THE SAME. _Evening, a week later. Stage flooded with moonlight, house
lighted. At the piano, just inside the window, LULU and CORNISH are
finishing a song together, LULU accompanying._
How sweet the happy evening’s close,
’Tis the hour of sweet repose--
Good-night.
The summer wind has sunk to rest,
The moon serenely bright
Unfolds her calm and gentle ray,
Softly now she seems to say,
Good-night.
[_As they sing, DI slips into the house, unseen._]
CORNISH
Why, Miss Lulu, you’re quite a musician.
LULU
Oh, no. I’ve never played in front of anybody----
[_They come to the porch._]
I don’t know what Ina and Dwight would say if they heard me.
CORNISH
What a pretty dress that is, Miss Lulu!
LULU
I made this from one of Ina’s old ones since she’s been gone. I don’t
know what Ina and Dwight are going to say about this dress, made
like this, when they get home.
CORNISH
When are they coming back?
LULU
Any time now. They’ve been gone most a week. Do you know I never had but
one compliment before that wasn’t for my cooking.
CORNISH
You haven’t!
LULU
He told me I done up my hair nice. That was after I took notice how the
ladies in Savannah, Georgia, done up theirs.
CORNISH
I guess you can do most anything you set your hand to, Miss Lulu: Look
after Miss Di and sing and play and cook----
LULU
Yes, cook. But I can’t earn anything. I’d like to earn something.
CORNISH
You would! Why, you have it fine here, I thought.
LULU
Oh, fine, yes. Dwight gives me what I have. And I do their work.
CORNISH
I see. I never thought of that....
[_Pause._]
LULU
You’re wondering why I didn’t stay with _him_!
CORNISH
Oh, no.
LULU
Yes you are! The whole town’s wondering. They’re all talking about me.
CORNISH
Well, Miss Lulu, you know it don’t make any difference to your friends
what people say.
LULU
But they don’t know the truth. You see, he had another wife.
CORNISH
Lord sakes!
LULU
Dwight thinks it isn’t true. He thinks--he didn’t have another wife....
You see, Dwight thinks he didn’t want me.
CORNISH
But--your husband--I mean, why doesn’t he write to Mr. Deacon and tell
him the truth----
LULU
He has written. The letter’s in there on the piano.
CORNISH
What’d he say?
LULU
Dwight doesn’t like me to touch his mail. I’ll have to wait till he
comes back.
CORNISH
Lord sakes! ... You--you--you’re too nice a girl to get a deal like
this. Darned if you aren’t.
LULU
Oh, no.
CORNISH
Yes you are, too! And there ain’t a thing I can do.
LULU
It’s a good deal to have somebody to talk to....
CORNISH
Sure it is.
LULU
... Cora Waters. Cora Waters, of San Diego, California. And she never
heard of me.
CORNISH
No. She never did, did she? Ain’t life the darn----
[_Enter MRS. BETT._]
MRS. BETT
I got Monona into bed. And it’s no fool of a job neither.
LULU
Did you, mother? Come and sit down.
MRS. BETT
Yes. She went to bed with a full set of doll dishes.... Ain’t it nice
with the folks all gone? ... I don’t hear any more playin’ and
singin’. It sounded real good.
LULU
We sung all I knew how to play, mama.
MRS. BETT
I use’ to play on the melodeon.
CORNISH
Well, well, well.
MRS. BETT
That was when I was first married. We had a little log house in a
clearing in York State. I was seventeen--and he was nineteen. While
he was chopping I use’ to sit on a log with my sewing. Jenny was
born in that house. I was alone at the time. I was alone with her
when she died, too. She was sixteen--little bits of hands she
had----
[_Yawns. Rises, wanders toward door._]
Can’t we have some more playin’ and singin’?
LULU
After a little while, mama--dear.
MRS. BETT
It went kind of nice--that last tune you sung.
[_Hums the air. Enters house._]
CORNISH
I must be going along too, Miss Lulu.
LULU
I can’t think why Di doesn’t come. She ought not to be out like this
without telling me----
[_MRS. BETT appears beside the piano, lifts and examines the letters
lying there._]
CORNISH
Well, don’t you mind on my account. I’ve enjoyed every minute I’ve been
here.
