Oh you aren't fat, Daisy,
- 1:05:51Speaker 1: that is not too fat? How does this go? It's
- 1:05:54Speaker 1: terribly complicated, isn't it?
- 1:05:56Speaker 7: No?
- 1:05:56Speaker 8: Perfectly simple? Wait, this goes over here?
- 1:06:00Speaker 6: No it doesn't, does it?
- 1:06:01Speaker 7: Yes?
- 1:06:02Speaker 8: It does right there? Don't you see? The style of
- 1:06:05Speaker 8: the whole gown depends on that.
- 1:06:07Speaker 1: You must have it on wrong side before nonsense?
- 1:06:10Speaker 8: Can't you see, Anne? It's as simple as can be.
- 1:06:13Speaker 6: Yes, I know, dear. But does this go on the
- 1:06:17Speaker 6: shoulder or down on the hip?
- 1:06:20Speaker 1: They all talk at once for a moment on the
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: subject of where the end of the girdle fastens?
- 1:06:25Speaker 6: Oh? Here, I see, of course there.
- 1:06:28Speaker 8: Now does it make me look big?
- 1:06:30Speaker 1: You want to look big, don't you?
- 1:06:32Speaker 8: Well? I want to look life size. Don't you see
- 1:06:34Speaker 8: how much better I am through here than I was
- 1:06:36Speaker 8: last year?
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: Anne, touching her hip much.
- 1:06:40Speaker 6: The female form divine is improving all the time, anyway,
- 1:06:46Speaker 6: gradually getting back to what it was in the beginning.
- 1:06:49Speaker 8: I don't expect to look like you in it, Ruth.
- 1:06:51Speaker 1: Oh don't you dear?
- 1:06:52Speaker 7: Then?
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: Why don't you have it stick out this way as
- 1:06:54Speaker 1: much as possible so everybody will know you mean to
- 1:06:57Speaker 1: look broad? There's everything in that, you know.
- 1:07:00Speaker 8: I think it would be awfully good on you to
- 1:07:02Speaker 8: fill out what you haven't got. Then everybody would know
- 1:07:05Speaker 8: you didn't mean to look so narrow.
- 1:07:07Speaker 6: Even if you are, you're both delightful, perfect specimens of
- 1:07:12Speaker 6: your types. When I look at Ruth, I think the
- 1:07:15Speaker 6: most alluring charm a woman can have is beautiful bones
- 1:07:19Speaker 6: without a superfluous ounce of flesh on them. And when
- 1:07:23Speaker 6: I look at you, Daisy, I think, after all, there's
- 1:07:27Speaker 6: nothing so stunning as a big, strong girl with perfectly
- 1:07:32Speaker 6: natural lines, so natural that we know she'd be even
- 1:07:37Speaker 6: better looking with no clothes on at all.
- 1:07:39Speaker 8: Heavens, Anne, your sculptor's eye is a little embarrassing.
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: Evidently you think my clothes help me out a good deal.
- 1:07:46Speaker 1: But at least I'm free and comfortable too. Can you
- 1:07:49Speaker 1: touch the floor, Daisy? Of course the two women bend,
- 1:07:53Speaker 1: touching the floor with the tips of their fingers. Tom
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: Remington and Keith come in from the hall.
- 1:07:59Speaker 2: What what's going on?
- 1:08:01Speaker 9: What are you trying to do, Ruth, swim or fly?
- 1:08:04Speaker 6: We're just saying that the Waiste measure expands as we
- 1:08:08Speaker 6: broaden in our ideas.
- 1:08:10Speaker 3: Is that the fashion now.
- 1:08:12Speaker 1: Yes broad and free.
- 1:08:15Speaker 9: That's one thing you women have to acknowledge men have
- 1:08:17Speaker 9: more sense about than you have. What what our figures?
- 1:08:22Speaker 9: We've had the same shape since the Garden of Eden,
- 1:08:24Speaker 9: and you've had hundreds of absolutely different kinds.
- 1:08:27Speaker 6: Turn around, Daisy, I want to try something.
- 1:08:30Speaker 1: She accidentally sticks a pin into Daisy's shoulder.
- 1:08:33Speaker 7: Ouch.
- 1:08:35Speaker 6: Oh, I'm sorry. You seem to be so close to
- 1:08:38Speaker 6: your clothes.
- 1:08:39Speaker 9: What are you doing to her?
- 1:08:41Speaker 8: She's sticking pins into me.
- 1:08:43Speaker 6: For her own good? Isn't that pretty?
- 1:08:46Speaker 2: What the frog is that? New?
- 1:08:50Speaker 3: Witch?
- 1:08:51Speaker 8: Do you mean to say you don't realize I have
- 1:08:53Speaker 8: on something different from what I wore at dinner.
- 1:08:55Speaker 1: No use dressing for Keith. He never sees anything.
- 1:08:58Speaker 8: I'm going to undress now now, perhaps that will interest
- 1:09:01Speaker 8: you more.
- 1:09:02Speaker 1: Ann begins to unfasten the gown much more.
- 1:09:06Speaker 6: Was that the postman?
- 1:09:08Speaker 9: No, it was not the postmanhabit is getting on my nerves.
- 1:09:12Speaker 9: You're all jumping and listening till you'll have Saint Vitus
- 1:09:15Speaker 9: dance if you don't stop.
- 1:09:16Speaker 6: How can we help it?
- 1:09:18Speaker 9: After all, a few other competitions have been lost and won,
- 1:09:22Speaker 9: and people have lived through it. It's not the only
- 1:09:24Speaker 9: thing in life.
- 1:09:25Speaker 2: You'd think it was if you had one hundred thousand
- 1:09:28Speaker 2: dollars at stake.
- 1:09:29Speaker 1: Allen comes in from hall and takes out the coffee tray.
- 1:09:33Speaker 6: Are we going to have some bridge who wants to play?
- 1:09:36Speaker 6: I know you do, Daddy.
- 1:09:37Speaker 9: I have to get even with you for that last rubbery.
- 1:09:40Speaker 2: Tom, you can't do it.
- 1:09:42Speaker 8: I want to play with you, doctor.
- 1:09:44Speaker 1: Come on, I'm afraid to play against you. Remington turning
- 1:09:48Speaker 1: at the library door.
- 1:09:50Speaker 9: What's that? What the postman?
- 1:09:53Speaker 3: Oh?
- 1:09:55Speaker 1: Ruth and Daisy go into library right with Remington ann
- 1:10:00Speaker 1: to Tom.
- 1:10:00Speaker 2: And Keith coming you go, Keith, I want to look
- 1:10:04Speaker 2: at the paper a minute.
- 1:10:05Speaker 3: No, my game's no good. You go now.
- 1:10:09Speaker 6: Don't stay out here and listen and wait. If there
- 1:10:13Speaker 6: is any mail, Ellen will bring it up straight.
- 1:10:16Speaker 2: I won't. I'll be with you in two minutes.
- 1:10:20Speaker 6: Anyway, Tonight doesn't necessarily decide it. There may be still
- 1:10:25Speaker 6: two or three more days. Isn't that so?
- 1:10:28Speaker 1: Keith?
- 1:10:29Speaker 3: Yes? I think so.
- 1:10:31Speaker 1: Remington. Ruth, Daisy calling from the library.
- 1:10:35Speaker 8: Come on, co.
- 1:10:37Speaker 1: Coming, She goes in.
- 1:10:39Speaker 3: That's straight, I do think so.
- 1:10:42Speaker 1: A pause, Tom reads.
- 1:10:45Speaker 2: Don't you I'm trying to but these last few days
- 1:10:49Speaker 2: of waiting have.
- 1:10:50Speaker 3: Been don't lose your nerve Herford. I'm just as sure
- 1:10:54Speaker 3: as I was the first day. If by any wild
- 1:10:58Speaker 3: chance you don't get it, it will be a fluke.
- 1:11:03Speaker 2: Oh no, oh no, not by any means. The men
- 1:11:06Speaker 2: judging this, no, I trust them with anything. The fellows
- 1:11:11Speaker 2: who lose will have no kick coming on that score.
- 1:11:13Speaker 3: Well, I don't see how you can lose.
- 1:11:17Speaker 2: A man's a fool to let himself count on an uncertainty.
- 1:11:20Speaker 2: I don't mean that I've lost sight of the fact
- 1:11:22Speaker 2: that I might lose, not for a second. But I confess,
- 1:11:26Speaker 2: as the time has grown shorter, I've realized I want
- 1:11:28Speaker 2: it even more than I thought I did.
- 1:11:30Speaker 3: Of course you want it. Aside from the glory. It's
- 1:11:35Speaker 3: an awful lot of money, governor, an awful lot of money.
- 1:11:43Speaker 2: It is. It would put us straight, clear up the
- 1:11:46Speaker 2: house entirely, and make it possible to do that things
- 1:11:48Speaker 2: a fellow wants to do. That's what I'm after. Then,
- 1:11:53Speaker 2: no more competitions for me, Thank you? Is that the phone?
- 1:11:57Speaker 2: I'm as bad as Anne jumping and listening, damn it.
- 1:12:01Speaker 2: I want to know one way or the other.
- 1:12:04Speaker 3: Of course you do. The curse at waiting is enough
- 1:12:07Speaker 3: to make you cut your.
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: Throat Ellen, opening the hall door the telephone for mister Herford.
- 1:12:13Speaker 2: Who is it?
- 1:12:14Speaker 10: I couldn't just get the name, sir, want me to.
- 1:12:17Speaker 2: Go if you don't mind, old man.
- 1:12:20Speaker 1: Ellen goes out, Keith starting to the door and turning.
- 1:12:25Speaker 3: It couldn't be. You wouldn't get to word that way,
- 1:12:30Speaker 3: would you.
- 1:12:31Speaker 2: Huh? Oh, nonsense, No, no, nonsense, I'll go, No, I
- 1:12:38Speaker 2: you go, old man, that's not it. Of course.
- 1:12:43Speaker 1: Tom listens a moment, showing a tense anxiety, Ruth coming
- 1:12:47Speaker 1: in from the library. They're waiting for you, Tom. The
- 1:12:50Speaker 1: cards are dealt. Where's Keith?
- 1:12:52Speaker 2: He'll be back in a minute.
- 1:12:54Speaker 1: Aren't you going in?
- 1:12:55Speaker 2: Why don't you take my place? I don't feel a bit.
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: I did offer to but doctor Remington and said he
- 1:13:00Speaker 1: would like to play bridge this evening, not teach it.
- 1:13:03Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be seventh Heaven to speak the truth on
- 1:13:06Speaker 1: all occasions as unconcernedly as doctor Remington does. Imagine the
- 1:13:10Speaker 1: sheer bliss of letting go and spitting it all out.
- 1:13:14Speaker 1: Have you ever counted the lies you told in just
- 1:13:16Speaker 1: one day, Tom.
- 1:13:17Speaker 2: No, I've never had the time.
- 1:13:20Speaker 1: Tom starts to go into the library and turns to
- 1:13:22Speaker 1: see if Ruth is coming. No, I'm going to wait
- 1:13:25Speaker 1: for Keith. Tom goes in, Ruth reads for a moment.
- 1:13:29Speaker 1: Keith coming back from the hall.
- 1:13:32Speaker 3: That was what Millicent or her school or something. Such
- 1:13:40Speaker 3: a bad connection. They're going to call again in a
- 1:13:43Speaker 3: few minutes. Hmmm is that dress new, dear?
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: I've had it three years.
- 1:13:50Speaker 3: It's awfully pretty. I wish you'd wear it all the time.
- 1:13:55Speaker 1: I do.
- 1:13:55Speaker 3: Aren't we going in to play?
- 1:13:58Speaker 1: No, I don't feel like it. Come and sit down, dear.
- 1:14:01Speaker 1: Oh are you going to sit way over there? Not
- 1:14:04Speaker 1: specially drawing chair near the couch. Keith sits facing Ruth comfortable.
- 1:14:11Speaker 3: Not very Have you read this? No any good?
- 1:14:16Speaker 1: Yes? Good enough? She rises, going to the fireplace.
- 1:14:21Speaker 3: What's the matter? I thought you wanted to talk. Where
- 1:14:26Speaker 3: are you going?
- 1:14:28Speaker 1: No place?
