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Bernice · Bernice

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Scene the living room of Benica's house in the country. You feel yourself in
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the house of a woman you would like to know, woman of sure and
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beautiful instincts, who lives simply at the spectator's right stairs go up from the
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living room. Back of this right rear a door. To the front of
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the stairs is a narrow passage as of a hall, leading to the kitchen.
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On the other side of the room is a tea table before the fireplace,
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and before it is a low rounded chair, as if awaiting the one
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who will come to serve tea. Toward the rear of this left wall is
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a door. This door is closed from the back of the room. French
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windows lead directly out of doors. On each side of this door is a
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window, thus opening almost the entire wall to the october woods. There are
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comfortable seats under the windows books about. It is late afternoon and the sun
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glows through the flaming leaves. As the curtain is drawn. The father is
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seen sitting at a long table at the side of the stairway, playing solitaire.
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At the back of the cards, open books are propped against the wall,
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and papers on which he has been writing. Abby a middle aged servant
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is attending to the open fire. Father holding up a card he is about
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to place ten minutes since the train whistled, they'll be here in five minutes.
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Now, yes, sir, it will be hard for Craig to come
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in this house. Abbe Oh, yes, Bernice made this house. Father,
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looking around everything is Bernice? Change something? Abby? You put something
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in a different place? Ehe He takes a pillow from the seat under the
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window, hold it irresolutely a moment, put it on the floor at the
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side of the fireplace. The other side, he moves a high vase from
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the window, then helplessly, well, I don't know. You can't get
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beer nice out of this room the tea table. Come, Abby, quick,
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we'll take this out of the room together, Abby. Reluctant, they
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move it to the passageway leading out from the living room. The father comes
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back and sees the chair now without its table. He goes as if to
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move it, but cannot do this, looks old and broken as he faces
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the closed door. I wish they'd left the niece up stairs, Abbey in
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her own room. Now there so near the living room, right off the
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living room hastily goes back to his cards, but in an instant he brushes
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them together and pulls the open book toward him in papers, but he only
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rests his hand on the book. The Lney B. Craig and his sister
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on this tray in abbey. Now it's all I not, but Margaret Peers
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will be here soon, as soon as she can get here. Margaret will
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come within an hour, probably, do you think so, sir? I
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think so that from the west got to the junction at three of a feeling.
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Margaret won't wait for the five o'clock train to get here. She'll get
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a car. Abby goes to the door and looks out. It would save
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a little time. And she doesn't know that, Benice. Yes, Margaret
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will get here the quickest way. She always came to Benice when Beernice needed
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her. She doesn't need anyone now, no, but yes, in a
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way she does. She needs someone to be here to do what she can't
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go on doing. Margaret will see to that. But when she knows Margaret
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sees everything, you think so, sir, No, yes she does.
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Benice knew that Margaret sees things. And I've heard Benice say. Abby turns
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from him. Now, missus Kirby Craig's sister, Laura. She's a sensible
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woman. She'll be a help to you, Abby in arranging things. But
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see things, No, how different people are, they're all different, Abby.
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I don't think Benice cared much for Laura, though she didn't mind her.
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She'd just laugh about Laura, about her being so sure of everything.
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It was nice, Abbe, the way Benice would just laugh about things.
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She had. No malice, Abbey, strangely intense. Oh she didn't have,
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did she? Oh? No, Abbe, Malice wasn't in her.
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It was just that a good many things, well, the things that are
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important to most people weren't so important to Benice. It was another set of
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things were important. People caught her detached. But I don't know. Maybe
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they're detached, Abby. Maybe it's Laura Kirby, the sensible woman who's detached.
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Bernice would have laughed at that, the practical person who's detached. And
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Bernice, you know what I mean, Abby, I think I do gnaing
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her to you? Did she seem detached? Abby? Tenderly thinking it out,
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she was laughing and thoughtful and gay. But all it's a little of
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what she's now. Abby faces the closed door off by herself. With that
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intensity, the present moment does not account for. You can't expect to understand
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the person who is off by herself, now, can you? I understood
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Bennis, except there were things outside what I understood. That's it. And
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we should take what we had, shouldn't we? And i't try to reach
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into to where we didn't go? I suppose that's true, Abby, Father
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buries his face. Oh I wish my little girl hadn't died. What am
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I going to do? Abby? How can I stay here? And how
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can I go away? We should die in our proper order. I should
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have gone before my daughter. Anything else makes confusion. There's not going to
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be anybody to laugh at me now, Abby, I'll miss the way Bernice
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laughed at me, A laugh that took me in, And yes, took
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me in. She laughed at my spending the whole time of the war studying
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Sanskrit. Well, why shouldn't I? What can the old do about war?
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I had my vision of life. If that had been followed, there
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have been no war. But in a world that won't have visions, why
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not study sanscrit while such a world as being made over to another? Such
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world? Father, listening, you hear someone, Abbey, Abbey after listening,
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and you, Abbe, Why you were with us when Bernice was born.
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Yes, I was in the room the night she was born. The
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night she died, I thought of the night she was born. That was
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how long ago? Abbe? Thirty five years ago? Was Bernice thirty five
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years old? She was Abbe, my little girl. Well, life moves
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by, and we hardly know it's moving. Why, Abbe, your whole
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life has been lived around Bernice. Abbe nods will be now as if things
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had fallen apart, and it was the main thing in your life doing things
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for her. Yes, that's the main thing in my life, doing what
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she wanted. I couldn't do anything else, now, could I father a
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little surprised at her agitation, but not thinking about it. Why no,
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Now someone is coming, hebby, you hear them coming? I think?
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So she goes to the door. Yes, Abby opens the door, and
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Laura and Craig come in. Craig holds back as if to enter this house
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is something he can scarcely make himself do. He does not look around the
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room. Laura to the father, taking his hand, This is so hard
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for you, mister, Allen, I cannot tell you, Laura, turning
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to Abby, Abby father going to Craig, who is still at the door.
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Well, Craig, the father holds out his hand, Craig takes it.
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Well, I don't know what we're going to do without her, Laura
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coming to the rescue with the practical And where are you going to put us?
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Abby? I have the rooms right upstairs, Craig as if he cannot
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do this up the stairs. She's down here, sir. She indicates the
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closed door, then takes Laura's bag and they start upstairs. Craig does not
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move Laura on the stairway. Aren't you coming up? Craig to get clean
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and rest a little. In a minute or two, he sits down on
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the edge of a chair near the door. The father and husband sit there
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silent. Bounie, Sir, hadn't been sick long, had she? No?
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It was very sudden, you know. She had had trouble occasionally in
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the past year. Doctor Willis had said she might have to go to the
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hospital. Thus this seemed like that, so Abby and I weren't really alarmed.
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Of course, we sent for Willis, but he was embossedon young Stuart
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had the grip, So there was no doctor here till afterwards. And how
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long was really sick? He speaks with difficulty. She spoke of feeling badly
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on Tuesday. She was lying down most of that day. Wednesday she didn't
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get up at all Wednesday, and she died late Wednesday night, happy and
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I were here all alone. Did she say, did she leave? Well,
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we can talk of that later, father, changing to something not so
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hard to speak of. You landed last week. Yes, I was held
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in New York by things to do. A glance at the father, of
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course, if I had had any idea, of course. But Bernice wrote
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me she was fine. She seemed so. She was well and seemed very
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happy here this fall. You know how she loves to tramp the woods in
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the fall. She was counting on you all coming home. She had done
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over your room upstairs, and hers too. They both looked so nice and
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fresh, and she was just starting to do some things to Margaret's room.
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Margaret was coming here next month for a rest. She's been working very hard.
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Are you expecting Margaret now? Yes? Wednesday evening Bernice seemed to want
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Margaret to come. She thought maybe Margaret could get away now and that it
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would do her good too. She had been worrying about her, thinking she
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was working too hard. Margaret's been in Chicago, you know, working on
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some labor things. Even know just what it is she is doing. Bernice
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seemed to want to see her. I wonder at Bernice herself. Felt it
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was more than we knew anyhow. She wanted us to send for Margaret.