LULU
Mother! Those are Dwight’s letters--don’t you touch them.
MRS. BETT
I ain’t hurting them or him neither.
[_Disappears, the letters in her hand._]
CORNISH
Good-night, Miss Lulu. If there was anything I could do at any time
you’d let me know, wouldn’t you?
LULU
Oh, thank you.
CORNISH
I’ve had an awful nice time, singing, and listening to you talk--well of
course--I mean the supper was just fine! And so was the music.
LULU
Oh, no.
[_MRS. BETT appears at the door with a letter._]
MRS. BETT
Lulie. I guess you didn’t notice. This one’s from Ninian.
LULU
Mother----
MRS. BETT
I opened it--why of course I did. It’s from Ninian.
[_Holds out unfolded letter and an old newspaper clipping._]
The paper’s awful old--years back, looks like. See. Says “Corie Waters,
music hall singer--married last night to Ninian Deacon”--Say, Lulie,
that must be her.
LULU
Yes, that’s her. That’s her--Cora Waters.... Oh, then he _was_ married
to her just like he said!
CORNISH
Oh, Miss Lulu! I’m so sorry!
LULU
No, no. Because he wanted me! He didn’t say that just to get rid of me!
CORNISH
Oh, that way.... I see....
LULU
I’m so thankful it wasn’t that.
MRS. BETT
Then everything’s all right onct more. Ain’t that nice!
LULU
I’m so thankful it wasn’t that.
CORNISH
Yes, I can understand that. Well, I--I guess I ought to be going now,
Miss Lulu.... Why, it _is_ Miss Lulu Bett, isn’t it?
LULU
[_Abstractedly, with the paper._]
Yes--yes--good-night, Mr. Cornish. Good-night.
CORNISH
Good-night, Miss Lulu.... I wonder if you would let me tell you
something.
LULU
Why----
CORNISH
I guess I don’t amount to much. I’ll never be a lawyer. I’m no good at
business and everything I say sounds wrong to me. And yet I do
believe I do know enough not to bully a woman--not to make her
unhappy, maybe even--I could make her a little happy. Miss Lulu, I
hate to see you looking and talking so sad. Do you think we could
possibly arrange----
LULU
Oh!
CORNISH
I guess maybe you’ve heard something about a little something I’m
supposed to inherit. Well, I got it. Of course, it’s only five
hundred dollars. We could get that little Warden house and furnish
up the parlor with pianos--that is, if you could ever think of
marrying me.
LULU
Don’t say that--don’t say that!
MRS. BETT
Better take him, Lulie. A girl ought to take any young man that will
propose in front of her mother!
CORNISH
Of course if you loved him very much then I’d ought not to be talking
this way to you.
LULU
You see Ninian was the first person who was ever kind to me. Nobody ever
wanted me, nobody ever even thought of me. Then he came. It might
have been somebody else. It might have been you. But it happened to
be Ninian and I do love him.
CORNISH
I see. I guess you’ll forgive me for what I said.
LULU
Of course.
CORNISH
Miss Lulu, if that five hundred could be of any use to you, I wish you’d
take it.
LULU
Oh, thank you, thank you, I couldn’t.
CORNISH
Well, I guess I’ll be stepping along. If you should want me, I’m always
there. I guess you know that.
[_Exit._]
MRS. BETT
Better burn that up. I wouldn’t have it round.
LULU
But mother! Mother dear, try to understand. This means that Ninian told
the truth. He wasn’t just trying to get rid of me.
MRS. BETT
Did he want you to stay with him?
LULU
I don’t know. But I think he did. Anyway, now I know the truth about
him.
MRS. BETT
Well, I wouldn’t want anybody else to know. Here, let me have it and
burn it up.
LULU
Mama, mama! Aren’t you glad for me that now I can prove Ninian wasn’t
just making up a story so I’d go away?
MRS. BETT
[_Clearly and beautifully._]
Oh, Lulu! My little girl! Is that what they said about you? Mother knows
it wasn’t like that. Mother knows he loved you.... How still it is
here! Where’s Inie?
LULU
They’ve gone away, you know....
MRS. BETT
Well, I guess I’ll step over to Grandma Gates’s a spell. See how her
rheumatism is. I’ll be back before long--I’ll be back....