- 1:14:29Speaker 3: You got the fidgets too sort of? Well, stop it.
- 1:14:33Speaker 3: Herford's going to be all right. There'll be news in
- 1:14:37Speaker 3: a day or so. Now.
- 1:14:39Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking of that. I have something to.
- 1:14:42Speaker 3: Tell you, m then why don't you come and tell it?
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: And if you aren't fine about it, it will be
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: the greatest disappointment in my whole life. Going to Keith
- 1:14:51Speaker 1: and putting a hand on his shoulder.
- 1:14:53Speaker 3: You mean, if I don't think just what you want
- 1:14:57Speaker 3: me to about it? Go I suppose I know anyway,
- 1:15:03Speaker 3: then if.
- 1:15:04Speaker 1: You do but you don't, it's so wonderful you couldn't guess.
- 1:15:09Speaker 1: And you just have to see it the right way,
- 1:15:10Speaker 1: because if you don't, it would mean you're what I know,
- 1:15:13Speaker 1: you're not down in your real soul, Keith, you're generous
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: and fair and right.
- 1:15:19Speaker 3: Suppose you communicate it to me first and discuss my
- 1:15:23Speaker 3: soul afterwards.
- 1:15:25Speaker 1: Ruth sitting on couch facing Keith. Well, oh, you will
- 1:15:30Speaker 1: be sweet, won't you, keithy.
- 1:15:32Speaker 3: I can see it's going to be something very pleasant
- 1:15:37Speaker 3: for me. It is, if it's wonderful, if I'm not
- 1:15:42Speaker 3: a fool and a pig, yes, I know.
- 1:15:47Speaker 1: Go on, go on now, don't begin that way, please, dear,
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: don't shut up your mind before I even tell you.
- 1:15:55Speaker 3: Suppose you do tell me?
- 1:15:57Speaker 1: Well, last week there was a row in the office
- 1:16:00Speaker 1: over a matter concerning the policy of the magazine, and
- 1:16:03Speaker 1: I differed with all the men in my department. At
- 1:16:05Speaker 1: last I was sent for by the editor in chief.
- 1:16:07Speaker 1: He was terribly severe at first, and I was frightened
- 1:16:10Speaker 1: to pieces, but I stuck to my guns and bless
- 1:16:14Speaker 1: your soul. He sent for me again today and said
- 1:16:16Speaker 1: they had had a meeting of the directors and that
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: they decided, oh it's two. What what they had decided
- 1:16:24Speaker 1: to make me editor of the Woman's magazine? Fighting back
- 1:16:27Speaker 1: her tears? Isn't it funny?
- 1:16:30Speaker 3: And I suppose all this introduction means you accepted without
- 1:16:35Speaker 3: even asking me why?
- 1:16:37Speaker 1: Of course? Oh, Keith, don't you understand what this means
- 1:16:41Speaker 1: to me?
- 1:16:42Speaker 3: I understand that unless it means more to you than
- 1:16:46Speaker 3: I do, you wouldn't hesitate a minute to chuck it.
- 1:16:50Speaker 1: It's hopeless well, never never see it the same way.
- 1:16:55Speaker 3: You've never made the slightest effort to see it my way.
- 1:17:00Speaker 1: What you ask of me is to cut off one
- 1:17:02Speaker 1: half of my life and throw it away. What I
- 1:17:05Speaker 1: ask of you is only an experiment to let me
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: try and see if I can't make things comfortable and
- 1:17:11Speaker 1: smooth and happy for us and still take this big
- 1:17:14Speaker 1: thing that has come as a result of all my
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: years of hard work and fighting for it.
- 1:17:19Speaker 3: You'll never stop if you don't now. Once you get
- 1:17:23Speaker 3: deeper in, you'll be swamped, eaten.
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: Up by it, don't Keith? I can't bear it. It's
- 1:17:31Speaker 1: too unutterably selfish, Keith, rising and pushing his chair away.
- 1:17:36Speaker 3: All right, I'm selfish, but I'm human, and I'll bet
- 1:17:41Speaker 3: my hat. I'm just like every nine men out of ten.
- 1:17:45Speaker 3: What in the name of heaven does letting a girl
- 1:17:48Speaker 3: amount to if you don't want to take care of
- 1:17:52Speaker 3: her from start to finish. A man's no good if
- 1:17:56Speaker 3: he doesn't feel that way, I tell you he's a
- 1:18:01Speaker 3: pup and ought to be shot.
- 1:18:04Speaker 1: Ruth rising, But what about me and what I want
- 1:18:08Speaker 1: and have to have in order to be happy?
- 1:18:11Speaker 2: That's it?
- 1:18:11Speaker 3: That is the point. You won't be happy without it.
- 1:18:15Speaker 3: You want the excitement of it, that hustle and bustle outside.
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: I want it, just as you want your work. And
- 1:18:23Speaker 1: you haven't any more right to ask me to give
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: up mine than I have to ask you to stop yours.
- 1:18:28Speaker 3: You simply don't love me.
- 1:18:31Speaker 5: What rot?
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: What nonsense?
- 1:18:34Speaker 3: You don't love me.
- 1:18:36Speaker 1: It's helpless. You've decided then you won't compromise, so we'll
- 1:18:41Speaker 1: end it. What do you mean, Ruth going to the
- 1:18:44Speaker 1: hall door. You've made your own choice, will end it now,
- 1:18:48Speaker 1: Keith following her.
- 1:18:50Speaker 3: No, Ruth, I won't give you up.
- 1:18:54Speaker 1: You have you have given me up?
- 1:18:56Speaker 9: Ruth.
- 1:18:58Speaker 1: Wait, it's best, Keith. Don't hate me. You'll see it's best.
- 1:19:02Speaker 1: In a little while, we'll learn to be friends. I
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: want you to be happy, dear boy. I do, and
- 1:19:08Speaker 1: I couldn't make you, so we'll end it now. It's
- 1:19:11Speaker 1: the best for both of us, Ruth. She goes out,
- 1:19:15Speaker 1: quickly closing the door. Keith turns to the fire, Daisy
- 1:19:20Speaker 1: knocking and opening the library door.
- 1:19:22Speaker 8: Excuse me, may I come in to get my sewing?
- 1:19:26Speaker 8: Where's Ruth?
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: Keith, with his back to Daisy, don't know.
- 1:19:32Speaker 8: Well, don't bite my head off. I can always tell
- 1:19:34Speaker 8: when you and Ruth have been discussing the emancipation of women.
- 1:19:38Speaker 1: Sitting below table and taking her dress to sew.
- 1:19:41Speaker 3: You all think you're superior.
- 1:19:43Speaker 1: Beings, of course, Keith, beginning to walk about.
- 1:19:48Speaker 3: Yes, you do. You're just as bad as the rest
- 1:19:51Speaker 3: of them. Worse the minute woman makes enough to buy
- 1:19:56Speaker 3: the clothes on her back, she thinks she and God
- 1:19:59Speaker 3: all are running the earth, and men are just little
- 1:20:03Speaker 3: insects crawling around. Daisy laughs, Oh, you can laugh. It's so,
- 1:20:13Speaker 3: and you know it. Every one of you that have
- 1:20:17Speaker 3: got the bee and your bonnet of doing something doing
- 1:20:21Speaker 3: something are through with men. Look at you. You've cut
- 1:20:28Speaker 3: men out entirely, and you think you're too smart to
- 1:20:33Speaker 3: marry one, now, don't you. Isn't that the reason?
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: Daisy threading her needle?
- 1:20:39Speaker 8: Don't bully rag me say it all to Ruth.
- 1:20:42Speaker 3: I tell you it's all rot business for women. It
- 1:20:48Speaker 3: spoils every one of you. Why aren't you in a
- 1:20:51Speaker 3: home of your own instead of hustling for your bread
- 1:20:54Speaker 3: and butter? It's because you're too damned conceited. You think
- 1:21:00Speaker 3: you know more than any man you ever saw, and
- 1:21:03Speaker 3: you think you don't need one. You wait, you'll see someday.
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: Going back to the fire, you amuse me.
- 1:21:15Speaker 3: There you are, That's about what I'm for.
- 1:21:19Speaker 8: There's a button off your coat looks horrid.
- 1:21:22Speaker 3: I know I've got it.
- 1:21:25Speaker 1: Putting his finger in waistcoat pocket.
- 1:21:27Speaker 8: Have you got it there?
- 1:21:28Speaker 1: Keith shows her the button.
- 1:21:30Speaker 8: Come here, I'll do it.
- 1:21:32Speaker 3: Never mind, I'll nail it on.
- 1:21:34Speaker 1: Come here, Keith goes slowly to her.
- 1:21:37Speaker 8: You'll have to take your coat off. It's bad luck
- 1:21:40Speaker 8: to sew anything on you. Oh, go on, take it off.
- 1:21:44Speaker 1: Keith takes off his coat reluctantly and watches Daisy as
- 1:21:47Speaker 1: she examines the coat.
- 1:21:49Speaker 8: Good, gracious, the lining's ripped too, Yes, poor old fellow,
- 1:21:54Speaker 8: are these some of your stitches?
- 1:21:56Speaker 1: Keith, drawing the chair from center and sitting left before Daisy.
- 1:22:01Speaker 3: What's the matter with them?
- 1:22:03Speaker 8: Looks like carpet thread snipping some threads. See, I'll just
- 1:22:07Speaker 8: draw this together and that'll be all right.
- 1:22:09Speaker 1: She begins to sing, an old diddy. Keith gradually hums
- 1:22:12Speaker 1: with her, keeping time with his hands and feet and
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: relaxing into a good humor. Keith soothed for a moment.
- 1:22:20Speaker 3: How does it happen you're so handy with a needle?
- 1:22:25Speaker 3: I thought you were all for business.
- 1:22:28Speaker 8: Well I can sew a button on if you can.
- 1:22:31Speaker 3: I tell you it changes all women business. They make
- 1:22:38Speaker 3: a little money themselves and want luxury and won't live
- 1:22:42Speaker 3: without it sometimes.
- 1:22:44Speaker 8: Yes, but there are lots and lots and lots of
- 1:22:47Speaker 8: women taking care of themselves, putting up the bluff of
- 1:22:51Speaker 8: being independent and happy. Who would be so glad to
- 1:22:54Speaker 8: live in a little flat and do their own work
- 1:22:56Speaker 8: just to be the nicest thing in the world to
- 1:22:58Speaker 8: some man?
- 1:22:59Speaker 3: Wouldn't you think that Ruth would like that? Better than
- 1:23:02Speaker 3: the office.
- 1:23:03Speaker 8: No, not the lamplight and the needle for Ruth. Keith,
- 1:23:07Speaker 8: don't ask her to give up her work. Don't you see?
- 1:23:09Speaker 8: She's more clever in her way than you are in yours.
- 1:23:13Speaker 8: She'll go further, and if you make her stop, she'll
- 1:23:16Speaker 8: hate you someday because she'll think you've kept her back.
- 1:23:19Speaker 8: That's a hard thing to say, but it's the truth.
- 1:23:22Speaker 3: You mean I'm a failure?
- 1:23:25Speaker 8: No, No, I don't mean that, Keith.
- 1:23:29Speaker 3: I work, Gosh how I work, But I'll never do anything.
- 1:23:37Speaker 3: Why haven't I got what missus Hurford's got. She sent
- 1:23:40Speaker 3: models off for this freeze that any man would be
- 1:23:44Speaker 3: proud to send. Why couldn't I.
- 1:23:48Speaker 8: Seems kind of mixed up and unfair, doesn't it?
- 1:23:51Speaker 3: You bet it's unfair. I work like a dog and
- 1:23:55Speaker 3: never get anywhere. If Ruth throws me over, I'll never
- 1:24:00Speaker 3: have the home I'm working for. That's what I want,
- 1:24:06Speaker 3: a home. I'll never have it now.
- 1:24:10Speaker 8: Oh, yes, you will.
- 1:24:12Speaker 3: I'm done for.
- 1:24:14Speaker 8: No, you're not. There are too many women in the
- 1:24:16Speaker 8: world who could love you.
- 1:24:20Speaker 3: I'm no good.