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But you didn't send for me until and till it was over. No,
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you see, we didn't know hebby and I didn't have any idea. I
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spoke of sending for you when we set the telegram for Margaret, but Benice
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said you'd be here soon anyway, and she didn't want to hurry you away
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from New York. Father, as if not understanding it himself and trying to
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find an explanation. I suppose you were doing something that she knew about and
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didn't want to interrupt. Craig half looks at him, and Margaret answered that
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she was coming. Yes, we heard from her Thursday morning that she had
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started. She could get here today. We didn't know where to reach,
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telling her it was too late now for the visit with Bernice. I just
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can't believe it. Think of what you and I are talking about. Bernice
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out of life. She was so of it. Didn't you feel that,
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Craig about Benice? Yes, she seems so secured. It never seemed anything
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could destroy Bernice. When I think she won't come down those stairs again,
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I can't think of things that way now, No, no, of course
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not. He does not know what to say, so it gathers together his
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cards, then books. I'll just I was just going in my room.
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I've been getting on fine with my sanscrit. Craig. Oh, that's good,
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And now the war is over and some of the people are fussed around
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about it. It was as little as I and I have my sanscrit.
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You know, the niece used to laugh at me, Craig. She the
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way she used to laugh at us lovingly seems to me. I'll miss that
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most of all. He goes into his room through the doors of the rear
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of the stairway. Alone in the room, Craig tries to look around.
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You cannot. He has taken a step toward the closed door. When he
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hears Abby's step on the stairs, Craig impetuously going to her, his hands
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out. Ohbe you were good to her. Craig takes her hands, holds
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them tight, then changing, Why didn't you telegraph me when she was taken
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sick? Do you think there was anything in New York? I wouldn't have
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left. Bernice knew that if she needed me. She never seemed to need
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me. I never felt she couldn't get along without me. Craig taking a
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few stumbling steps toward the room where Benice is. Oh, I wish I
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could have a talk with her, mister Norris. Her tone holds him.
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There is something I must tell you. Uh message she left message? No?
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Yes, perhaps before you go in there, I must tell you.
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They are arrested by the sound of a stopping car. Either moves in a
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moment. Margaret pears Harrison Margaret, after looking at them, she's worse.
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Where is she? Margaret starts towards the stairs. No there, Abby,
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pointing, Craig stepping between Margaret and the closed door. She's dead, Margaret
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dead? Oh no, no, Bernice. Margaret waits imploringly. But that
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couldn't be. I know, I know what you mean, Margaret. It
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seems Margaret is about to fall. Craig brings a chair without taking a step.
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She sinks to it. Facing the closed door, Abby turns and goes
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out toward the kitchen. Margaret a slight, quick turn of her head to
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him. I don't believe it. It's true, Margaret. Margaret like flood
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from her heart, but burn me. She was life. I know what
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you mean, Margaret. After much has gone on it huh. And I
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wasn't here, No, nor I Margaret a moment later, just having taken
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this in, Why weren't you here? I didn't know she was sick.
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Your boat got in a week ago. Yes, I was detained in New
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York, detained by May Fredericks. Margaret. Bernice wouldn't want you to talk
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that way to me, now, No why she knew it. Bernice knew
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I was staying out on Long Island with them while I was attended to some
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things about my work. I had a beautiful letter from Bernice. She was
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perfectly all right about everything, and I was anxious now to get home to
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her. I was getting ready to start the very day I got the telegram
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that that it was like this. You mean you think I didn't make Bernice
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happy, Margaret, Oh, I don't think you had the power to make
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her very unhappy. That's a cruel thing to say, Margaret. Bernice wouldn't
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say that to me, Margaret, It was all the while looking straight ahead
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at the closed door. No, she understood me and was indulgent, Margaret.
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Did did you ever feel you didn't really get to Bernice, get to
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her so far as I had power. She never held me back. Life
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broke through her, a life deeper than anything that could happen to her.
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Yes, that's it is something you couldn't destroy, A life in her deeper
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than anything that could be done to her. That that makes a difference,
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Margaret, I never had Bernice. Oh, wasn't it wonderful to you that
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beneath what you had was a life too full, too rich to be had?
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I should think that would flow over your life and give it beauty.
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I suppose a man's feeling is different. He has to feel that he moves,
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completely moves. Yes, could destroy, not that he would, but
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has the power to reshape the Craig, reshape Bernie's. Oh. I came
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to see her, not to sit here talking to you. I loved her,
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Margaret. I valued her even though her life wasn't made by my life,
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and she loved me. You think she didn't no, Craig, I
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don't think she didn't. I know she did. I was thinking of those
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things in her, even greater than loving those things in her, even loving
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never God, Yes, I know, Margaret. I want to see Bernice.
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Margaret crying, She goes blindly toward the closed door and to Benice a
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second time. Left alone in the room, Craig now looks at those various
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things with which he and Benice have lived. When he can no longer do
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this, he goes to the passageway at the front of the staircase hebbe.
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After a moment's wait, Abby comes slowly in. When miss Margaret came,
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you were about to tell me something. My wife, uh left a message
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for me. Yes, no, I don't know. She killed herself,
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Craig, falling back. What are you saying? She did it? Herself
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took her life? Now, I've told you, you know now, Craig
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roughly taking hold of her. Oh, what's this you're saying? What's this
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lie? You're trying to Craig letting go of her in horror, imploringly,
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Oh, Harby, tell me it isn't true. It's true. I'm telling
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you it's true. She didn't want to live any longer. So she took
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something and her life. That's all. That's all I can tell you.
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Nobody know. It's not her father. Nobody I thought I ought to tell
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you. Now I've told you. Let me go. I've told you why.
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She breaks from him and rushes out. Craig does not move. Margaret
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comes from Benice without looking at Craig, opens the door to go outside.
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Craig scarcely able to call to her. Margaret, Margaret not turning. I'll
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be back, So you can't go away leaving me alone with this. I
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tell you, I can't stand it. You're going to the woods to think
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of Bernice. Well, I'll tell you one thing. You never knew Bernice.
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You thought she didn't love me, You think I didn't matter. But
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Bernice killed herself because she loved me. So what are you saying? Abby
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just told me. No. One knows, not her father, only Abby.
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It is not true. Yeah, Sabby was with her. Oh,
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Margaret, she loved me like that and you killed her. No, Oh,
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don't say that. I didn't know, Margaret. After trying to take
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it in, I knew Bernice. She was life. She came from the
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whole of life. You are asking me to believe that because of some little
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thing in her own life. But it wasn't a little thing. That's what
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we didn't know. I was everything to Bernice, more than all that life.
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We felt. Someone is hurt above. I think Laura's coming down.
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Laura mustn't know. I had to have, you know, nobody else,
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not Laura. Laura on the stairs. Oh, Margaret, you have come.
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I was just going out. As Laura comes nearer, I'm going to
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take a walk. She goes out, Laura looking after her, take a
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walk. She always does, some strange thing. Craig is sunk to a
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chair, his back to Laura. Why should she rush away like this?
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As if it were so much harder for her to stay in this house than
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for anyone else. Craig bowed, covers his face with his hands. Has
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she been trying to make you feel badly, Craig? She goes up to
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him and puts a hand on his bent shoulder. Don't let her do that.
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It isn't true. It isn't as if Bernice were like most women.
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There was something aloof in Bernice. You saw it in her eyes, even
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in her smile. Oh, I thought she was wonderful too, Only it
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isn't as if Bernice, if you think she didn't love me, you're wrong.
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Oh Craig love you of course, only thinks that might have hurt another
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woman. How do we know who's hurt, who isn't, Who loves,
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who doesn't love? Don't talk Laura, she's stud and there beside him.
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The father, coming in at first, sees only Laura. I must have
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dropped the tin of diamonds. Father seeing Craig, of course, of course,
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I try not to think of it. My little girl, she loved
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life so always, from the time she was a baby. She did rejoice
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so in the world. He stands looking at the closed door. Habby comes
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in, looks at Craig, hesitates, then slowly crosses the room and takes
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a traveling bag he brought in when he came. Another look at his bowed
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head, then self bowed, starts up the stairs curtain end of act one
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scene as an Act one say that it is evening now. The reading lamp
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is lighted and candles. Laura sitting before the fire, knitting, happy,
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standing at the foot of the stairs. As if Laura had called her,
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she came down, but he took the tray did he, Abby, he
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let me leave it? And how did he seem? I didn't see his
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face, and he didn't say anything. She wasn't like that until Margaret Peers
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came. How long was missus not as sick? Abby? As she asks
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this, the outer door opens and Margaret comes in, burn out, looking
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at the stars. Margaret earned the right up here in the hills. I
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I didn't see them. She looks at Abby, who is looking at her.