[_Exit. For a moment LULU breaks down and sobs. Rises to lay
DWIGHT’S letter through the window on piano. Slight sound. She
listens. Enter DI from house. She is carrying a traveling bag._]
LULU
Di! Why Di! What does this mean? Where were you going? Why, mama won’t
like your carrying her nice new satchel....
DI
Aunt Lulu--the idea. What right have you to interfere with me like this?
LULU
Di, you must explain to me what this means.... Di, where can you be
going with a satchel this time of the night? Di Deacon, are you
running away with somebody?
DI
You have no right to ask me questions, Aunt Lulu.
LULU
Di, you’re going off with Bobby Larkin. Aren’t you? Aren’t you?
DI
If I am it’s entirely our own affair.
LULU
Why, Di. If you and Bobby want to be married why not let us get you up a
nice wedding here at home----
DI
Aunt Lulu, you’re a funny person to be telling _me_ what to do.
LULU
I love you just as much as if I was married happy, in a home.
DI
Well, you aren’t. And I’m going to do just as I think best. Bobby and I
are the ones most concerned in this, Aunt Lulu.
LULU
But--but getting married is for your whole life!
DI
Yours wasn’t.
LULU
Di, my dear little girl, you must wait at least till mama and papa get
home.
DI
That’s likely. They say I’m not to be married till I’m twenty-one.
LULU
Well, but how young that is.
DI
It is to you. It isn’t young to me, remember, Aunt Lulu.
LULU
But this is wrong--it is wrong!
DI
There’s nothing wrong about getting married if you stay married.
LULU
Well, then it can’t be wrong to let your mother and father know.
DI
It isn’t. But they’d treat me wrong. Mama’d cry and say I was disgracing
_her_. And papa--first he’d scold me and then he’d joke me about it.
He’d joke me about it every day for weeks, every morning at
breakfast, every night here on the porch--he’d joke me.
LULU
Why, Di! Do you feel that way, too?
DI
You don’t know what it is to be laughed at or paid no attention to,
everything you say.
LULU
Don’t I? Don’t I? Is that why you’re going?
DI
Well, it’s one reason.
LULU
But Di, do you love Bobby Larkin?
DI
Well.... I could love almost anybody real nice that was nice to me.
LULU
Di ... Di....
DI
It’s true.
[_BOBBY enters._]
You ought to know that.... You did it. Mama said so.
LULU
Don’t you think that I don’t know....
DI
Oh, Bobby, she’s trying to stop us! But she can’t do it--I’ve told her
so----
BOBBY
She don’t have to stop us. We’re stopped.
DI
What do you mean?
BOBBY
We’re minors.
DI
Well, gracious--you didn’t have to tell them that.
BOBBY
No. They knew _I_ was.
DI
But, silly. Why didn’t you tell them you’re not.
BOBBY
But I am.
DI
For pity sakes--don’t you know how to do anything?
BOBBY
What would you have me do, I’d like to know?
DI
Why tell them we’re both--whatever it is they want us to be. We look it.
We know we’re responsible--that’s all they care for. Well, you are a
funny....
BOBBY
You wanted me to lie?
DI
Oh! don’t make out you never told a fib.
BOBBY
Well, but this--why, Di--about a thing like this....
DI
I never heard of a lover flatting out like that!
BOBBY
Anyhow, there’s nothing to do now. The cat’s out. I’ve told our ages.
We’ve got to have our folks in on it.
DI
Is that all you can think of?
BOBBY
What else is there to think of?
DI
Why, let’s go to Bainbridge or Holt and tell them we’re of age and be
married there.
LULU
Di, wherever you go I’ll go with you. I won’t let you out of my sight.
DI
Bobby, why don’t you answer her?
BOBBY
But I’m not going to Bainbridge or Holt or any town and lie, to get you
or any other girl.
DI
You’re about as much like a man in a story as--as papa is.
[_Enter DWIGHT and INA._]
DWIGHT
What’s this? What’s this about papa?
INA
Well, what’s all this going on here?
LULU
Why, Ina!
DI
Oh, mama! I--I didn’t know you were coming so soon. Hello, dear! Hello,
papa! Here’s--here’s Bobby....