- 1:24:22Speaker 8: Some woman might think that you you're the way you
- 1:24:26Speaker 8: work and your honesty and loyalty are the greatest things
- 1:24:29Speaker 8: a man can have. Some woman might use all her
- 1:24:32Speaker 8: cleverness and ingenuity to make the little flat beautiful, to
- 1:24:36Speaker 8: show you what your own home could be, to give
- 1:24:39Speaker 8: you a better dinner than you thought you could afford.
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: Keith, sitting with his head in his hands.
- 1:24:44Speaker 3: All that kind of a woman is a thing of
- 1:24:47Speaker 3: the past.
- 1:24:48Speaker 8: Oh no, they're not. They're lying around thick. The trouble
- 1:24:52Speaker 8: is a woman can't ask. Even if a man is
- 1:24:57Speaker 8: just at her hand and she knows she could make
- 1:24:59Speaker 8: him happy, she can't tell him. She can't open his eyes.
- 1:25:04Speaker 8: She has to hide what might make things right for
- 1:25:06Speaker 8: both of them, because she's a woman.
- 1:25:09Speaker 3: Oh love doesn't cut much ice with a woman. Women
- 1:25:14Speaker 3: are all brains nowadays.
- 1:25:17Speaker 8: That's enough to use all the brains a woman's got
- 1:25:20Speaker 8: to make a home, to bring up children, and to
- 1:25:24Speaker 8: keep a man's love.
- 1:25:25Speaker 1: Keith, raising his head slowly and looking at Daisy.
- 1:25:29Speaker 3: I never expected to hear you say a thing like that.
- 1:25:33Speaker 3: There's some excuse in you being in business.
- 1:25:37Speaker 1: Yes, of course, rising and holding the coat.
- 1:25:40Speaker 8: I'm not the marrying kind, Keith getting into the coat.
- 1:25:45Speaker 3: Much obliged, would you be willing to give up work
- 1:25:49Speaker 3: and marry a man on a small salary. If you
- 1:25:54Speaker 3: loved him?
- 1:25:55Speaker 8: You make me laugh?
- 1:25:56Speaker 3: What's the matter, Daisy?
- 1:25:58Speaker 8: Nothing?
- 1:25:59Speaker 3: I never see aw tears in your eyes before. Women
- 1:26:04Speaker 3: are funny things.
- 1:26:06Speaker 8: Yes, we're funny. There's only one thing on earth funnier.
- 1:26:09Speaker 8: What men?
- 1:26:11Speaker 1: Rummington coming in from the library.
- 1:26:14Speaker 9: Did I leave my other glasses in here?
- 1:26:16Speaker 1: Daisy? Beginning to look for them?
- 1:26:18Speaker 8: I haven't seen them.
- 1:26:20Speaker 9: I've lost one game because I didn't have him, and
- 1:26:22Speaker 9: I don't propose to give him another.
- 1:26:24Speaker 8: What a shame? Help look for them, Keith.
- 1:26:26Speaker 9: I'm pretty blind, but thank god, not quite as bad
- 1:26:29Speaker 9: as you. Keith. What?
- 1:26:31Speaker 3: There's nothing the matter with my eyes?
- 1:26:34Speaker 1: Rummington, looking insinuatingly at Daisy.
- 1:26:37Speaker 9: Don't you think there is? Daisy?
- 1:26:39Speaker 1: Daisy trying to look unconscious.
- 1:26:42Speaker 8: Are you sure you left those glasses in here?
- 1:26:45Speaker 9: It's as bad a case of shortsightedness as I ever saw.
- 1:26:48Speaker 3: Oh.
- 1:26:49Speaker 1: The doctor holds her and turns her, pushing her toward Keith.
- 1:26:53Speaker 9: Daisy, don't you see that queer blind look in his eyes?
- 1:26:58Speaker 4: No?
- 1:26:58Speaker 8: I don't.
- 1:26:59Speaker 3: What do you mean?
- 1:27:01Speaker 1: Remington laughs?
- 1:27:02Speaker 3: Do you see the joke? Daisy?
- 1:27:06Speaker 9: It's no joke, is it?
- 1:27:07Speaker 8: Daisy, I don't know what on earth you're talking about.
- 1:27:11Speaker 8: I'm going to get those glasses going to hall door.
- 1:27:14Speaker 8: You probably left them in your out in the call
- 1:27:16Speaker 8: I mean in your hall in the coat.
- 1:27:18Speaker 9: I mean that's all right, Daisy. We know what you mean,
- 1:27:21Speaker 9: at least I do.
- 1:27:23Speaker 1: Oh you, Ellen comes in from hall.
- 1:27:25Speaker 3: What is it?
- 1:27:26Speaker 8: Ellen?
- 1:27:26Speaker 10: The telephone? Miss Herford for me? They said, any one
- 1:27:30Speaker 10: of the family, I'll go.
- 1:27:32Speaker 1: She goes out, followed by Ellen.
- 1:27:35Speaker 9: There's a woman who knows how to take care of
- 1:27:37Speaker 9: a man.
- 1:27:38Speaker 3: I'm afraid that's not her object in life. They all
- 1:27:42Speaker 3: have something else to do.
- 1:27:44Speaker 9: What's the matter with you?
- 1:27:46Speaker 3: I'm done for Ruth. You mean she won't marry me
- 1:27:50Speaker 3: unless she goes on working.
- 1:27:52Speaker 9: She's right too. What of course you haven't any more
- 1:27:57Speaker 9: right to ask that clever little woman to throw a
- 1:28:00Speaker 9: half her life and to be the tail to your kite.
- 1:28:03Speaker 9: Then you have to ask her to cut her throat.
- 1:28:06Speaker 9: Open your eyes and look around. There are always other women.
- 1:28:11Speaker 3: Oh never, never in the world for me.
- 1:28:15Speaker 9: I give you about three months.
- 1:28:17Speaker 3: Do you think I could ever?
- 1:28:19Speaker 9: Certainly I do. Look at Daisy, for instance, a fine, sweet,
- 1:28:24Speaker 9: wholesome girl with no kinks and no abnormal ambitions. Daisy,
- 1:28:29Speaker 9: don't blow your brains out for a couple of days.
- 1:28:32Speaker 9: Talk it over with her. She thinks you're about the
- 1:28:35Speaker 9: finest thing going. What fact. Don't try to hold on
- 1:28:40Speaker 9: to the woman who's getting away from you, but take
- 1:28:43Speaker 9: the one who is coming your way.
- 1:28:45Speaker 3: You're crazy, mad as a hatter. What are you giving me?
- 1:28:52Speaker 9: Just a little professional advice? Free. She's head over heels
- 1:28:56Speaker 9: in love with you.
- 1:28:57Speaker 1: I tell you, Daisy coming in from home in great excitement.
- 1:29:01Speaker 1: She has a case for glasses in her hand.
- 1:29:03Speaker 8: Doctor Remington. That was long distance. They telephoned from school
- 1:29:08Speaker 8: that Millicent has.
- 1:29:09Speaker 3: Gone, gone, gone?
- 1:29:11Speaker 8: Where left school suddenly tonight without saying a word to anyone?
- 1:29:15Speaker 2: What?
- 1:29:16Speaker 8: As soon as they knew they phoned the station and
- 1:29:19Speaker 8: found she had taken the train for New York. What
- 1:29:22Speaker 8: train the one that gets here at nine o'clock?
- 1:29:25Speaker 1: Keith, looking at his watch.
- 1:29:27Speaker 3: It's nine fifteen? Now?
- 1:29:29Speaker 8: Shall I tell Anne? No?
- 1:29:31Speaker 9: No, wait, we'll give her fifteen minutes more to get
- 1:29:33Speaker 9: to the house. No use frightening Anne?
- 1:29:36Speaker 3: Do you think she is coming home?
- 1:29:38Speaker 8: Why do you say that? Keith? What puts such an
- 1:29:41Speaker 8: idea into your head?
- 1:29:42Speaker 3: Why wouldn't she say so whire or right or something.
- 1:29:48Speaker 8: Oh, it's too horrible, doctor. Oughtn't we to tell them now?
- 1:29:52Speaker 3: No?
- 1:29:53Speaker 8: No, but we're wasting time. What if she shouldn't come.
- 1:29:57Speaker 3: I think i'll dash down to the station anyway, the
- 1:30:00Speaker 3: train might be late.
- 1:30:03Speaker 9: No, no, they'll ask where you'd gone. Wait fifteen minutes.
- 1:30:06Speaker 9: I think she'll be here. I don't want to frighten.
- 1:30:09Speaker 1: Ann comes in from the library.
- 1:30:12Speaker 6: Well I never saw people so wildly keen about playing
- 1:30:16Speaker 6: as you are. What's the matter with you?
- 1:30:19Speaker 9: I've been waiting all this time for my glasses. Come on, Daisy.
- 1:30:24Speaker 1: Taking the glasses from Daisy, he goes into library.
- 1:30:27Speaker 6: You look worried, Daisy.
- 1:30:29Speaker 1: No, I'm only Ellen coming in from hall with eight
- 1:30:33Speaker 1: letters on a small tray.
- 1:30:34Speaker 10: The mail missus Herford.
- 1:30:36Speaker 3: Oh.
- 1:30:37Speaker 1: She snatches the letters, taking off the three top ones.
- 1:30:41Speaker 6: It's come Tom's letter.
- 1:30:43Speaker 1: What Ellen goes out through hall left center.
- 1:30:47Speaker 6: It is It is as true.
- 1:30:49Speaker 3: As I live, Great Scott.
- 1:30:52Speaker 8: Then he's got it, he's got it.
- 1:30:55Speaker 6: Sh ask him to come here.
- 1:30:57Speaker 8: It's too good to be true.
- 1:30:58Speaker 1: It's too good, Daisy. He goes into the library.
- 1:31:01Speaker 3: I can't tell you how glad I am. Missus Herford.
- 1:31:04Speaker 3: I can't tell you.
- 1:31:06Speaker 1: Anne, scarcely able to speak, ask him to come here.
- 1:31:11Speaker 1: Keith going into library.
- 1:31:13Speaker 3: Missus Herford wants you Governor.
- 1:31:15Speaker 1: Tom within come and play, Anne and throwing the other
- 1:31:20Speaker 1: letters on the table.
- 1:31:22Speaker 6: Come here just a minute, Tom, please.
- 1:31:24Speaker 1: Tom coming to door?
- 1:31:26Speaker 2: What is it?
- 1:31:27Speaker 6: Shut the door?
- 1:31:29Speaker 1: It's come showing the letter. Tom opens and reads it.
- 1:31:33Speaker 1: A look of sickening disappointment comes into his face.
- 1:31:36Speaker 2: No, oh, Tom, I was their second choice.
- 1:31:41Speaker 6: Oh Tom, don't take it like that. What difference does
- 1:31:45Speaker 6: it make? After all? You know you did a big thing.
- 1:31:50Speaker 6: It's all luck.
- 1:31:51Speaker 2: Anyway, I'll pull up in a minute. Well it means
- 1:31:55Speaker 2: taking hold of something else pretty quick, going at it again.
- 1:31:59Speaker 6: Yeah, yes, keeping at it. That's it. What a terrible
- 1:32:06Speaker 6: lot chance has to do with it.
- 1:32:08Speaker 2: Oh, no, that isn't it.
- 1:32:10Speaker 6: Yes, it is too.
- 1:32:12Speaker 2: No, I failed. I didn't get it. That's all.
- 1:32:16Speaker 6: You'll do something greater next time because of this.
- 1:32:21Speaker 1: Taking her hand.
- 1:32:22Speaker 2: You're a brick now, see here. Don't you be cut
- 1:32:26Speaker 2: up about this. It's not the end of everything, you know.
- 1:32:30Speaker 2: Stop that you're not crying?
- 1:32:32Speaker 6: I hope, No, I'm not, of course I'm not. Oh
- 1:32:38Speaker 6: my boy, I never loved you so much, never believed
- 1:32:43Speaker 6: in you as much as I do. Now this is
- 1:32:47Speaker 6: only a little hard place that will make you all
- 1:32:50Speaker 6: the stronger.
- 1:32:51Speaker 2: Dear, old girl, what would I do without you? I'll
- 1:32:55Speaker 2: tell the others and get it.
- 1:32:56Speaker 1: Over rising He stops, staring at one of the letters
- 1:33:00Speaker 1: on the table, and Tom taking up a letter.