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Abby turns away from Margaret's look. I was asking you, how long
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was missus not as sick? Abby? Two days? And just what did
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the doctors say? Was the matter? Doctor wasn't here. She steers a
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glance at Margaret, who is all the while looking at I know, but
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afterwards? What was his opinion? Attacks like she had had before, only
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worse ulcers in the stomach. He thought it was, It's a great pity
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you couldn't get a doctor. That's the worst of living way up here by
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oneself. Missus Norris had seemed well, hadn't she? Yes? Except once
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in a while the doctor had said that she ought to go to the hospital
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to find out. Margaret to Laura, too bad. Craig wasn't here,
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Yes, he was detained in New York. Yes, I know, Abby.
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I wish you would go up and ask mister Norris if he would like
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some more coffee and see how he seems. Laura to Margaret resentfully, we
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don't understand why Craig should be quite like this. Abby does not move until
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Laura looks at her in surprise. Then she turns to go. No,
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I'll go myself, Abby, I want to see how he is. She
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goes up and Abby comes back without looking at Margaret. She's turning toward the
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kitchen, Abby reluctantly. Abby comes back at first, not looking up.
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Then she raises her eyes. Yes, he told me. Abby does not
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speak or move. Had she seemed unhappy? Abby? No, No,
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I hadn't noticed anything. Abby. Don't shut me out like this. She
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wouldn't shut me out. Bernice loved me. I know, I know she
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didn't, but there's nothing for me to tell him, Miss Margaret, and
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it's hard for me to talk about. I'd love her too. I lived
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with her whole life, long for the baby, took care of and played
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with, then all the changing, with the different years than this, And
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move her hands towards the closed door. Yes, then this that said,
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Abbey, this takes away from all that, Abby, do you understand it?
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If you do, won't you help me? I don't understand it.
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It's something so outside all the rest. That's why I can't accept it.
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Something in me just won't take it in because it isn't right. I knew
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her, I know I knew her, and this Why then I didn't know
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her? Can't you help me? I don't see how, miss Margaret.
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But if you would tell me things, you know, little things, even
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though they meant nothing to you, they might mean something to me, Abby,
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because you love her. Don't you want what she was to go home
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living in our hearts? Oh? I do, I do, But she
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call home living in my heart without my understanding what she did. But differently,
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I'll tell you what I mean. Everything about her has always been herself.
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That was one of the rare things about her and herself. Oh,
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it's something you don't want to lose. It's been the beauty in my life,
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in my busy, practical life, Bernice. What she was like a
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breath that blew over my life and made it something. I know just what
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you mean, Miss Margaret. It's inconceivable that she should cut off her own
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life, in her lived all the life that was behind her. You felt
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that in her so wonderfully she felt it in herself or her eyes couldn't have
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been like that, could they? Could they? Abby? It wouldn't seem
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so. She wouldn't destroy so much? Why she never destroyed anything? A
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flower, a caterpillar? Don't you see what I mean? Abby? This
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denies so much? And then is it true that all this time she wasn't
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happy? Why she seemed happy as trees grow? Did mister Norris make her
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unhappy? Oh? Don't think you shouldn't talk about it. Don't act as
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if I shouldn't ask. It's too big for those little scruples. Abby.
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I can't let Bernice's life go out in darkness. So tell me just what
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happened. Each little thing Margaret has taken hold of, Abby, Abby has
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turned away. When did you first know she had taken something? Just what
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did she say to you about it? I want to know each little thing.
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I have a right to know. A step is heard above, Abby,
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as if saved missus Scarab is coming down now. I want to talk
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to you, Abby, after the others have gone to bed. Laura comes
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down, Abby, passes her at the foot of the stairs and goes through
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to the kitchen. Margaret, what is to be gained in making people feel
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worse than they need? Rag up stairs? He's so broken, strange and
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even abby as she passed me. Now you seem to do this to them,
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and why I don't do it to them? I'm not very happy myself,
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of course not none of us can be that. But I believe we
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should try to bear things with courage that comes easily from the person who's bearing
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a little. You think it means nothing to me that my brother has lost
33:00
his wife. Your brother has lost his wife. That's all you see in
33:07
it. I don't see why you seem so wild, so resentful. Margaret,
33:14
death should soften us. She takes her old place before the fire.
33:20
Well, I can tell you this doesn't soften me. I see that you
33:23
feel hard toward Craig. But Bernice didn't. You think he should have come
33:30
right home. But you must be just enough to admit he didn't have any
33:36
idea Bernice was going to be taken suddenly sick. He had been out of
33:42
the country for three months. Naturally, there were things connected with his writing
33:47
to see about, connected with his writing, Laura, don't lie about life
33:55
with death in the next room to talk at a time like this, have
34:01
the decency to be honest, try to see the truth about living. Craig
34:07
stayed in New York with May Fredericks, and he doesn't pretend anything else.
34:13
Stayed there with May Fredericks, continuing an affair that has been going on for
34:16
the past year. And before it was May Fredericks, it was this one
34:21
and that one. Well, all right, that may be all right.
34:27
I'm not condemning Craig for his affairs. I'm condemning you for the front you're
34:31
trying to put up. I certainly am not trying to put up any front.
34:37
It's merely that there seems nothing to be gained in speaking of certain things.
34:44
If Craig was really unfaithful, I do condemn him for that. I
34:50
haven't your liberal ideas. Slight pause, She takes up her knitting. It's
34:57
unfortunate. Bernice hadn't the power to old Craig, hadn't the power to hold
35:04
Craig. She didn't want to. I suppose your scarffing means well, she
35:09
should have wanted to. It's what a wife should want to do. Oh,
35:16
Laura. Bernice will never say one more word for herself in there alone.
35:24
Still she will not do one new thing to throw a light back on
35:30
other things. That's death, a leaving of one's life, leaving it with
35:38
us. I cannot talk to you about what Bernice should have been. What
35:45
she was came true and deep from Margaret throwing out her hands with giving up,
35:51
saying it, taking it up again. It's true there was something in
35:54
her. Craig did not control, something he couldn't mess up. There was
36:00
something in her he might have drawn from and become bigger than he was.
36:05
But he's vain. He has to be boweing someone over all the time to
36:09
show that he has power. I don't agree with you that Craig is especially
36:15
vain. He's a man. He does want to affect, yes, dominate,
36:22
the woman he loves. And if Bernice didn't give him that feeling of
36:29
supremacy, there's no use trying to talk with you of personal things. Certainly,
36:35
I don't want to quarrel tonight. That would not be the thing.
36:39
How is your work going? I don't quite know what you're doing now,
36:44
but trying to get someone out of prison? I suppose, yes, I
36:49
am trying to get out of prison, all those people who are imprisoned for
36:52
ideas. I'll see. I doubt if you see, Laura, well say
37:00
I sympathize, But I see no, For if you did see, you
37:06
would have to sympathize. If you did see, you would be ashamed.
37:10
You would have to hang your head for this thing of locking any man up
37:15
because of what his mind sees. If thinking is not to become whatever thinking
37:20
may become, then why are we here at all? She stops and thinks
37:24
of it. Why does Bernice her death make that so simple tonight? Because
37:32
she was herself, She had the gift for being herself, and she wanted
37:37
each one to have the chance to be himself. Anything else hurt her?
37:44
Has it hurt her to see a dog tied or a child at a narrow
37:47
window? I don't think Bernice was a good wife for a writer. She
37:53
would have been a wonderful wife for a real writer. Oh. I know
37:59
she did invite you Craig's work, and that's another thing, And I suppose
38:04
you don't value it either. She looks at Margaret, who does not speak.
38:08
Fortunately, there are many thousands of people in this country who do value
38:14
it. And I suppose you think what I do of little value too.
38:20
I suppose you scoffed those things who we do to put cripples back in life.
38:24
No, Laura, I don't scoff at anything that can be done for
38:29
cripples. Since men have been crippled, cripples must be helped. I only
38:34
say, don't cripple minds, strong free minds that might go we know not
38:40
where, might go into places where the light of a mind has never been.
38:45
Margaret Rising, think of it. Think of that chance of making life
38:51
even greater than death. If you have any respect for life, any reverence,
38:57
you have to leave the mind free. I do not scoff at you.
