HARRIET [emotionally]. Be quiet! I can't let her see that I have been
fighting with my inner self.
HETTY. And now after all my suffering you say it has cost you more than
it has cost me to be married to Charles. But it's the pain here in my
heart--I've paid the price--I've paid----Charles is not your husband!
HARRIET [trying to conquer emotion]. He is.
HETTY [follows HARRIET]. He isn't.
HARRIET [weakly]. He is.
HETTY [towering over HARRIET]. He isn't! I'll kill you!
HARRIET [overpowered, sinks into a chair]. Don't--don't--you're stronger
than I--you're----
HETTY. Say he's mine.
HARRIET. He's ours.
HETTY [the telephone rings]. There she is now.
[HETTY hurries to 'phone but HARRIET regains her supremacy.]
HARRIET [authoritatively]. Wait! I can't let the telephone girl down
there hear my real self. It isn't proper. [At 'phone.] Show Mrs.
Caldwell up.
HETTY. I'm so excited, my heart's in my mouth.
HARRIET [at the mirror]. A nice state you've put my nerves into.
HETTY. Don't let her see you're nervous.
HARRIET. *Quick, put the veil on, or she'll see you shining through me.
[HARRIET takes a scarf of chiffon that has been lying over the back of a
chair and drapes it on HETTY, covering her face. The chiffon is the same
color of their gowns but paler in shade so that it pales HETTY'S darker
gown to match HARRIET'S lighter one. As HETTY moves in the following
scene the chiffon falls away revealing now and then the gown of deeper
dye underneath.]
* (The vaudeville production did not use Harriet's line
about the veil because at the rise of the curtain Hetty is
already veiled in chiffon the same dark green shade as her
gown.)
HETTY. Tell her Charles is rich and fascinating--boast of our friends,
make her feel she needs us.
HARRIET. I'll make her ask John to paint us.