- 1:33:05Speaker 2: And here's one for you too.
- 1:33:07Speaker 1: What she tears? Open the letter?
- 1:33:10Speaker 6: Tom, They've given the commission to me. Look read it?
- 1:33:18Speaker 6: Is that? What it says?
- 1:33:20Speaker 3: Is it?
- 1:33:21Speaker 7: Now?
- 1:33:21Speaker 6: Aren't you glad to let me do it? You haven't lost,
- 1:33:27Speaker 6: We've got it. Say you're glad, Say you're proud of me, Dear,
- 1:33:35Speaker 6: that's the best part of it all.
- 1:33:37Speaker 2: Of course I am, Dear, of course I am.
- 1:33:40Speaker 6: Oh Tom, I wanted you to get it more than
- 1:33:43Speaker 6: I ever wanted anything in my life. But this is
- 1:33:47Speaker 6: something to be thankful for. Doesn't this almost make it right?
- 1:33:53Speaker 2: Yes, dear, Yes, don't think of me. That's over that
- 1:33:57Speaker 2: part of it. Tell the others, now, wait, aren't you
- 1:34:01Speaker 2: going to.
- 1:34:02Speaker 6: I only want to be sure that you're just as
- 1:34:04Speaker 6: happy that I won as I would have been if
- 1:34:08Speaker 6: you had.
- 1:34:09Speaker 1: Of course I am, you know that, kissing her.
- 1:34:14Speaker 6: Tell the others thin, Tom, I can't.
- 1:34:17Speaker 1: Tom opening the library doors?
- 1:34:19Speaker 2: What do you think has happened?
- 1:34:21Speaker 1: Daisy rushing in?
- 1:34:23Speaker 7: Tom?
- 1:34:23Speaker 8: Got it? Didn't you? Tom?
- 1:34:25Speaker 7: You did? You did?
- 1:34:26Speaker 5: Oh?
- 1:34:27Speaker 8: I'm so glad.
- 1:34:28Speaker 1: She kisses him, Keith following Daisy in.
- 1:34:32Speaker 3: Well, Governor, what did I tell you?
- 1:34:36Speaker 1: Remington in doorway?
- 1:34:38Speaker 9: Pretty fine, isn't it?
- 1:34:40Speaker 6: You tell them.
- 1:34:41Speaker 2: Tom and got it? What isn't it great?
- 1:34:46Speaker 6: You won't believe it, but you can see the letter? Now, Father?
- 1:34:52Speaker 6: Don't you think getting that is better than being nurse
- 1:34:55Speaker 6: maid and housekeeper?
- 1:34:57Speaker 7: Now?
- 1:34:57Speaker 6: Don't you honestly?
- 1:34:59Speaker 9: I do not what I do not?
- 1:35:03Speaker 3: Oh?
- 1:35:04Speaker 6: I can laugh at your theories. Now you haven't got
- 1:35:07Speaker 6: a leg to stand on, has he? Tom be a
- 1:35:10Speaker 6: dear father and say you're glad.
- 1:35:12Speaker 9: I'm not. I'd rather you'd failed a thousand times over
- 1:35:16Speaker 9: for your own good. What are you going to do
- 1:35:18Speaker 9: with Millicent while you are making this thing?
- 1:35:21Speaker 6: How can you be so hard and narrow? Father?
- 1:35:25Speaker 9: What if you did win? You've got something far greater
- 1:35:27Speaker 9: than making statues to do?
- 1:35:29Speaker 2: Doctor, you're excited.
- 1:35:31Speaker 9: Not a bit. I'm only telling the truth. This is
- 1:35:34Speaker 9: your business, you know, and it would have been far
- 1:35:37Speaker 9: better for both of you if you'd won the thing.
- 1:35:39Speaker 2: I don't see the argument. Anne got it because you
- 1:35:42Speaker 2: sent it a better model than I did. I don't
- 1:35:45Speaker 2: see that anything else has anything to do with the case.
- 1:35:48Speaker 1: Tom goes out through hall and turning to sit on
- 1:35:51Speaker 1: the couch.
- 1:35:53Speaker 6: At least Tom's glad I got it.
- 1:35:55Speaker 9: He's stung to the quick. You've humiliated him in his
- 1:35:58Speaker 9: own eyes.
- 1:35:59Speaker 1: He goes to the fireplace.
- 1:36:01Speaker 6: I can't understand why you feel this way about it.
- 1:36:04Speaker 1: Father, Oh, it's natural enough, Anne, turning to Daisy in amazement.
- 1:36:10Speaker 6: Aren't you glad for me? Daisy?
- 1:36:12Speaker 8: Yes, but I I'm awfully sorry for Tom.
- 1:36:15Speaker 1: She goes out through hall.
- 1:36:17Speaker 6: What's the matter with them all? Keith?
- 1:36:20Speaker 3: Oh, as Daisy says, it's natural, missus Hereford.
- 1:36:27Speaker 1: He goes out after Daisy. Remington coming down to Anne.
- 1:36:32Speaker 9: Daughter, I'm afraid I was a little too stiff just now.
- 1:36:36Speaker 9: I didn't mean to be unkind.
- 1:36:38Speaker 1: Anne rising and starting to haul door. Oh it doesn't matter,
- 1:36:44Speaker 1: Remington stopping her.
- 1:36:46Speaker 9: Yes it does matter. I wouldn't hurt you for the world.
- 1:36:51Speaker 6: But you've always fought me, father. You never thought I
- 1:36:55Speaker 6: had any right to work, never believed in my ability.
- 1:37:00Speaker 6: Now that I've proved I have some Why can't you
- 1:37:05Speaker 6: acknowledge it?
- 1:37:06Speaker 9: And this is a dangerous moment in your life. Tom's beaten, humiliated,
- 1:37:12Speaker 9: knocked out. You did it? He can't stand it.
- 1:37:16Speaker 6: What have I done? Tom has a big nature. He's
- 1:37:21Speaker 6: not little and petty enough to be hurt because I won.
- 1:37:25Speaker 9: You're blind. He's had a blow tonight that no man
- 1:37:29Speaker 9: on earth could stand.
- 1:37:31Speaker 6: Not Tom, I won't believe that.
- 1:37:35Speaker 9: Yes, I say, I know what I'm talking about. And
- 1:37:38Speaker 9: be careful how you move. Now, use your woman's tact,
- 1:37:41Speaker 9: your love. Make Tom know that he is the greatest
- 1:37:45Speaker 9: thing in the world to you, that you'd even give
- 1:37:48Speaker 9: up all this work idea if he wanted you to.
- 1:37:52Speaker 6: What Tom wouldn't let me ask him?
- 1:37:58Speaker 9: Ask him, see what he'd say.
- 1:38:00Speaker 6: Why I wouldn't insult him. He'd think I thought he was.
- 1:38:05Speaker 1: Tom comes in from the hall. Anne checks herself and
- 1:38:09Speaker 1: turns away quickly to fire Tom. After a pause.
- 1:38:14Speaker 2: What's the matter?
- 1:38:15Speaker 9: Nothing? Nothing, Anne and I were just having a little
- 1:38:19Speaker 9: argument as usual. I'll be back in a few minutes.
- 1:38:22Speaker 1: Looking at his watch, he goes into hall. Tom going
- 1:38:26Speaker 1: slowly to Anne.
- 1:38:28Speaker 2: I hope you're not still fighting about the your freeze.
- 1:38:32Speaker 6: They're all so funny, Tom, the way they act about it.
- 1:38:37Speaker 6: It hurts. But as long as you're glad, it doesn't
- 1:38:41Speaker 6: matter what anyone else thinks. Say you're glad, dear. I
- 1:38:47Speaker 6: want you to be as happy as I would have
- 1:38:50Speaker 6: been if you had won.
- 1:38:52Speaker 2: You know I am dear.
- 1:38:53Speaker 1: You know that, Anne, with a sigh of relief. Anne
- 1:38:58Speaker 1: sits at left of fire.
- 1:39:00Speaker 6: Think I'll have to work. I can't even go to
- 1:39:03Speaker 6: the country in the summer.
- 1:39:06Speaker 1: Tom sitting opposite Anne at the fire.
- 1:39:09Speaker 2: And what will you do with Millicent this summer?
- 1:39:12Speaker 6: Oh, there are lots of nice things for her to do.
- 1:39:17Speaker 6: The money, I think what it will mean to you.
- 1:39:21Speaker 2: Let me tell you one thing, Anne, in the beginning,
- 1:39:24Speaker 2: I'll never touch a penny of the money. What not
- 1:39:28Speaker 2: a cent of it?
- 1:39:29Speaker 6: What are you talking about?
- 1:39:32Speaker 2: That's your money? Put it away for yourself.
- 1:39:35Speaker 6: I never heard you say anything so absolutely unreasonable before
- 1:39:40Speaker 6: in my life.
- 1:39:41Speaker 2: If you think I'm unreasonable, all right, But that's understood.
- 1:39:44Speaker 2: About the money. We won't discuss it.
- 1:39:47Speaker 6: Well, we will discuss it. Why shouldn't you use my
- 1:39:52Speaker 6: money as well as I yours?
- 1:39:55Speaker 2: That's about as different as day and night. Why is
- 1:39:59Speaker 2: it because I'm taking care of you. It's all right
- 1:40:02Speaker 2: if you never do another day's work in your life.
- 1:40:05Speaker 2: You're doing it because you want to. I'm doing it
- 1:40:08Speaker 2: because I've got to. If you are alone, it would
- 1:40:11Speaker 2: be a different thing. But I'm here, and so long
- 1:40:14Speaker 2: as I am, I'll make what keeps us going.
- 1:40:17Speaker 6: But I'll help you.
- 1:40:20Speaker 2: No, you won't.
- 1:40:22Speaker 6: I will. I'm going on just as far as I
- 1:40:26Speaker 6: have ability to go. And if you refuse to take
- 1:40:29Speaker 6: any money I may make you refuse to use it
- 1:40:33Speaker 6: for our mutual good. You're unjust and taking an unfair advent.
- 1:40:42Speaker 6: Oh Tom, what are we saying? We're out of our senses,
- 1:40:47Speaker 6: both of us. You didn't mean what you said, did you?
- 1:40:53Speaker 6: It would? I simply couldn't bear it if you did.
- 1:40:57Speaker 6: You didn't, did you?
- 1:41:01Speaker 2: I did?
- 1:41:02Speaker 6: Of course, Tom, After all these years of pulling together,
- 1:41:09Speaker 6: Now that I've done something, why do you suddenly balk?
- 1:41:15Speaker 1: Tom? Rising?
- 1:41:18Speaker 2: Good heavens do you think I'm going to use your money?
- 1:41:22Speaker 2: Don't try to run my end of it. It's the
- 1:41:24Speaker 2: same old story when you come down to it. A
- 1:41:27Speaker 2: woman can't mix up in a man's business.
- 1:41:30Speaker 1: He moves away.
- 1:41:31Speaker 6: Mix up in it isn't it a good thing for
- 1:41:35Speaker 6: you that I got this commission.
- 1:41:39Speaker 2: No, I don't know that it's a good thing from
- 1:41:41Speaker 2: any standpoint to have it known that I've failed and
- 1:41:44Speaker 2: my wife succeeded.
- 1:41:46Speaker 6: I thought you said you were glad proud of me.
- 1:41:51Speaker 2: It's too distracting, too, takes you away from more important things.
- 1:41:56Speaker 2: What things Melicent in me?
- 1:42:01Speaker 6: Of Tom? Don't you know that you and Millicent come
- 1:42:07Speaker 6: before everything on earth?
- 1:42:09Speaker 8: To me?
- 1:42:10Speaker 2: No, you do, We don't now. Your ambition comes first.
- 1:42:17Speaker 1: And she rises going to him.
- 1:42:20Speaker 6: Tom, I worship you. You know that, don't you.
- 1:42:24Speaker 2: I'm beginning to hate this work and everything connected with it.
- 1:42:28Speaker 6: But you taught me, helped me, pushed me on. What's
- 1:42:34Speaker 6: changed you?
- 1:42:35Speaker 2: I let you do it in the first place because
- 1:42:37Speaker 2: I thought it was right. I wanted you to do
- 1:42:39Speaker 2: the thing you wanted to do.