39:00
But you are not a serious person. You have no faith, no
39:06
hope, no self respect. Laura Rising. You tell me I have no
39:12
self respect. You who have not cared what people thought of you, who
39:16
have not had the sense of fitness, the taste to hold the place you
39:21
were born to. You tell me against whom no word was ever spoken,
39:25
that I have no self respect. You have a blameless reputation. Laura,
39:31
You have no self respect. If you had any respect for your own mind,
39:37
you could not be willing to limit the mind of any other. If
39:39
you had any respect for your own spiritual life, you could not be willing
39:44
to push yourself into the spiritual life of another. No, you could not
39:52
as one seeing far, I see it as I never saw it. Oh,
39:57
I wish I could talk to Bernice. Something is down. I could
40:02
see things as I never saw them. Laura, gathering up the things she
40:07
had been working with. I will go before and I'm insulted further, there's
40:13
nothing insulting in trying to find the truth, Margaret impulsively reaching out her hands
40:19
to Laura as she is indignantly going, Oh, Laura, we die so
40:24
soon. We live so in the dark. We never become what we might
40:30
be. I should think we could help each other more, Laura, after
40:36
being a moment, held it would have to be done more sympathetically. I
40:42
didn't mean to be unsympathetic. Margaret, watching Laura go up the stairs.
40:47
I suppose that's the trouble with me. She stands the moment, thinking of
40:52
this. Then there's something she wants to say. She knows then that she
40:54
is alone and in this room. Slowly she turns and faces to close door,
41:00
stand so quite still, realizing suddenly turns to the stairway, goes up
41:06
a few steps. Craig. Margaret listens, then goes up another step and
41:10
calls a little louder, Craig, Laura from above, Please don't disturb Craig
41:17
Margaret. Margaret hesitates, turns to go down. A door opens above it.
41:24
Did someone call me? I did, Craig. I'm down here alone,
41:31
lonely. Craig is, if glad to do so, I'll come down,
41:37
Craig after coming, I wanted to come down. I thought Laura was
41:43
down here. I can't pretend not tonight. No, I can't. I
41:52
wanted so to talk to Brittanye, and when I couldn't, I called to
41:55
you. I was glad to hear my name. It's too much alone.
42:01
He and Margaret stand there, hesitatingly, as if they are not able to
42:05
do it. Settle down in this room and talk. Craig takes out a
42:08
cigarette case in the subdued voice of one whose feeling is somewhere else. You
42:14
want a cigarette, Margaret, No, I don't believe so. Oh,
42:19
I remember you don't like these, Bernice must have some of the He opens
42:23
a chest on the mantel, takes from it's a beautiful little box, Margaret
42:29
as she sees this box. Oh, Margaret, turning away, thank you,
42:35
Craig. But of course Craig holds the box for a moment, then
42:40
slowly replaces it. He looks around the room, then helplessly, I don't
42:46
know what I'm going to do. He sits down before the fire. Margaret
42:52
also sits. The door at the other side of the room opens and the
42:54
father comes in from his room. I was going to be now, I
43:00
thought i'd go in here first. Father slowly goes in where Benice's little while
43:07
Craig and Margaret sit there silent, and I don't know what he's going to
43:12
do. Poor old man Bernice was certainly good to him, keeping him happy
43:17
in that life he made for himself away from life. It's queer about him,
43:22
Margaret. Somehow he just didn't go on. Did he made a fight
43:29
in his youth and stop there. He's one of the wrecks of the Darwinian
43:34
theory, spit himself fighting for it and let it go into that Craig running
43:42
his hand through his hair. Oh well, I suppose we're all wrecks of
43:45
something. Oh what are you a wreck of Margaret? You're a wreck of
43:53
free speech. I'm talking like a fool. I'm nervous. I'll be glad
44:00
he goes to bed, Craig looking upstairs, I guess Laura's gone to bed,
44:06
Craig, after looking into the fire. Well, Bernice isn't leaving any
44:10
children to be without her, I suppose. Now it's just as well we
44:17
lost our boy before we ever had him. But she would have made a
44:22
wonderful mother, wouldn't she. Margaret? Oh, yes, you ever wish
44:28
you had children? Margaret? Yes, well why don't you have Why?
44:35
I don't just know, Craig. Life seems to get filled up so quickly.
44:42
Yes, and before we know it, it's all over, or as
44:45
good as over. Funny how your mind jumps around. Just then I thought
44:53
of my mother. How's she used to say? Now he eat your bread,
44:58
Craig. His voice breaks. He buries his face in his hands.
45:04
Margaret reachs over and puts a hand on his shoulder. The door opens and
45:07
the father comes out. He stands looking at them. Yes, of course,
45:15
I'm glad you are here, Margaret. But my little girl looks very
45:19
peaceful, Craig. She had a happy life. Craig moves, turning a
45:27
little away. Margaret makes a move as if to shield him, but does
45:30
not do this. Yes, she had a happy life, didn't she,
45:35
Margaret, I always thought so. Oh, yes she did in her own
45:43
way, a calm way, but very full of her own kind of happiness.
45:49
Father. After reflection, Benice was good to me. I suppose she
45:54
might have liked me to have done some more things, but she wanted me
45:59
to do what came naturally to me. I suppose that's why we always felt
46:05
so comfortable with her. She was never trying to make us some outside thing.
46:13
Well, you know, Margaret, I can see her now as a
46:16
baby. She was such a nice baby. She used to reach out her
46:22
hands, doing this himself. Well, I suppose they all do. I'm
46:31
going to bed after starting. I'm glad you're here with Craig. Margaret.
46:37
Benice would like this, You two who know all about her. Well,
46:45
no nobody knew all about Beernice, but you two who were closest to her
46:52
here now is as close as you can be. I'm going to bed.
47:00
Good night, Margaret crying good night, Craig. After the father has closed
47:07
his door with violence, reached out her hands and what did she get Craig
47:15
roughly grasping Margaret's wrists. I killed Bernice. There's no use in saying I
47:21
didn't. I did, only, Craig, letting go of her. Don't
47:25
blame me tonight, Margaret. I couldn't stand it tonight, Craig with another
47:30
abrupt change. Am I a fool? Why did I never know Bernice loved
47:37
me like this? Why wouldn't I know it? We don't know anything about
47:45
each other, do we, Margaret? Nothing? We never get anywhere.
47:53
Craig shivering, I'm cold. I wonder if there's anything to drink in the
47:59
house. There must be something. He goes out into the kitchen. After
48:05
a moment, there is a sound of running water. He comes in with
48:07
a bottle of whiskey, a picture of water. I don't see the glasses.
48:14
Things seem to have been moved. Craig looks at Margaret as expecting to
48:17
go and get them. She does not. He goes out again from the
48:22
kitchen. Margaret, have you any idea where the glasses are? No,
48:27
Craig, I don't know. Margaret, after hearing him moving things around,
48:32
there's an abbey somewhere there. No, she isn't here. She seems to
48:37
have gone outdoors. She left the door open too. No wonder tiwaus cold.
48:45
Craig calling at an outer door, happy, sound of the door closing
48:51
again, the sound of dishes being moved. Well, I don't know where
48:54
they can have put, Margaret, covering her face. Don't look for things,
49:01
bring anything, Craig. There must be something there. Craig coming in
49:07
with cups. Things have been moved around. I stumbled over things that didn't
49:13
used to be there. You'll have a little, Margaret. We need something.
49:22
I don't Oh, I don't care. He pours the drinks and drinks
49:28
his Craig abruptly shoving his cup away. Margaret, I loved Bernice. I
49:35
suppose you don't believe that. And I thought Bernice knew I loved her in
49:40
spite of other things. What do you think it is? Is the matter
49:47
with me? Margaret? That I Craig saying it as if raw miss things?
49:55
You can tell me. I'd be glad to feel someone you. Oh,
50:00
only, Oh, don't leave me alone while you're telling me. I'm
50:06
afraid I have nothing to tell you. Craig. I thought I knew Bernice,
50:10
and now I did know Bernice. Margaret gropingly. I feel something we
50:19
don't get to and Bernice can't help us. I think she would expect us
50:24
to find our way. She could always find her way. She had not
50:30
meant to leave us here. Bernice was so kind, She was kind,
50:38
such a sensitive kindness, the kindness that divine feeling, and was there ahead
50:45
to meet it. This is the very thing she would not do, Margaret.
50:53
I wish I could tell you about me and Bernice. I loved her,
51:01
she loved me, but there was something in her that had almost nothing
51:08
to do with our love. Yes, well that isn't right, Margaret.
51:15
You want to feel that you have the woman you love, Yes, completely,
51:22
Yes, every bit of her. So you turned to a woman whom
51:25
you could have. Yes, but you had all of them simply because there
51:32
was less to have. You want, no baffling sense of something beyond you.
51:38
He looked at her, reproachfully. You wanted me to help you find
51:43
the truth. I don't believe you can stand truth, Craig. It's hard
51:49
tonight, but perhaps it is tonight or not at all. It's a strange
51:54
thing. This is done a light trying to find its way through a far
52:00
in her mind. The light tries to do this, Craig, Why do
52:05
you write the things you do? Oh, Margaret? Is this any time
52:09
to talk of work? It seems to be to night. It is all
52:15
part of the same thing. Laura and I were talking of work, quarreling
52:20
about it. You were talking of Bernice's father. The light just goes there,
52:27
that poor saddled man. Why didn't he go on? You said he
52:32
was a wreck of the Darwinian theory, then me a wreck of free speech.
52:38
Oh, I didn't mean you were, Margaret, but I might be.
52:44
I can see that we give ourselves in fighting for a thing that seems
52:49
important, and in that fight we get out of the flow of life.
52:53
We had meant it to deepen the flow, but we get caught. I
52:59
know people like the people who get at home in their fight and stay there
53:06
and are left there when the fight's over, like this old man. How
53:12
many nights Bernice and I have sat in this room and talked of things,
53:17
And I had thought, if you had been good to her, she would
53:21
be in this room now. After a look at him. I'm sorry,
53:27
but can I help feeling it? I didn't know, No, you didn't
53:34
know. We don't know when you think what a writer might do for life
53:42
for we don't know. You write so well, Craig, But what of
53:47
it? What is it? Is the matter with you? With all you
53:52
American writers? Most all of you are well put up light, but it
54:00
doesn't penetrate anything. It never makes the fog part just shows itself off a
54:08
well put up light. It would be better if we didn't have you at
54:13
all. Can't you see that? It would the lights, which only light
54:19
themselves, keep us from having light, from knowing what the darkness is.
54:22
After thinking, Craig, as you write these things, are there never times
54:28
when you sit there dumb and know that you are glib and empty? Did
54:34
you ever try to write, Margaret? No? I suppose you think it's
54:38
very simple to be real. I suppose you think we could do it if
54:45
we just wanted to do it. Try it? You try? So you
54:52
do this just to cover the fact that you can't do anything. Your skill
54:55
a mask for your lack of power. I should I think you'd want to
55:00
be good to me tonight, Margaret, be good to you, keep you
55:06
from seeing. That's the way we're good to each other. There's only one
55:09
thing I could do for you tonight, Craig, you don't want that,
55:13
so moves as if to rise. No, don't go away. My brain
55:20
won't keep still either. What I think is just as bad as what you
55:23
say. Well, why do you think it is? I miss things and
55:30
never get anywhere. I don't know, And it's true of all of us.
55:37
Of me too, I do things that to me seem important, and
55:43
yet I just do them. I don't get to the thing I'm doing them
55:46
for, to life itself. I don't simply and profoundly get to life.
55:55
Bernice did, Yes, Bernice did, and yet you had to shy away
56:02
from Bernice into a smaller world that could be all your world. No,
56:08
Craig, you haven't power. It's true, And for one hour in our
56:13
lives, let's try to those love affairs of yours. They're like your false
56:17
writing to keep yourself from knowing you haven't power. Did you ever see a
56:23
child try to do a thing, fail, then turn to something he could
56:29
do and make a great show of doing that. That's what most of our
56:32
lives are like. Well, why haven't I power? If you are going
56:37
to be any good to me, tell me that, Margaret shaking her head,
56:43
I can't tell you that I haven't any light that goes there? But
56:49
isn't it true? Isn't your life this long attempt to appear effective, to
56:54
persuade yourself that you are something? What a way to spend the little time
57:00
there is for a living? I fancy it's the way most lives are spent.
57:05
That only makes it infinitely, said Craig, as if he can stay
57:09
in this no longer. As to writing, Margaret, the things that interest
57:13
you would interest most people would an interest most people. Oh, Craig,
57:22
don't slide away from that one honest moment, say you haven't got it.
57:29
Don't say they wouldn't want it. Why if now, in this our day,
57:34
our troubled day of many shadows, came a light, a light to
57:37
reach those never lighted places, wouldn't want it? I wish someone could try
57:45
them. No, Craig, they all have their times of suspecting, their
57:49
lives are going by in a fog. They're pitifully anxious for a little light.
57:55
Why they continue to look to writers? You know, Craig, what
58:01
living makes of us. It's a rim, a bounded circle. And yet
58:07
we know have our times of suspecting that if we could break through that Margaret
58:15
seeing, Oh, it's like living in the mountains, those high, vast
58:22
places of Colorado, in a little house with shaded windows. You'd suspect what
58:29
was there? A little sunshine through the cracks, mountain smells, and at
58:35
times the house would shake, and you'd wonder and be fretted in your little
58:40
room. And if some day you could put up the shade and see where
58:47
you were, life would never be so small a thing. Again, Bernice
58:54
could do that. Her own life did not bound her. Know that what
59:00
hurt your vanity? I don't know. I'm trying to be honest. I
59:07
honestly don't know. No, we don't know. That's why, Oh,
59:17
Craig, it would be so wonderful to be a writer. Something that gets
59:22
a little farther than others can get, gets at least the edge of the
59:27
shadow, Margaret, after her own moment on the edge of the shadow.
59:31
If you ever felt the shock of reality and got that back in you,
59:37
you wouldn't be thinking of whom it would interest. But Craig, this a
59:44
movement toward the closed room. Doesn't this give you that shock of reality?
59:51
What of you? Doesn't it give it to you? You're speaking as if
59:55
this hadn't happened. You leave it out what Bernice did because of me.
1:00:01
You're talking to my having no power? What of this? Had I no
1:00:07
power? After her? Look at him? Oh yes, I know I
1:00:12
used it terribly, plenty of years from my heart to break over that.
1:00:17
But can you say I didn't have it? I do leave it out.
1:00:23
It isn't right. There should be anything in Bernice, not Bernice. And
1:00:28
she had a great rightness, rightness without effort, that rare, rare thing.
1:00:35
You say it isn't right, and so you leave it out, and
1:00:39
then you talk about the shock of reality. I don't say it isn't fat.
1:00:45
I say it isn't in the rightness and the rightness is that for you
1:00:52
to say? Is rightness? What you think? What you can see?
1:01:00
Oh you didn't know Bernice. You didn't know she loved me that way?
1:01:07
And I didn't know, but she did. How could I have had that
1:01:14
and not known? But I did have it. I did have it.
1:01:20
You say life broke through her, the whole of life. But Bernice didn't
1:01:24
want the whole of life. She wanted me. He goes to the door,
1:01:31
bows against it, all sorrow and need I want to talk to her,
1:01:37
not you, I want her now, knowing, he opens that door
1:01:44
and goes in to Bernice. Margaret stands motionless, searching and as if something
1:01:49
is coming to her from the rightness, and she speaks it is a denial,
1:01:52
from that inner affirmation. No, I say no, Margaret, feeling
1:01:59
someone behind her, Swiftly turning, she sees Abby outside, looking through the
1:02:02
not quite drawn curtains of the door. She goes to the door and draws
1:02:07
Abby in. Yes, I am here, and I say no. She
1:02:13
is hold of her, drawing her in as she says it. You understand,
1:02:17
I say no. I don't believe it what you told me. I
1:02:22
don't believe it. Abby. At first it is horror, then strange relief,
1:02:27
as if nothing could be so bad as this has been. Well,
1:02:30
I'm glad, you know, Margaret, very slowly, knowing now it is
1:02:35
fact, she has come to glad. I know what that this isn't true,
1:02:40
that she didn't do it, didn't do it, did not take her
1:02:45
own life. No, of course she didn't. Margaret, still very slowly,
1:02:52
as if much more is coming than she can take in. Then why
1:02:57
did you say she did? Because she said I must, or look at
1:03:01
me look at me. But you knew her. You know the strength of
1:03:06
her. If she told you the way she told me, you'd have done
1:03:09
it too, you would, Margaret saying it word by itself. I cannot
1:03:20
understand one word. You are saying. Something is wrong with you. Margaret,
1:03:29
changing and roughly taking hold of Abby. Tell me quick the truth.