- 1:42:41Speaker 6: Well.
- 1:42:42Speaker 2: I was a fool. I didn't see what it would
- 1:42:45Speaker 2: lead to. It's taking you away from everything else, and
- 1:42:49Speaker 2: there'll be no end to it. Your ambition will carry
- 1:42:52Speaker 2: you away to the home and Millicent and I are
- 1:42:54Speaker 2: nothing to you.
- 1:42:56Speaker 6: Tom. Look at me, be honest. Are you sorry? Sorry
- 1:43:03Speaker 6: I got this commission?
- 1:43:05Speaker 2: I'm sorry. It's the most important thing in the world
- 1:43:07Speaker 2: to you?
- 1:43:10Speaker 6: Why do you say that to me?
- 1:43:12Speaker 2: How can you haven't I just seen it. You're getting
- 1:43:16Speaker 2: rid of Milicent now because you don't want her to
- 1:43:18Speaker 2: interfere with your work. No, you're pushing her out of
- 1:43:23Speaker 2: your life. No, you said just now, you are going
- 1:43:27Speaker 2: to send her away alone in the summer. I don't
- 1:43:30Speaker 2: like that. She's got to be with you. I want
- 1:43:34Speaker 2: you to keep her with you.
- 1:43:37Speaker 6: But that's impossible. You know that if I stop working now,
- 1:43:41Speaker 6: I might as well give up on the freeze entirely.
- 1:43:44Speaker 2: Then give it up? What, give up the whole thing forever?
- 1:43:49Speaker 2: Why shouldn't you?
- 1:43:50Speaker 6: Do you mean that? Yes, Tom, I love you. Don't
- 1:43:58Speaker 6: ask this sacrifice me to prove my love.
- 1:44:02Speaker 2: Could you make it?
- 1:44:04Speaker 6: Could you don't ask it? Don't ask it for your
- 1:44:08Speaker 6: own sake. I want to keep on loving you. I
- 1:44:12Speaker 6: want to believe you were what I thought you were.
- 1:44:16Speaker 6: Don't make me think you're just like every other man.
- 1:44:20Speaker 2: I am a man, and you're my wife, and Millicent's
- 1:44:23Speaker 2: our daughter. Unless you come back to the things a
- 1:44:26Speaker 2: woman's always had to do and always will, we can't
- 1:44:31Speaker 2: go on. We can't go on.
- 1:44:33Speaker 1: And following him around the table.
- 1:44:36Speaker 6: Tom if you're just a little hurt, just a little
- 1:44:42Speaker 6: jealous because I won. Oh that's natural. I can understand that.
- 1:44:50Speaker 2: Oh don't.
- 1:44:52Speaker 6: But oh Tom the other to ask me to give
- 1:44:58Speaker 6: it all up. I could never forgive that. Take it back, Tom,
- 1:45:04Speaker 6: take it back.
- 1:45:07Speaker 2: Good God, An, can't you see you're a woman and
- 1:45:10Speaker 2: I'm a man. You're not free in the same way.
- 1:45:13Speaker 2: If you won't stop because I ask it, I say
- 1:45:16Speaker 2: you must.
- 1:45:17Speaker 6: You can't say that to me, You can't.
- 1:45:22Speaker 2: I do say it. No, I say it because I
- 1:45:26Speaker 2: know it's right.
- 1:45:27Speaker 6: It isn't.
- 1:45:29Speaker 2: I can't make you see it.
- 1:45:31Speaker 6: It isn't.
- 1:45:32Speaker 2: I don't know how, but everything in me tells me
- 1:45:35Speaker 2: it's right.
- 1:45:36Speaker 6: Tom, listen to me.
- 1:45:38Speaker 2: If you won't do it because I ask you, I
- 1:45:41Speaker 2: demand it, I say, you've got to, Tom.
- 1:45:46Speaker 6: You can kill our love by just what you do now.
- 1:45:50Speaker 2: Then this work is the biggest thing in the world
- 1:45:52Speaker 2: to you.
- 1:45:53Speaker 6: What is more important to us, both to our happiness
- 1:45:58Speaker 6: than just that?
- 1:46:00Speaker 1: Millicent calling outside door left center mother a startled pause
- 1:46:07Speaker 1: as Anne and Tom turned towards hall door. Mother, I'm home.
- 1:46:10Speaker 7: Where are you?
- 1:46:12Speaker 1: Millicent opens the hall door and rushes into the room.
- 1:46:16Speaker 6: Millicent, what are you doing here.
- 1:46:19Speaker 7: I came home mother? Why because I had to?
- 1:46:24Speaker 6: Are you ill, dear?
- 1:46:27Speaker 7: No? No?
- 1:46:28Speaker 2: Is anything wrong at school?
- 1:46:31Speaker 8: No?
- 1:46:31Speaker 7: But I won't go back.
- 1:46:33Speaker 2: But why won't you? What's the trouble?
- 1:46:35Speaker 3: I won't go back, but you can't.
- 1:46:38Speaker 2: Do a thing like that. I won't allow it.
- 1:46:41Speaker 5: You wouldn't let me come home when I wanted to,
- 1:46:43Speaker 5: and now I can't go back.
- 1:46:44Speaker 7: I won't.
- 1:46:45Speaker 5: Everything's different now. I won't go back, and you can't
- 1:46:48Speaker 5: make me.
- 1:46:50Speaker 1: She turns and rushes out of the room, and Tom
- 1:46:52Speaker 1: and Anne stare at each other as the curtain falls.
- 1:46:56Speaker 1: And of Act two, Act three time half an hour later,
- 1:47:02Speaker 1: scene same as Act too, Ruth is writing at the desk.
- 1:47:07Speaker 1: Daisy opens the hall door and stops listening back into
- 1:47:10Speaker 1: the hall. What's the matter?
- 1:47:12Speaker 8: Nothing? I was looking to see. Who went up the stairs?
- 1:47:15Speaker 8: It's doctor Remington.
- 1:47:17Speaker 1: How's Millicent?
- 1:47:18Speaker 6: Now?
- 1:47:18Speaker 8: Anne's with her getting her to bed?
- 1:47:20Speaker 1: Do you know yet why she came home?
- 1:47:22Speaker 8: I don't know whether Anne's got it out of her
- 1:47:24Speaker 8: yet or not.
- 1:47:25Speaker 1: What do you think? Why on earth didn't she tell
- 1:47:27Speaker 1: them at school?
- 1:47:28Speaker 8: I haven't the dimmest but she didn't do it without
- 1:47:31Speaker 8: some good reason. I'll bet anything on that. Milicin's a
- 1:47:34Speaker 8: pretty level headed youngster.
- 1:47:36Speaker 1: She's a pretty self willed one. Anne will send her
- 1:47:39Speaker 1: right back.
- 1:47:39Speaker 8: Of course, I don't know whether she will or not.
- 1:47:42Speaker 8: Millicent's got some rather decided ideas of her own on that.
- 1:47:46Speaker 1: But she'll have to go. Why shouldn't she. Anne will
- 1:47:49Speaker 1: make her.
- 1:47:50Speaker 8: Tom will have something to say about it.
- 1:47:52Speaker 1: It's for Anne to decide, surely.
- 1:47:55Speaker 8: Not at all. I don't see why. She is Tom's
- 1:47:58Speaker 8: child too, you know, and his house, and he pays
- 1:48:01Speaker 8: the bills at school. And if he doesn't want her
- 1:48:03Speaker 8: to go back, you can bet she jolly well won't go.
- 1:48:06Speaker 8: I only hope Millicent tells the whole business, whatever it is.
- 1:48:09Speaker 8: Anne is so excited over the Freeze. I don't know
- 1:48:11Speaker 8: whether she'll have the patience to handle Millicent right or not.
- 1:48:15Speaker 8: She's not easy.
- 1:48:16Speaker 1: It's awful for Anne to be upset now, of all times,
- 1:48:20Speaker 1: when she has to begin this gigantic work.
- 1:48:22Speaker 8: Oh I wish that damned Freeze were in Guinea and
- 1:48:24Speaker 8: that Anne had nothing to do but take care of
- 1:48:26Speaker 8: Tom and Millicent like any other woman. I'd give anything
- 1:48:29Speaker 8: if she hadn't won the competition, Daisy, Oh I would
- 1:48:33Speaker 8: I have a ghastly feeling that something horrible is going
- 1:48:36Speaker 8: to come of it, if it hasn't already come.
- 1:48:38Speaker 1: What do you mean?
- 1:48:40Speaker 8: I tell you it is not possible for a man
- 1:48:42Speaker 8: and woman to love each other and live together and
- 1:48:44Speaker 8: be happy unless the man, is it?
- 1:48:47Speaker 1: Speaking of the dark ages? You ought to live in
- 1:48:50Speaker 1: a harem? How any girl who makes her own bread
- 1:48:53Speaker 1: and butter can be so old fashioned as you are.
- 1:48:55Speaker 1: I can't see.
- 1:48:56Speaker 8: You've got so used to your own ideas you forget
- 1:48:59Speaker 8: that I am the appage normal woman.
- 1:49:00Speaker 1: The world is full of nonsense. You're almost extinct. I'm
- 1:49:05Speaker 1: the average normal woman the world is full of and
- 1:49:08Speaker 1: it's going to be fuller and fuller.
- 1:49:11Speaker 8: All that on plenty of us left indicating herself on
- 1:49:14Speaker 8: judgment Day.
- 1:49:15Speaker 1: I want to laugh when I think how mistaken we've
- 1:49:17Speaker 1: been calling you a bachelor girl. Why you'd make the
- 1:49:20Speaker 1: best wife of anybody.
- 1:49:21Speaker 8: I know, I suppose you mean that as an insult, but.
- 1:49:25Speaker 1: You seem so self reliant. Men are sort of afraid
- 1:49:27Speaker 1: of you. Remington coming in from hall and feeling a
- 1:49:31Speaker 1: certain restraint in the two girls.
- 1:49:33Speaker 9: Am I in the wrong camp?
- 1:49:35Speaker 8: No, no, come in, I have.
- 1:49:38Speaker 9: To stay someplace I'm going to hang around till Millicent
- 1:49:41Speaker 9: quiets down, and then I'll clear out.
- 1:49:43Speaker 8: Is she ill?
- 1:49:44Speaker 9: Oh no, just a little worked up and excited.
- 1:49:47Speaker 1: Why do you think she came home, doctor Remington?
- 1:49:51Speaker 9: I don't know what to think unless she has boy
- 1:49:53Speaker 9: in the head.
- 1:49:54Speaker 8: Goodness, No, not yet.
- 1:49:57Speaker 9: She's sixteen. You can't choke it off to save your life.
- 1:50:01Speaker 1: Oh, she's a baby.
- 1:50:03Speaker 9: Don't fool yourself. She won't wait as long as you
- 1:50:06Speaker 9: two have to sit by her own fireside with children
- 1:50:09Speaker 9: on her knee. Oh, that's the only thing in the
- 1:50:13Speaker 9: game that's worth a cent anyway.
- 1:50:15Speaker 1: As Keith comes in from the.
- 1:50:16Speaker 9: Hall, isn't that so? Keith?
- 1:50:19Speaker 3: What's that?
- 1:50:21Speaker 9: I've just been telling these two that love and children
- 1:50:23Speaker 9: are the greatest things on earth. Ruth doesn't agree with me,
- 1:50:27Speaker 9: but Daisy, I must go.
- 1:50:29Speaker 8: I must go out to Anne.
- 1:50:31Speaker 1: Ruth goes out, let me go.
- 1:50:33Speaker 9: They both seem terribly anxious to get out. When you
- 1:50:35Speaker 9: come in, Keith, or maybe I'm in the way, I'll.
- 1:50:38Speaker 8: Go, don't be silly. I really must see if I
- 1:50:41Speaker 8: can do anything for Anne.
- 1:50:42Speaker 9: No, you mustn't. She's waiting for me to see Mellicent.
- 1:50:46Speaker 9: By the way, Keith tomorrow's Sunday. I always take a
- 1:50:49Speaker 9: run into the country in the motor on Sunday. Come
- 1:50:52Speaker 9: along and bring either Ruth or Daisy. Take your choice.
- 1:50:56Speaker 9: I know which one I'd take.
- 1:50:57Speaker 1: He goes into the hall.
- 1:50:59Speaker 8: Isn't he a goose?
- 1:51:01Speaker 3: What it bore you to go? Daisy?
- 1:51:03Speaker 8: Nonsense, Ruth will.
- 1:51:05Speaker 3: It would be awfully good of you. Tomorrow's going to
- 1:51:09Speaker 3: be a hard day for me to get through. Ruth
- 1:51:13Speaker 3: told me tonight that she I'm afraid it's all over.
- 1:51:19Speaker 8: Why don't you compromise.
- 1:51:22Speaker 3: There's nothing to compromise about. She's all wrong, don't you
- 1:51:26Speaker 3: think so?
- 1:51:28Speaker 8: Oh, don't ask me. I don't know anything about it.
- 1:51:30Speaker 3: Wait a minute. I won't you go tomorrow, Daisy?
- 1:51:38Speaker 8: Ask Ruth? It will be a good chance to make up.
- 1:51:41Speaker 3: You're so practical and like such different things. Maybe you'd
- 1:51:49Speaker 3: think flying along through the country and lunching at some
- 1:51:53Speaker 3: nice little out of the way place was too frivolous.
- 1:51:58Speaker 8: Oh yes, I don't like anything but being shut up
- 1:52:00Speaker 8: in the house all day, pounding at my typewriter and
- 1:52:03Speaker 8: splitting my head to get the bills straight. To actually
- 1:52:06Speaker 8: go off with a man for a whole day and
- 1:52:08Speaker 8: have a little fun like any other woman would be
- 1:52:10Speaker 8: too unheard of. Of course, I couldn't do anything as
- 1:52:13Speaker 8: silly as that. Oh, I wouldn't be amusing anyway, doctor Remington,
- 1:52:18Speaker 8: while he's sixty, and you'd be thinking of Ruth. And
- 1:52:21Speaker 8: I'd sit there like a stick, the sensible, practical woman
- 1:52:24Speaker 8: who couldn't possibly be interesting and fascinating, because no man
- 1:52:28Speaker 8: would take the trouble to find out how devilish and
- 1:52:30Speaker 8: alluring and altogether exciting I could be if I had
- 1:52:32Speaker 8: the chance.
- 1:52:33Speaker 1: She throws open the door and goes out. Keith stares
- 1:52:36Speaker 1: after her, Tom coming in from a library. After a moment, I.
- 1:52:41Speaker 2: Thought you'd gone, Mackenzie.
- 1:52:43Speaker 1: No, but I'm going, Remington coming back from hall.
- 1:52:48Speaker 9: Good night, Mackenzie. I'll dig you up in the morning
- 1:52:50Speaker 9: ten o'clock, sharp mind, and I'll call for a daisy first.
- 1:52:55Speaker 1: Keith at hall door.
- 1:52:57Speaker 3: All right, much obliged, doctor, turning back. How'd you know
- 1:53:03Speaker 3: it was daisy?
- 1:53:05Speaker 9: I didn't, but I do now.
- 1:53:07Speaker 3: Good night.
- 1:53:08Speaker 1: He goes out.
- 1:53:09Speaker 2: Well, how is she? How is Milicent?
- 1:53:13Speaker 9: Oh she's not ill, but the child's nervous as a witch,
- 1:53:16Speaker 9: all strung up. She's worried about something, got something on
- 1:53:19Speaker 9: her mind, and naturally her head aches and she has
- 1:53:22Speaker 9: a little fever, but that won't hurt her.
- 1:53:25Speaker 2: Got something on her mind?
- 1:53:27Speaker 9: What she didn't confide in me?
- 1:53:30Speaker 2: What could she have on her mind?
- 1:53:32Speaker 9: I don't think she's committed murder, but she's got a mind.
- 1:53:36Speaker 9: You know, there's no reason why she shouldn't have something
- 1:53:38Speaker 9: on it.
- 1:53:39Speaker 2: Well, I don't know what to do with her.
- 1:53:42Speaker 9: If you think she ought not to go back to school,
- 1:53:44Speaker 9: say so. Tell Anne, those are your orders.
- 1:53:47Speaker 2: I don't give orders to Anne.
- 1:53:50Speaker 9: The devil, you don't. She'd like it. A woman, a dog,
- 1:53:54Speaker 9: and a walnut tree. The more you beat him, the
- 1:53:56Speaker 9: better they be.
- 1:53:57Speaker 2: The walnut tree business doesn't work with Anne. I made
- 1:54:00Speaker 2: a fool of myself tonight by telling her I wouldn't
- 1:54:03Speaker 2: touch the money she gets out of this thing. She
- 1:54:05Speaker 2: doesn't understand. I've made her think I'm jealous because she won.
- 1:54:10Speaker 9: Well, aren't you?
- 1:54:11Speaker 2: No, I tell you it's something else. Something sort of
- 1:54:15Speaker 2: gave way under my feet when I opened her letter.
- 1:54:18Speaker 2: I know, I know, Doctor, for the lord's sake, don't
- 1:54:22Speaker 2: think I'm mean. I don't want to drag her back,
- 1:54:25Speaker 2: but she seems somehow she doesn't need me. Anymore. That's
- 1:54:30Speaker 2: what hurts.
- 1:54:32Speaker 9: Of course, it hurts.
- 1:54:33Speaker 2: Much as I've loved to have her with me, working
- 1:54:36Speaker 2: away at my elbow. Wonderful as it all was. Sometimes
- 1:54:40Speaker 2: I've wished I hadn't seen her all day, that I
- 1:54:43Speaker 2: had her to go home to, fresh and rested waiting
- 1:54:47Speaker 2: for me, and that I was running the machine alone
- 1:54:50Speaker 2: for her. She'll never understand I've acted like a skunk.
- 1:54:55Speaker 9: Yes, I guess you have, so have I unjust pig
- 1:54:59Speaker 9: ha no more right to say the things I've said
- 1:55:02Speaker 9: to her than I have to spank her, except that
- 1:55:05Speaker 9: she's the most precious thing in the world to me,
- 1:55:09Speaker 9: and I'd rather see her happy as a woman than
- 1:55:12Speaker 9: the greatest artist in the world.
- 1:55:15Speaker 2: That's it. I want her here mine. But I suppose
- 1:55:19Speaker 2: that's rotten and wrong.
- 1:55:22Speaker 9: Yes, I suppose it is. But you're despising yourself for
- 1:55:26Speaker 9: something that's been in your bones. Boy since the beginning
- 1:55:29Speaker 9: of time. Men and women will go through hell over
- 1:55:32Speaker 9: this before it shakes down into shape. You're right, and
- 1:55:36Speaker 9: she's right, and you're tearing each other like mad dogs
- 1:55:39Speaker 9: over it because you love each other.
- 1:55:42Speaker 2: That's it. If another man had got it, i'd take
- 1:55:45Speaker 2: my licking without whining. What's the matter with me? Why
- 1:55:49Speaker 2: can't I be that way? To her?
- 1:55:51Speaker 1: Remington, shaking his head with a wistful smile.
- 1:55:54Speaker 9: Male and female created He them, I don't take back
- 1:55:58Speaker 9: any of the stuff I said to her before she
- 1:56:00Speaker 9: went into this. She's fighting you now for her rights.
- 1:56:03Speaker 9: But she laid her genius at your feet once, and
- 1:56:06Speaker 9: she'll do it again.
- 1:56:08Speaker 1: And coming in from the hall and speaking after a pause.
- 1:56:12Speaker 6: Well, father, what do you say about Melicent?
- 1:56:16Speaker 9: My advice is that you let her stay at home
- 1:56:18Speaker 9: for a while.
- 1:56:20Speaker 6: This is only a caprice, and it would be the
- 1:56:23Speaker 6: worst thing in the world to give in to her
- 1:56:27Speaker 6: unless you say, as a physician that she is too.
- 1:56:31Speaker 9: Ill to I don't say she's too ill physically. You
- 1:56:35Speaker 9: must decide for yourself. I'll go up and see her again,
- 1:56:38Speaker 9: and if she isn't asleep, then I'll give her a
- 1:56:40Speaker 9: mild sleeping powder. Anne, I put her in your arms first,
- 1:56:46Speaker 9: and the look that came into your eyes then was
- 1:56:48Speaker 9: as near divinity as we ever get. Oh, my daughter,
- 1:56:52Speaker 9: don't let the new restlessness and strife of the world
- 1:56:55Speaker 9: about you blind you to the old things, the real things.
- 1:57:00Speaker 1: He goes out Anne, after a pause.
- 1:57:04Speaker 6: You agree with me, don't you that it's better for
- 1:57:07Speaker 6: her to go back?
- 1:57:08Speaker 2: Do whatever you think is best?
- 1:57:11Speaker 6: But what do you think?
- 1:57:13Speaker 2: It doesn't matter what I think, does it?
- 1:57:15Speaker 1: Millicent? Opening the door?
- 1:57:18Speaker 7: Mother, aren't you coming back?
- 1:57:20Speaker 1: Millicent wears a soft robe over her nightgown. Her hair
- 1:57:23Speaker 1: is down her back.
- 1:57:24Speaker 6: Millicent, why did you get out of bed?
- 1:57:27Speaker 1: I couldn't sleep, running and jumping into the middle of
- 1:57:30Speaker 1: the couch.
- 1:57:31Speaker 6: Run back quickly in a minute.
- 1:57:34Speaker 7: It's so quiet upstairs.
- 1:57:35Speaker 5: I couldn't sleep.
- 1:57:36Speaker 7: I'm used to the girls.
- 1:57:38Speaker 6: You'll catch cold.
- 1:57:39Speaker 5: Goodness, Mother, I'm roasting Melicent?
- 1:57:43Speaker 6: What shall I do with you?
- 1:57:45Speaker 5: Is that what you and Dad were talking about? What
- 1:57:48Speaker 5: did grandfather say? I don't care what he says. I'm
- 1:57:51Speaker 5: not going back to school.
- 1:57:53Speaker 7: You're on my side, aren't you?
- 1:57:54Speaker 3: Dad?
- 1:57:55Speaker 2: Whatever your mother thinks is right? Of course?
- 1:57:58Speaker 5: Is it true what Daisy told me that you got
- 1:58:01Speaker 5: the contract for a big freezing not father? Is it?
- 1:58:04Speaker 7: Is it? Father?
- 1:58:05Speaker 1: Looking from one to the other, Yes, it's quite.
- 1:58:08Speaker 6: True, Milicent, go to bed.
- 1:58:11Speaker 7: I think that's perfectly horrid. Mother.
- 1:58:13Speaker 5: Why should they give it to you? I think father
- 1:58:15Speaker 5: ought to have it.
- 1:58:16Speaker 7: He's the man.
- 1:58:18Speaker 5: Don't you think people will think it's funny that you
- 1:58:20Speaker 5: didn't get it. I should think it would make the
- 1:58:22Speaker 5: loose confidence in you.
- 1:58:23Speaker 1: A pause, Tom stalks out, closing the door.
- 1:58:27Speaker 5: Is father hurt because you got it? I should think
- 1:58:30Speaker 5: he would be.
- 1:58:31Speaker 6: Milicent, I've had quite enough of this. Go up to
- 1:58:35Speaker 6: bed at once?
- 1:58:37Speaker 7: Will you come up and sleep with me?
- 1:58:39Speaker 6: Of course?
- 1:58:40Speaker 1: Not walking about restlessly?
- 1:58:43Speaker 5: Why not?
- 1:58:44Speaker 6: Neither one of us would sleep a week.
- 1:58:46Speaker 5: That wouldn't matter. I don't want to be alone.
- 1:58:49Speaker 6: Come now, I won't speak to you again.
- 1:58:53Speaker 5: What have you decided about school?
- 1:58:55Speaker 6: I'll tell you in the morning.
- 1:58:56Speaker 5: I won't go up till you tell me.
- 1:58:58Speaker 6: Millicent, you will go once, I say.
- 1:59:01Speaker 5: Oh, mother, don't be cross, sit down and talk a minute.
- 1:59:05Speaker 6: It's late, dear, you must that's nothing.
- 1:59:09Speaker 5: We girls often talk till twelve?
- 1:59:11Speaker 6: Till twelve? Do the teachers know it?