1:03:35
Wednesday night, about eight o'clock, about an hour after she told me to
1:03:37
telegraph you, she said, why, Abby, I believe I'm going to
1:03:42
die. I said no, but she said I think so. I said,
1:03:45
we sent for mister Morris. She said no, and not to frighten
1:03:49
her father. I I didn't think she was going to die. All the
1:03:53
time I was trying to get the doctor. There were two hours when she
1:03:57
was quiet, quiet, not like and quiet. I ever knew thinking.
1:04:02
You could see thinking in her eyes, stronger than sickness. Then after ten
1:04:08
she called me to her. She took my hands. She said, Aby,
1:04:11
you've lived with me all my life. Yes, I said, you
1:04:15
love me? Oh yes, I said, will you do something for me?
1:04:17
You know I will, I told her. Happy she said, looking
1:04:21
right at me, all of her looking right at me. If I die,
1:04:26
I want you to tell my husband I kill myself. Margaret falls back.
1:04:30
Yes, I did that too, and I thought it was her mind,
1:04:34
but I looked at her. Oh, her mind was there. It
1:04:39
was terrible, how it was all there, she said, and then she
1:04:44
the sob she's been holding back almost Kiev Abby from saying this. Held out
1:04:48
her hands to me, Oh, Ahby, do this last thing for me,
1:04:53
after all there has been. I have a right to do it.
1:04:56
If my life is going, let me have this match from it. And
1:04:59
this time couldn't couldn't did you? Shrum down her face, and she said,
1:05:02
I want to rest before pain comes again. Promise me so I can
1:05:05
rest. And I promised, and you would have to. You don't know
1:05:11
what you're telling me. You don't know what you're doing. You do this
1:05:17
now after she can do nothing. Margaret holding out her hands, Abby,
1:05:25
tell me it isn't true. It's true. You are telling me her life
1:05:30
was hate. Margaret stops half turns to the room where Craig is with Bernice.
1:05:38
You are telling me she covered hate with with the beauty that was like
1:05:43
nothing else, Abby. You are telling me that as Bernice left life,
1:05:49
she held out her hands and asked you to take this back for her.
1:05:56
Oh, thinks, we can't understand. There's no who is trying. She
1:06:01
turns to go. You can't leave me like those you shouldn't have tried to
1:06:08
know. But if you have got to know things, you have got to
1:06:13
take them. Craig comes out, Abby goes, go in there, Margaret,
1:06:18
there's something wonderful there. Margaret turned from him, her face buried in
1:06:24
her hands. Oh no, no, no, I can never go in
1:06:30
there. I I never was in there. Her other words are lost in
1:06:38
her wild sobbing. He stands regarding her in wonder, but not losing what
1:06:42
he himself has found. Curtain end of Act two, scene the same as
1:06:49
an AX one and two. It is early afternoon of the next day.
1:06:54
The door leading outdoors is a little open. When the curtain is drawn,
1:06:57
Craig is seen outside, just passing the word as one who is walking back
1:07:00
and forth and thinking. In the room Laura and the father. The father
1:07:05
sitting at the table by the stairs. Laura standing watches Craig pass the door.
1:07:11
She has in her hand a paper on which are a memoranda. After
1:07:14
watching Craig, she sighs, looks at her notes, sits down. I
1:07:18
am sorry to be troubling you, mister Allen. Certainly you should not be
1:07:25
asked to discuss these matters about arrangements. But really you and I seem the
1:07:32
only people who are capable of going on with things. I must say,
1:07:38
I don't know what to make of everyone else. They all seem to be
1:07:43
trying to keep away from one I think that's a little unnecessary. Of course,
1:07:49
I know what grief does, and I'm sure I have every consideration for
1:07:55
that. But really, I'm sorry Craig keeps his own sister out when I'm
1:08:00
here to help him, and Abi why she seems to have lost her head
1:08:08
just when it's so important that she look after things. And as to Margaret
1:08:14
Pierce, she certainly is worse than useless. I don't see what she came
1:08:18
for if she didn't want to be helpful. Margaret and Bernice were very dear
1:08:24
friends, Laura. Is that any reason for not being helpful in Bernice's household
1:08:30
at a time like this? Really, I do like control Laura, after
1:08:34
looking at her notes. Then the Minister will come here at three, mister
1:08:39
Allen, Why that will be alone more than an hour? I think of
1:08:44
things having been neglected like this as Craig, having turned in his books again,
1:08:50
passing the door, Craig, he steps to the door. Her minister,
1:08:56
mister Howie will come here, Craig at three? What for, Craig,
1:09:03
what for? I don't see why he comes here. Why Bernice scarcely
1:09:10
knew him to her father? Did Bernice know him? Well? I don't
1:09:16
know whether she knew him. But it is not a personal matter, Craig.
1:09:23
I think it is very personal. You mean to say you are not
1:09:30
going to have any service. I haven't thought anything about it. Oh,
1:09:34
Laura, how can I think of such things now? Well? I will
1:09:41
think of them for you, dear. Don't bring him here. He can
1:09:45
go there if he wants to. Where we have to go, not here
1:09:54
in her own house. The very last thing. I'm afraid it will seems
1:10:00
strange, Craig, strange. Do I care if it seems strange? Bernice
1:10:06
seems strange too, But she wasn't strange. She was wonderful, putting out
1:10:14
his hand impatiently. Oh no, Laura, there's so much else to think
1:10:18
of now. He steps out of the door and stands there, his back
1:10:23
to the room. I wonder, could we go somewhere else? Into my
1:10:30
room. Perhaps I'm afraid we are keeping Craig out of here, and I
1:10:35
think he wants to be here near Bernice. We will be undisturbed in my
1:10:42
room. He gets up and goes to the door of his room. Laura
1:10:45
turns to follow outside. Craig passes from sight. I think it's too bad
1:10:49
things have to be made so complicated, father, after opening the door.
1:10:56
Oh, Margaret is in here, Margaret from the other room. I was
1:11:02
just going out. I just came in here too, Margaret enters. I
1:11:09
just went in there. I didn't think about it being your room. Why
1:11:14
that was quite all right, Margaret, I'm really sorry to disturb you.
1:11:18
No, that doesn't matter. I wasn't doing anything. There is a good
1:11:25
deal to do. She follows the father into his room. Margaret walks across
1:11:30
the room, walks back, stands still, head bent, hands pressing her
1:11:33
temples. Abby comes part way down the stairs, sees Margaret stands still as
1:11:40
if not to be heard, turns to go back upstairs. Margaret, hearing
1:11:44
her looking up Abby, Abby comes slowly down. Where is he, mister
1:11:49
Norris? Where is he? I don't know he was here a little while
1:11:54
ago. Perhaps she went out. Abby indicating the door. I have to
1:12:00
tell him happy after an incredulous moment, tell him what she made me tell
1:12:04
you? Of course I have to tell him. You think I can leave
1:12:09
that on him? And the things I said to him, they were not
1:12:14
just, and you'd rather be just don't leave it as she wanted it?
1:12:19
Oh, but Abby, what she wanted? Margaret holds up her hand as
1:12:25
if to shut something from her eyes. No, you can't put that on
1:12:30
anyone. I couldn't live feeling I had left on him what shouldn't be there.
1:12:36
But she wouldn't tell him. Now. I must tell him now or
1:12:42
I won't tell him, and I must go away. I can't stay.
1:12:46
I can't stay here. But what will they think you're leaving? You mean
1:12:51
before we've taken her away? Oh, I don't know. How can I
1:12:58
plan it out? I'm going as soon as I can tell him. All
1:13:02
night, all day, I've been trying to tell him, and when I
1:13:08
get near him, I run away. Why did you tell me? Why
1:13:14
did you know what you weren't to know? But if you have some way
1:13:18
of knowing what you aren't told, you think you have the right to do
1:13:21
your thing with that and do what she did what I did. Do you
1:13:27
know what it took out of me to do this? There's nothing left of
1:13:30
me, Margaret with a laugh, right on the verge of being not herself.
1:13:35
No, you're a wreck, another wreck. It's your Darwinian theory,
1:13:44
your free speech. I was afraid of you. I don't want you to
1:13:48
come. I knew you'd get do things. Abby goes to the door and
1:13:54
looks out. He is out there. Yes, Margaret tries to go,
1:13:59
move to just a little, and you'll go to him. And what for?
1:14:03
Because I can't live leaving that on him, having him think when I
1:14:12
know he didn't. I can't leave that on him one more hour. Abby
1:14:16
standing in the door to block her going. And when you take that from
1:14:20
him, well do you give it to him? They stare at one another.
1:14:26
Margaret falls back. Don't ask me to see so many things, Abby,
1:14:31
I can only see this thing I've grown afraid of seeing, Abby,
1:14:36
after looking at her, seeing something of her suffering, Miss Margaret, Why
1:14:42
did you do what you did last night? How did you know? I
1:14:46
don't know, but you knew. No, I didn't know. I didn't
1:14:53
know. It didn't come from me. It came from the rightness if you
1:15:00
could get that without being told, why don't you get more without being told?
1:15:05
Margaret gives her a startled look. You will never be told. You
1:15:11
know more. No, my knowing stops with what you got from me last
1:15:15
night. But I knew her. I thought maybe as you have some way
1:15:19
of knowing what you aren't told, you could see into this. See,
1:15:26
I've lost my seeing. It was through her. I saw, it was
1:15:31
through Brunice. I could see. And now it's a dark Margaret's slowly turning
1:15:38
toward the closed room. Oh, how still death is the two women as
1:15:44
have caught into this stillness? Abby, looking from the door. He turned
1:15:48
this way, Abby, swiftly turning back to Margaret. But you couldn't tell
1:15:54
him, No, I can't, Yes, I must. I tell you.
1:16:00
There's something in me can't stand it to see anyone go down under a
1:16:03
thing you shouldn't have to bear. Why that feeling has made my life?
1:16:11
Do you think I've wanted to do the kind of work I do? Don't
1:16:15
you think I'd like to be doing happier things? But there's something in my
1:16:19
blood drives me too what's right? And something in my blood drives me towards
1:16:28
right and I went against it, went against my whole life so she could
1:16:31
rest. I did it because I loved her. But she didn't love her,
1:16:36
Oh Abby, not as you love. What's right? If you loved
1:16:42
her, don't you want to protect her now that she lie stand in there?
1:16:47
Oh, miss Margaret. It was right at the very end of her
1:16:50
life. Maybe when we are going to die, things we borne all our
1:16:55
lives are things we can't bear any longer. Just don't count that last taher,
1:17:02
Margaret, after a moment of being swayed by this. Yet you counted
1:17:06
it, Abby, You did what she said because of the strength of her.
1:17:12
You told me last night her mind was there, terrible the way it
1:17:16
was right there. She hadn't left her life. Well, if she hadn't
1:17:24
left her life, if all those years with him there was something she hid,
1:17:29
and if she seemed to feel well, she didn't feel she did it,
1:17:33
well, didn't she? And almost to the last, sha'n't we hide
1:17:38
it now? For her? You and me who loved there? Isn't she
1:17:42
safe with us? Abby? Going nearer? Margaret? Perhaps if you would
1:17:46
go in there now? Oh no, no, Abby, And a last
1:17:53
deeply emotional appeal, Miss Margaret, didn't she do a good deal for you?
1:17:59
Do a good deal for me? Yes? Yes, yes, she
1:18:02
did for me. I have something more on account of her, aren't you.
1:18:09
Yes, yes, I think you are too. I can see myself
1:18:13
as it have been if my life hadn't been lived around her. Abby thinks,
1:18:17
shakes her head. It would be left to what feels and nose it
1:18:23
feels, and you said it was through Bernice you could see. Well,
1:18:27
let's forget what we don't want to know on account of what we are that
1:18:31
we wouldn't have been. Let's put it out of our minds. One ugly
1:18:35
thing in a whole, beautiful life. Let it go, Let all the
1:18:41
rest live. They can see Craig outside, ooh, do this for her,
1:18:46
make yourself do it. Let that be what's dead, and let all
1:18:50
the rest live. You were her friend, not his. Craig turns to
1:18:56
the house, but when about to come in, turns away, coring his
1:19:00
face. Margaret taking hold of Abby. You see, he thinks she loved
1:19:05
him, and he killed her. He might do what he thinks she did.
1:19:10
Abby falling back. Craig comes in, stands by the door. Margaret
1:19:16
has drawn Abbey over near the stairway. He sees them, but gives no
1:19:20
heed to them, immersed in what he is living through. While he stands
1:19:25
there, Margaret does not move. He turns toward the room where Bernice's.
1:19:28
When he moves, Margaret goes a little toward him. His back is to
1:19:31
her. Abby moves to step between Craig and Margaret. Margaret puts her aside.
1:19:35
But when Craig comes to the closed door and stands there an instant before
1:19:40
it, not opening it, Margaret too stops as if she cannot come nearer
1:19:45
him. It is only after he has opened the door and closed it behind
1:19:47
him that she goes to it. She puts out her hands, but she
1:19:51
does not even touch the door, and when she cannot do this, she
1:19:55
covers her face and head bent, stands there before the closed door. Laura
1:20:00
and the father come out from the room where they have been as the ender.
1:20:02
Abby slowly goes out toward the kitchen. Laura, after looking at Margaret,
1:20:08
who is not moved, we are going in an hour? Margaret going
1:20:14
taking Bernice to the cemetery. Oh are we? After a look which shows
1:20:20
her disapproval, Laura goes out following Abby. Father sitting I can't believe that,
1:20:28
Margaret. No, Margaret sits in the window seat by which she has
1:20:31
been standing, as if she is just realizing what they have said. You
1:20:36
say, we are taking Bernie away from here in an hour. Yes,
1:20:44
think of it, Margaret. I just can't take it in. No,
1:20:51
there is something I want to tell you, Margaret. Margaret gives him a
1:20:55
quick look, then turns away, as if afraid. I've been one to
1:21:00
tell you. But it's hard to talk of such things before we take Bernice
1:21:06
away, before you see her the last time. I want you to know
1:21:15
that night, that night Bernice died the very last. Abby was afraid then,
1:21:20
and it called to me. Abby and I were in there, and
1:21:26
Abbie went out about the telephone call we had in for the doctor. I
1:21:30
was all alone and there a few minutes. Right at the last, Bernice
1:21:35
said one last word, Margaret, your name, she called to me.
1:21:44
No, I wouldn't say she called to you, just said your name,
1:21:49
the way we say things to ourselves, say them without knowing we were going
1:21:55
to say them. She didn't really say it. She breathed, seemed to
1:22:01
come from her whole life. Oh then, it wasn't as if she had
1:22:06
left me. It wasn't as if anything was in between. Why know,
1:22:12
Margaret, what an idea? Why? I don't think you ever were as
1:22:17
close to Benice as when she said your name and died. Margaret's head goes
1:22:24
down. She is crying. Craig comes out, carefully, closing the door
1:22:28
behind him, partly crosses the room, looks uncertainly the outer door, as
1:22:32
if to go outside again. Sit down, Craig, Craig does this.
1:22:38
Let's not try to keep away from each other. Now we're all going through
1:22:43
the same thing, you know, our different ways. A pause. Margaret
1:22:47
raises her head. She has turned a little away from the other two.
1:22:51
I was so glad when you came, Margaret. I didn't want Beernice to
1:22:58
slip away from us. In an hour, we take her away from here,
1:23:03
out of this house. She loved I don't want her to slip away
1:23:09
from us. She loved you, so, Margaret, didn't she, Craig,
1:23:15
Yes, she did love Margaret. Oh yes, Margaret sees things she'd
1:23:23
say father wistfully. She had great beauty, didn't she, Margaret? I
1:23:30
always thought so. Oh yes, I was thinking last night. Malice was
1:23:39
not in Bernice. I never knew her to do a really unfriendly thing to
1:23:45
any one again in that wistful way. You know, Margaret, I thought
1:23:50
you would say things like this and and better than I can say them,
1:23:55
to to keep my little girl for us. All. I suppose I'm a
1:24:00
foolish old man, but I seemed to want them said pause. Margaret seems
1:24:08
to try to speak, but does not. I think it was gentle of
1:24:12
Benice to be amused by things she perhaps couldn't admire in us. She loved
1:24:18
me. I suppose she might have liked a father who amounted to more,
1:24:25
but she always seemed to take pleasure in me, affectionate amusement. Didn't you
1:24:32
feel that in Benice? Craig, Yes, that was one thing, a
1:24:39
surface for other things. He speaks out of pain, but out of pain
1:24:45
which wants if it can to speak, but only a surface. All of
1:24:49
Bernice went into her love for me. Those big, impersonal things, they
1:24:56
were not a part oh of Bernice loved me. His voice breaks. He
1:25:02
goes to the door, starts out, suddenly steps back with a quick rough
1:25:08
turn to her. Hdn't that's so, Margaret, I can see what you
1:25:15
mean, Craig. Why, of course, the nice loved you. I
1:25:19
know that Craig goes outside father looking after him. I I hope I didn't
1:25:28
say Craig away you and he would rather not talk. Perhaps that is better.