- 1:59:15Speaker 7: Oh mother? You're lovely?
- 1:59:17Speaker 5: Don't you suppose they know that? They don't know everything
- 1:59:19Speaker 5: that's going on. Come and sit down, mommy.
- 1:59:23Speaker 6: No, you must go to bed.
- 1:59:25Speaker 7: But I won't go back to school.
- 1:59:27Speaker 1: And going to Millicent, who is still on the couch.
- 1:59:30Speaker 6: You make it terribly hard for me. Millicent, you don't
- 1:59:34Speaker 6: know what's good for you. Of course I don't expect
- 1:59:37Speaker 6: you to, but I do expect you to be obedient.
- 1:59:41Speaker 6: But mother, I tell you I don't be so rebellious.
- 1:59:45Speaker 6: Now come upstairs, please, dear.
- 1:59:48Speaker 5: And but I won't go back to school. Mother, dear,
- 1:59:50Speaker 5: I won't you say.
- 1:59:52Speaker 6: I treat you like a child. You force me to.
- 1:59:56Speaker 6: If you don't want me to punish you, go upstairs
- 1:59:59Speaker 6: at once, and don't say another word.
- 2:00:01Speaker 5: I won't go back.
- 2:00:03Speaker 6: Stop, I say, I know what I.
- 2:00:05Speaker 7: Want to do.
- 2:00:06Speaker 1: I'm sixteen, and their voices rising together.
- 2:00:10Speaker 6: You are my child. You will obey me, but I won't.
- 2:00:14Speaker 5: You don't understand. I can't, Mother, I can't.
- 2:00:16Speaker 7: I can't.
- 2:00:17Speaker 6: Why why can't you?
- 2:00:20Speaker 5: Because because I I'm going.
- 2:00:23Speaker 6: To be married, you silly child.
- 2:00:26Speaker 5: It's the truth, mother, I am.
- 2:00:28Speaker 6: Don't say a thing like that, even in fun.
- 2:00:31Speaker 7: It's the truth. I tell you I'm going to be
- 2:00:33Speaker 7: married sometime.
- 2:00:35Speaker 6: You are, of course, you mean.
- 2:00:37Speaker 5: No, now soon. That's why I left. That's why I'm
- 2:00:41Speaker 5: not going back.
- 2:00:42Speaker 1: And after drawing a chair to the couch and sitting before, milicented,
- 2:00:46Speaker 1: what do you mean?
- 2:00:48Speaker 7: I he we're engaged? He who you don't know him?
- 2:00:54Speaker 6: Who?
- 2:00:55Speaker 7: He? He's perfectly wonderful.
- 2:00:57Speaker 5: Who is he now, mother?
- 2:01:00Speaker 7: Wait, he isn't rich.
- 2:01:02Speaker 5: Well, he's poor, but he's perfectly wonderful. He works, and
- 2:01:06Speaker 5: he's so noble about it. What does he do he
- 2:01:10Speaker 5: he oh, mother, it's hard to explain because he's so different.
- 2:01:14Speaker 6: What does he do?
- 2:01:16Speaker 7: Well?
- 2:01:17Speaker 5: Just now, he drives the motor at school, because you see,
- 2:01:21Speaker 5: he's so proud.
- 2:01:22Speaker 6: He drives the motor. A chauffeur, you mean.
- 2:01:26Speaker 5: People call him that, of course, but he isn't sit down.
- 2:01:31Speaker 1: An rises mother, Ann goes to the door and locks it,
- 2:01:35Speaker 1: going back to Millicent who had risen.
- 2:01:37Speaker 7: Now, mother, don't look like that.
- 2:01:39Speaker 6: Sit down, don't look like that.
- 2:01:42Speaker 7: Let me tell you about it?
- 2:01:43Speaker 1: And sitting again?
- 2:01:45Speaker 6: Yes, tell me about it.
- 2:01:47Speaker 5: Oh, I hardly know how to begin.
- 2:01:50Speaker 6: He drives the motor, the school motor.
- 2:01:52Speaker 5: You say yes to the trains, you know, and into
- 2:01:55Speaker 5: town and to church.
- 2:01:56Speaker 6: Who is his father?
- 2:01:58Speaker 3: Why?
- 2:01:58Speaker 5: I I don't know who he is.
- 2:02:00Speaker 7: I've never met his father.
- 2:02:02Speaker 6: What is his name?
- 2:02:04Speaker 5: His father's name, I don't know the boy's name, Willie Kern.
- 2:02:09Speaker 6: How does he happen to drive a motor?
- 2:02:11Speaker 5: Well, I don't know just how it happened. He's so clever.
- 2:02:14Speaker 5: You know, and of course he isn't really a chauffeur
- 2:02:16Speaker 5: at all. What is he then, Oh mother, he just
- 2:02:19Speaker 5: happens to run the school motor.
- 2:02:21Speaker 6: And what did he do before that?
- 2:02:23Speaker 5: Why he he ran another motor.
- 2:02:26Speaker 7: Oh now, mother, you don't understand at all.
- 2:02:28Speaker 1: She breaks into sobs and throws herself full length on
- 2:02:31Speaker 1: the couch. An sits rigidly.
- 2:02:34Speaker 5: Just because he's poor and clever and drives a motor.
- 2:02:36Speaker 5: There's no reason why you should act this way.
- 2:02:39Speaker 1: Sitting up, He's going to do something else.
- 2:02:41Speaker 5: He's going to come to New York to get a
- 2:02:43Speaker 5: different position, and we'll be married as soon as he
- 2:02:45Speaker 5: gets it. And that's why I came home to tell you.
- 2:02:49Speaker 5: So there you see, I can't go back to school.
- 2:02:51Speaker 1: She rises and starts to the door.
- 2:02:54Speaker 6: Milicent, come here.
- 2:02:55Speaker 5: That's all there is to tell I'm going to bed.
- 2:02:58Speaker 1: Now and rising.
- 2:03:00Speaker 6: You know this is the most wild and impossible thing
- 2:03:03Speaker 6: in the world.
- 2:03:04Speaker 7: I don't It isn't impossible.
- 2:03:06Speaker 5: I'm going to marry him. I love him better than
- 2:03:09Speaker 5: you or father or anybody in the world, and I'm
- 2:03:11Speaker 5: going to marry him.
- 2:03:12Speaker 6: Stop. Do you want to disgrace this? How any child
- 2:03:16Speaker 6: of mine could speak, even speak to such a Oh
- 2:03:21Speaker 6: the disappointment. Where's your pride? How could you? How could you? Milicent?
- 2:03:29Speaker 6: If you'll promise me to give this up, I won't
- 2:03:32Speaker 6: say a word to your father.
- 2:03:35Speaker 7: No, no, I'm going.
- 2:03:37Speaker 6: Don't unlock that door.
- 2:03:39Speaker 7: I want to go now.
- 2:03:41Speaker 6: You'll never see that boy again. Never speak to him,
- 2:03:45Speaker 6: never write to him, never hear of him. I shall
- 2:03:48Speaker 6: send you away where he'll never.
- 2:03:50Speaker 1: Know, Milicent coming back to couch, you won't.
- 2:03:54Speaker 5: He loves me, and I love him. He understands me.
- 2:03:58Speaker 5: All that vacation when you wouldn't let me come home
- 2:04:00Speaker 5: and all the other girls had gone, he was just
- 2:04:02Speaker 5: as good to me as he could be.
- 2:04:04Speaker 7: He knew how lonely I was, and.
- 2:04:06Speaker 5: He we got engaged that vacation. You wouldn't let me come.
- 2:04:10Speaker 6: Home, Milicent. You don't know what you're saying. You don't
- 2:04:15Speaker 6: know what you're doing.
- 2:04:17Speaker 5: Oh, yes, I do, mother, it's you that don't know.
- 2:04:20Speaker 5: You don't understand.
- 2:04:21Speaker 1: Anne kneeling before Milicent.
- 2:04:24Speaker 6: My darling, why didn't you tell me this when you
- 2:04:28Speaker 6: said you wanted to come home? Why didn't you tell me? Then?
- 2:04:33Speaker 1: Sobbing, Anne buries her face in Millicent's lap.
- 2:04:36Speaker 7: I would have told.
- 2:04:37Speaker 5: You if you'd let me come home, but you wouldn't,
- 2:04:40Speaker 5: and I was so lonely there without the girls, and
- 2:04:42Speaker 5: we got engaged.
- 2:04:44Speaker 1: You don't understand, mother, Anne, lifting her face to millicented.
- 2:04:48Speaker 6: Oh yes, I do, dear, Yes, I do. Tell me
- 2:04:53Speaker 6: all about it. When did you first know him? How
- 2:04:57Speaker 6: did you happen to speak to him? I mean to
- 2:05:01Speaker 6: love him?
- 2:05:01Speaker 3: Oh?
- 2:05:02Speaker 6: Mother, why he?
- 2:05:04Speaker 7: I just did.
- 2:05:06Speaker 5: He's so handsome and so nice. You haven't any idea
- 2:05:09Speaker 5: how nice he is.
- 2:05:10Speaker 6: Mother, haven't, I, dear? What is he like? Tell me everything?
- 2:05:16Speaker 6: How did it begin?
- 2:05:17Speaker 5: He the first time I really knew he was so different?
- 2:05:21Speaker 5: You know, yes, dear, was one Sunday morning. I was
- 2:05:25Speaker 5: ready for church before anybody else, and I went out
- 2:05:28Speaker 5: to get into the motor and ran down the steps
- 2:05:30Speaker 5: and fell, and he jumped out and picked me up
- 2:05:32Speaker 5: and put me in the motor, and of course I
- 2:05:35Speaker 5: thanked him. And we had to wait quite a while
- 2:05:37Speaker 5: for the others, and I found out how different and
- 2:05:40Speaker 5: really wonderful he was. All the girls were crazy about him.
- 2:05:44Speaker 5: Here's his picture.
- 2:05:45Speaker 1: Drawing out a locket which is on a chain around
- 2:05:48Speaker 1: her neck.
- 2:05:48Speaker 5: It's just a little snapshot which I took myself one morning.
- 2:05:52Speaker 5: You can't really tell from this how awfully good looking
- 2:05:54Speaker 5: he is.
- 2:05:55Speaker 1: Anne seizes the locket and looks closely at the picture.
- 2:05:58Speaker 5: His eyes are the most one, and his lashes are
- 2:06:01Speaker 5: the longest I ever saw. You can't see his teeth
- 2:06:04Speaker 5: and they are well, you just love his teeth.
- 2:06:07Speaker 6: Mother, What I dear? Have you seen very much of him?
- 2:06:12Speaker 6: Have you seen him any place besides in the motor?
- 2:06:15Speaker 6: I mean?
- 2:06:16Speaker 1: Millicent hesitates, Tell me.
- 2:06:18Speaker 6: Dear everything I shall understand.
- 2:06:21Speaker 5: Well, of course, mother, I had to see him someplace
- 2:06:24Speaker 5: else after school began again and the girls were all back,
- 2:06:27Speaker 5: and I wasn't going for the mail anymore.
- 2:06:29Speaker 6: Of course, where did you see him?
- 2:06:33Speaker 5: And why?
- 2:06:33Speaker 7: You see?
- 2:06:34Speaker 5: It was awfully hard, Mummy, because I couldn't tell anybody.
- 2:06:38Speaker 5: Nobody would have understood except Fanny. She's such a dear.
- 2:06:41Speaker 5: She's been so sympathetic through the whole thing, and she
- 2:06:44Speaker 5: has helped me a lot. There's a fire escape out
- 2:06:47Speaker 5: of our room. And Mondays and Thursdays at nine o'clock
- 2:06:50Speaker 5: at night.
- 2:06:50Speaker 7: Oh what, mother?
- 2:06:52Speaker 6: Nothing go on? Dear?
- 2:06:54Speaker 5: At exactly nine o'clock I'd put on Fanny's long black
- 2:06:57Speaker 5: coat and go down and he was always there, and
- 2:06:59Speaker 5: we all always went and sat down in the arbor
- 2:07:01Speaker 5: just a.
- 2:07:02Speaker 6: Little while the arbor. Where was the arbor.