1:25:35
I seem to want to gather up things that will keep the nice.
1:25:41
It's so easy for the dead to slip from us. But I mustn't bother
1:25:46
you. Oh you aren't. I I'm sorry, I'm not doing more.
1:25:54
I'm pulled down. I know, Margaret, I can see that. Another
1:26:00
time, you and I will talk of Bernice. I didn't mean she didn't
1:26:03
love Craig, of course, not only I did feel that much as went
1:26:14
into her loving, there was more than went into her loving. Yes,
1:26:21
I think it wasn't that she wanted it that way, you know, Margaret.
1:26:28
I felt something very wistful at Bernice. Margaret looks at him. Not
1:26:36
in this calm now, I feel the wistfulness there was in her other calm.
1:26:44
Yes, as if she wanted to give us more. Oh, she
1:26:51
gave more than anyone else could have given, but not all she was,
1:26:59
and she would like to have given us or she was. She wanted to
1:27:03
give what couldn't be given. You know what I mean, Margaret, Yes,
1:27:11
I do know, and so wistfulness. I see it now, father,
1:27:18
after thinking, I think Bernice feared she was not a very good wife.
1:27:24
From Craig, Margaret gives him a startled look. Little things she'd say.
1:27:30
I don't know, perhaps I'm wrong. After a move of Margaret,
1:27:36
you were going to say something, Margaret, No, I was just thinking
1:27:41
of what you said. Craig didn't dominate Bernice. I don't know whose fault
1:27:45
it was. I don't know that it was anyone's fault. Just the way
1:27:50
things were. He I say it, nor kindness. He just didn't have
1:27:58
it in him, as I haven't had certain things in me. Abby comes
1:28:05
in. People are coming, the old things are the neighbors. Oh they're
1:28:13
coming already. Oh, there to wait in the south room until a little
1:28:24
later. I'll speak to them. They go out. Margaret has a moment
1:28:29
alone. Then Craig comes in from outside. People are beginning to come.
1:28:33
I suppose they'll come in here soon. I I don't want them to.
1:28:41
Laura enters with boxes of flowers. Oh, Laura, please, Bernice loved
1:28:47
the flowers. Well, Craig, would you take them around the other way
1:28:54
or keep them till later or something? I don't want them here, Laura
1:29:00
goes out. I don't want things to be different, not now, in
1:29:04
the last hour. It's still Bernice's house. Craig, after watching her a
1:29:11
moment Margaret, I'm afraid I shouldn't have told you. It's doing too much
1:29:16
to you. Surely, no matter what you feel about to me, this,
1:29:25
what I told you isn't going to keep you away from Bernice now,
1:29:30
Craig, what you told me isn't going to do that. I shouldn't have
1:29:36
told you. But there are things too much to be alone with, and
1:29:43
yet we are alone with them. He is seated, looking out toward the
1:29:48
woods, very slowly, with deep feeling. It is a different world.
1:29:55
Life will never be that old thing again, Margaret, rising Craig. He
1:30:03
looks at her, Craig, I must tell you. She does not go
1:30:08
on. Craig, after waiting an instant, looks away. I know we
1:30:13
can't say things when we get right to life. We can't say things.
1:30:19
But I must say them. I have to tell you. Life need not
1:30:24
be a different thing. Need not you think I want that old thing back,
1:30:30
pretending, fumbling, always trying to seem something, to feel myself something.
1:30:40
No, that's a strange thing for you to say, Margaret, that
1:30:44
I can go back to my make believe now that I've got to life.
1:30:49
This as if he cannot speak of it. This even more than it makes
1:30:56
me want to die, it makes me want to Oh, Margaret, if
1:31:02
I could have Bernice now, knowing and yet I never had her until now,
1:31:12
this has given Bernice to me, Margaret, as if his words are
1:31:16
alight, he was almost afraid to use. This has given Bernice here.
1:31:24
I was thinking, walking out there, I was thinking, if I knew
1:31:29
only what I knew when I came here, that Bernice was dead. I
1:31:35
wonder if I could have got past that failure, failure crag of never having
1:31:42
had her, that she had lived and loved me, loved me, you
1:31:46
see, lived and loved me and died without my ever having had her.
1:31:53
What would there have been to go on living? For? Why should such
1:31:57
a person go on living? Hm? Oh, of course it is another
1:32:02
world. This comes crashing through my make believe and Bernice's world get to me,
1:32:10
don't you see, Margaret? Perhaps I do. She looks at the
1:32:16
closed door, looks back to him, waits, waits again, and it
1:32:23
grows in her. Perhaps I do, Margaret, turns and very slowly goes
1:32:28
to the closed door, opens it goes in At the other side of the
1:32:31
room, Abby comes in with a floral piece. No happy, I just
1:32:36
told my sister. I don't want this room to be different. Craig,
1:32:42
looking around, it is different. What have you done to it? He
1:32:47
sees the pillow crowded in at the side of the fireplace, restores it to
1:32:51
its place in the window. And this was here. She returns the vase
1:32:57
to its place. Of course it was. But it is it right yet?
1:33:02
Craig. After considering why the t table, Abby turns toward the kitchen.
1:33:11
What did you put it out there for? I remember now I stumbled
1:33:15
against it last night? They bring it in? Why? Yes, Abby,
1:33:20
the tea table was always here before the fire and she hesitates, but
1:33:28
Craig follows her eyes to the chair. Yes, He too hesitates, then
1:33:33
gives the chair its old place before the table, as if awaiting the one
1:33:38
who will come and pour tea. A moment they stand looking at it.
1:33:42
Then Craig looks around the room and what if it is still wrong? Abby?
1:33:47
And if held there were all of his branches in the face, Abby,
1:33:51
indicating the one she has returned to its place, the right and yellow
1:33:56
branches from outside. Yes, he goes out with feeling which she cannot quite
1:34:02
control. Abby does a few little things at the tea table, relating one
1:34:06
thing to another until it is as it used to be. Margaret comes out
1:34:10
from the room where she has been with Benee, leaving the door wide open
1:34:14
behind her. With a quiet of profound wonder, in a feeling that creates
1:34:17
the great stillness, she goes to Abby. Oh, Abby, yes,
1:34:26
I know now, I want you to know. Only there are things not
1:34:31
for words, feeling not for words, as a throbbing thing that flies and
1:34:40
sings, not for the hand. She starts to close her hand and closes
1:34:45
it. But Abby, there is nothing to hide, There is no shameful
1:34:53
thing. What you saw in her eyes as you brooded over life in leaving
1:34:58
it, what may you afraid? Was her saying, her sing into the
1:35:04
shadowed places of the life she was leaving. And then a gift to the
1:35:12
spirit, a gift sent back through the dark, preposterous, profound, Oh
1:35:23
love for Abby. She's worth more love than we have power to give.
1:35:30
Craig has come back with some branches from the trees. He stands outside the
1:35:32
door a moment, taking out a fear he does not want. Margaret hears
1:35:36
him and turns, then turns back power. Oh, how strange. Craig
1:35:44
comes in, and Margaret and Abby watch him as he puts the bright leaves
1:35:47
in the vase. The father comes in. The man who's in charge says,
1:35:51
we will have to be ready now to father, seeing what has been
1:35:56
done to the room. Oh, have given the room back to the nice,
1:36:02
given everything back to Bernice. Bernice insight, the tenderness of insight and
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the courage Margaret to the father and Sonny with taste in her voice. She
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was wistful and held out her hands, Margaret doing this with if she was
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not afraid to send back. She loved you, Craig. I know that,
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Margaret, I know now how much and more than that, Margaret,
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her voice electric. Oh, in all the world since first life moved,
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has there been any beauty like the beauty of perceiving love? No, not
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for words. She closes her hand and closes it in a slight gesture of
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freeing what she would not harm. Curtain end of Act three, end of
1:37:12
Benice by Susan Glassbow