- 2:07:06Speaker 5: Down the path of the other side of the drive,
- 2:07:08Speaker 5: not far from the house, because of course nobody went
- 2:07:11Speaker 5: near there at that time of night in cold weather,
- 2:07:13Speaker 5: And and we'd talk a while, and then I'd run back.
- 2:07:18Speaker 5: You don't mind, do you, mother? What else could I do?
- 2:07:21Speaker 6: And he kissed you, of course, of course, And you've kissed.
- 2:07:26Speaker 1: Him, Milicent, lowering her eyes.
- 2:07:30Speaker 5: Why yes, mother, we're engaged.
- 2:07:33Speaker 6: And what did he say to you there in the arbor.
- 2:07:37Speaker 5: I can't tell you everything he said? Mother?
- 2:07:40Speaker 6: Why not, Milicent? I'm your mother. No one on earth
- 2:07:45Speaker 6: is so close to you, Oh, loves you so much
- 2:07:49Speaker 6: or cares so much for your happiness and understand so well.
- 2:07:56Speaker 6: I remember when I was engaged to your father. I
- 2:08:00Speaker 6: wasn't much older than you, I know, dear. Tell me
- 2:08:06Speaker 6: what he said.
- 2:08:08Speaker 5: He thinks I'm pretty, mother, yes, dear, And he thinks
- 2:08:12Speaker 5: I'm wonderful to understand him and to know what he
- 2:08:14Speaker 5: really is in spite of what he happens to be doing.
- 2:08:17Speaker 6: Yes, And how long did you usually stay there in
- 2:08:21Speaker 6: the arbor?
- 2:08:22Speaker 7: Oh? Not?
- 2:08:22Speaker 10: Very long.
- 2:08:23Speaker 5: Only last time it was longer. He teased me so,
- 2:08:26Speaker 5: and I couldn't help it.
- 2:08:28Speaker 7: He he I.
- 2:08:30Speaker 6: How long was it that time?
- 2:08:32Speaker 7: Oh?
- 2:08:33Speaker 5: It it was almost two hours last time.
- 2:08:36Speaker 6: And what did you do all that time? Wasn't it cold?
- 2:08:39Speaker 7: He made me put on his overcoat, He just made me.
- 2:08:43Speaker 1: Anne holding Millicent close in her arms.
- 2:08:46Speaker 6: And he held you close and kissed you and told
- 2:08:50Speaker 6: you how much he loved you.
- 2:08:52Speaker 5: Yes, I love him so, mother, But I to night
- 2:08:56Speaker 5: was the last night to go again?
- 2:08:58Speaker 1: But I Anne, holding Millicent off as she searches her face.
- 2:09:03Speaker 5: Yes, dear, I I was afraid to go.
- 2:09:06Speaker 7: Why, oh, mother, was it wicked to be afraid?
- 2:09:10Speaker 5: I ran away? I wanted to be with you.
- 2:09:13Speaker 1: Anne snatches Millicent in her arms. Her head falls against Millicent,
- 2:09:17Speaker 1: and Millicent's arms hold her close as she sobs. Someone
- 2:09:20Speaker 1: tries the door and knocks Tom in the.
- 2:09:24Speaker 2: Hall, and and yes, why is the door locked?
- 2:09:29Speaker 6: Millicent and I are talking. Wait just a few minutes,
- 2:09:33Speaker 6: and Tom tell her grandfather not to wait to see
- 2:09:37Speaker 6: Millicent again tonight. She's all right, sure, I'm.
- 2:09:41Speaker 1: Sure, Millicent in a whisper, after listening.
- 2:09:45Speaker 7: A moment, What are you going to tell?
- 2:09:47Speaker 6: Father?
- 2:09:48Speaker 1: Anne sitting on the floor.
- 2:09:50Speaker 6: Well, you see, dear, you are too young to be
- 2:09:54Speaker 6: married now, much too young.
- 2:09:57Speaker 5: And oh now, mother, if you're going to talk in
- 2:10:00Speaker 5: that way, wait till you see him.
- 2:10:03Speaker 6: That's just what I want to do. I've got such
- 2:10:07Speaker 6: a lovely plan for us for the summer, but.
- 2:10:10Speaker 5: I want to be married just as soon as he
- 2:10:12Speaker 5: gets his.
- 2:10:13Speaker 6: I know his position, and while he's looking and getting settled,
- 2:10:19Speaker 6: you and I will go abroad.
- 2:10:20Speaker 5: You're awfully good, mother, But if you really want to
- 2:10:23Speaker 5: do something for me, i'd rather you give me that
- 2:10:26Speaker 5: money to be married.
- 2:10:27Speaker 6: But Milicent, my dear child, I have to go. I'm
- 2:10:33Speaker 6: so tired. I've been working awfully hard this winter. You're
- 2:10:38Speaker 6: the only one in the world who could really be
- 2:10:42Speaker 6: with me and take care of me. I need you,
- 2:10:45Speaker 6: poor mother.
- 2:10:47Speaker 5: I don't want to be selfish, and if you need me,
- 2:10:49Speaker 5: I'll go.
- 2:10:50Speaker 1: Anne catching Millicent in her arms.
- 2:10:53Speaker 6: Thank you, dear.
- 2:10:54Speaker 5: If you promise me that I can be married when
- 2:10:56Speaker 5: I get back.
- 2:10:57Speaker 1: Anne getting to her feet.
- 2:10:59Speaker 6: If you still want to marry him when you come
- 2:11:03Speaker 6: back with me, you may, I promise, mother.
- 2:11:08Speaker 7: I didn't know you loved me so much.
- 2:11:10Speaker 6: Didn't you, Dear? And I go to bed.
- 2:11:13Speaker 1: They start to the door together. Anne catches Millicent again,
- 2:11:16Speaker 1: kissing her tenderly, as though she were something new and precious.
- 2:11:20Speaker 7: What's the matter, mother?
- 2:11:22Speaker 6: Nothing? Dear? Good night?
- 2:11:25Speaker 7: Good night.
- 2:11:25Speaker 1: Tom coming into doorway as Millicent unlocks and opens.
- 2:11:29Speaker 2: The door, not in bed yet.
- 2:11:31Speaker 1: Milicent throwing her arms about her father's neck.
- 2:11:35Speaker 7: Oh Dad, I'm so happy.
- 2:11:37Speaker 1: She goes out. Anne sitting at the fire.
- 2:11:40Speaker 6: Come in, Tom, I want to talk to you about Millicent.
- 2:11:45Speaker 1: Tom closing the door and going to Anne.
- 2:11:48Speaker 2: What's the matter.
- 2:11:50Speaker 6: She thinks she's in love? What our baby? She wants
- 2:11:57Speaker 6: to be married? What do you mean that's why she
- 2:12:01Speaker 6: came home?
- 2:12:02Speaker 2: Good? Heavens? Anne married? What does she got mixed up in?
- 2:12:07Speaker 2: How did such a thing happen? How could it.
- 2:12:10Speaker 6: Because I didn't let her come home when she wanted to.
- 2:12:14Speaker 6: Don't say anything, Tom, I can't bear it.
- 2:12:17Speaker 1: Now, Tom putting a hand on her head tenderly.
- 2:12:21Speaker 2: Don't dear, don't It might have happened anyway.
- 2:12:27Speaker 6: Oh the things that can happen.
- 2:12:30Speaker 2: Has she told you everything?
- 2:12:33Speaker 6: Everything?
- 2:12:34Speaker 2: What have you said to her? What are you going
- 2:12:36Speaker 2: to do?
- 2:12:37Speaker 6: I'm going to take her away and win her till
- 2:12:41Speaker 6: she gives up on her own free will. I shall
- 2:12:45Speaker 6: have to have the wisdom of all the ages. I
- 2:12:50Speaker 6: shall have to be more fascinating than the boy. That's
- 2:12:53Speaker 6: a pretty big undertaking, Tom, I wonder if I'm equal
- 2:12:57Speaker 6: to it.
- 2:12:58Speaker 2: You mean you're going to give up your freeze and
- 2:13:00Speaker 2: go away with her?
- 2:13:02Speaker 1: Anne nods her head.
- 2:13:04Speaker 2: You can't do it, Anne.
- 2:13:06Speaker 1: Anne, rising and moving away.
- 2:13:09Speaker 6: Oh yes I can.
- 2:13:11Speaker 2: You cannot. Don't lose your head. You're pledged to finish
- 2:13:15Speaker 2: it and deliver it at a certain time. You can't
- 2:13:18Speaker 2: play around and lose with a big piece of work
- 2:13:20Speaker 2: like that.
- 2:13:21Speaker 6: You'll have to make my freeze, Tom.
- 2:13:24Speaker 2: I will not. I utterly and absolutely refuse to you.
- 2:13:28Speaker 2: Make Milica behave and break this thing up, and you
- 2:13:30Speaker 2: go on with your I.
- 2:13:31Speaker 6: Can't, I can't. She's been in danger, absolute danger. How
- 2:13:39Speaker 6: I'll tell you. I'll tell you. She ran away to me,
- 2:13:45Speaker 6: to me, and I was pushing her off, My little girl.
- 2:13:51Speaker 6: She's got to be held tight in my arms and
- 2:13:53Speaker 6: carried through.
- 2:13:55Speaker 2: And I'm not going to allow this to wipe out
- 2:13:57Speaker 2: what you've done. I'll settle her.
- 2:13:59Speaker 6: Tom, And you can't speak of it to her, not
- 2:14:02Speaker 6: breathe it.
- 2:14:04Speaker 2: Of course, I will.
- 2:14:06Speaker 6: No, you won't. If we cross her, she'll get it
- 2:14:11Speaker 6: him some way, somehow.
- 2:14:13Speaker 2: I'm not going to let you sacrifice yourself for a wayward.
- 2:14:17Speaker 6: It's my job. She's what I've given to life. If
- 2:14:23Speaker 6: I fail her, now, my whole life's a failure. Will
- 2:14:29Speaker 6: you make my freeze? Dear?
- 2:14:31Speaker 3: Will you?
- 2:14:33Speaker 2: No? It's yours. You've got to have the glory of it.
- 2:14:37Speaker 2: And I haven't been fair, But you're going to have
- 2:14:40Speaker 2: this and all that's coming to you. I'm not going
- 2:14:43Speaker 2: to let anything take it away from you. It's too important.
- 2:14:47Speaker 2: My god, You've not only beaten me, you've won over
- 2:14:50Speaker 2: the biggest men in the field with your own brain
- 2:14:53Speaker 2: and your own hands, in a fair fine hard fight.
- 2:14:57Speaker 2: You're cut up now, but if you should give this
- 2:14:59Speaker 2: thing up, there'll be times when you'd eat your heart
- 2:15:02Speaker 2: out to be at work on it, when the artist
- 2:15:05Speaker 2: in you will yell to be let out.
- 2:15:07Speaker 6: I know, I know, And I'll hate you because you're
- 2:15:12Speaker 6: doing it, and I'll hate myself because I gave it up,
- 2:15:16Speaker 6: and I'll almost hate her. I know. I know. You
- 2:15:24Speaker 6: needn't tell me why. I've seen my men and women
- 2:15:29Speaker 6: up there, their strong limbs stretched, their hair blown back.
- 2:15:35Speaker 6: I've seen the crowd looking up. I've heard people say
- 2:15:39Speaker 6: a woman did that, and my heart has almost burst
- 2:15:44Speaker 6: with pride, not so much that I had done it,
- 2:15:48Speaker 6: but for all women. But then the door opened and
- 2:15:54Speaker 6: Milicent came in. There isn't any choice, Tom. She's a
- 2:16:02Speaker 6: part of my body, part of my soul. Will you
- 2:16:09Speaker 6: make my freeze? Dear?
- 2:16:12Speaker 1: Will you falling against him? Tom taking her in his arms.
- 2:16:18Speaker 2: My darling, I'll do whatever makes it easiest for you.
- 2:16:23Speaker 2: Don't think I don't know all all it means to you.
- 2:16:27Speaker 2: My God, it's hard.
- 2:16:29Speaker 1: Anne releasing herself and going to the hall door.
- 2:16:33Speaker 6: Put out the light. I hope she's asleep.
- 2:16:38Speaker 1: They go out into the lighted hall. After a moment,
- 2:16:41Speaker 1: the curtain falls and of Act three and of He
- 2:16:46Speaker 1: and She by Rachel Cruthers