DWIGHT
What an unexpected pleasure, _Master_ Bobby.
BOBBY
Good-evening, Mrs. Deacon. Good-evening, Mr. Deacon.
DWIGHT
And Lulu. Is it Lulu? Is this lovely houri our Lulu? Is this Miss Lulu
Bett? Or is this Lulu something else by now? You can’t tell what
Lulu’ll do when you leave her alone at home. Ina--our festive ball
gown!
LULU
Ina, I made it out of that old muslin of yours, you know. I thought you
wouldn’t care----
INA
Oh, that! I was going to use it for Di but it doesn’t matter. You are
welcome to it, Lulu. Little youthful for anything but home wear,
isn’t it?
DWIGHT
It looks like a wedding gown. Why are you wearing a wedding gown--eh,
Lulu?
INA
Di Deacon, what have you got mama’s new bag for?
DI
I haven’t done anything to the bag, mama.
INA
Well, but what are you doing with it here?
DI
Oh, nothing! Did you--did you have a good time?
INA
Yes, we did--but I can’t see.... Dwight, look at Di with my new black
satchel.
DWIGHT
What is this, Diana?
DI
Well, I’m--I’m not going to use it for anything.
INA
I wish somebody would explain what is going on here. Lulu, can’t you
explain?
DWIGHT
Aha! Now, if Lulu is going to explain that’s something like it. When
Lulu begins to explain we get imagination going.
LULU
Di and I have a little secret. Can’t we have a little secret if we want
one?
DWIGHT
Upon my word, she has a beautiful secret. I don’t know about your
secrets, Lulu.
[_Enter MRS. BETT._]
MRS. BETT
Hello, Inie.
INA
Oh, mother dear....
DWIGHT
Well, Mother Bett....
MRS. BETT
That you, Dwight?
[_To BOBBY._]
... Don’t you help me. I guess I can help myself yet awhile.
[_Climbs the two steps._]
[_To DI._]
Made up your mind to come home, did you?
[_Seats herself._]
I got a joke. Grandma Gates says it’s all over town they wouldn’t give
Di and Bobby Larkin a license to get married.
[_Single note of laughter, thin and high._]
DWIGHT
What nonsense!
INA
Is it nonsense? Haven’t I been trying to find out where the new black
bag went? Di! Look at mama....
DI
Listen to that, Bobby. Listen!
INA
That won’t do, Di. You can’t deceive mama, and don’t you try.
BOBBY
Mrs. Deacon, I----
DWIGHT
Diana!
DI
Yes, papa.
DWIGHT
Answer your mother. Answer _me_. Is there anything in this absurd tale?
DI
No, papa.
DWIGHT
Nothing whatever?
DI
No, papa.
DWIGHT
Can you imagine how such a ridiculous story started?
DI
No, papa.
DWIGHT
Very well. Now we know where we are. If anybody hears this report
repeated, send them to _me_.
INA
Well, but that satchel----
DWIGHT
One moment. Lulu will of course verify what the child has said.
LULU
If you cannot settle this with Di, you cannot settle it with me.
DWIGHT
A shifty answer. You’re a bird at misrepresenting facts....
LULU
Oh!...
DWIGHT
Lulu, the bird!
LULU
Lulu, the dove to put up with you.
[_Exit._]
INA
Bobby wanted to say something....
BOBBY
No, Mrs. Deacon. I have nothing--more to say. I’ll--I’ll go now.
DWIGHT
Good-night, Robert.
[_INA and DWIGHT transfer bags and wraps to the house._]
BOBBY
Good-night, Mr. Deacon. Good-by, Di.
[_DI follows BOBBY. Right._]
DI
Bobby, come back, you hate a lie--but what else could I do?
BOBBY
What else could you do? I’d rather they never let us see each other
again than to lose you in the way I’ve lost you now.
DI
Bobby!
BOBBY
It’s true. We mustn’t talk about it.
DI
Bobby! I’ll go back and tell them all.
BOBBY
You can’t go back. Not out of a thing like that. Good-by, Di.
[_Exit._]
[_Enter DWIGHT and INA._]
DI
If you have any fear that I may elope with Bobby Larkin, let it rest. I
shall never marry him if he asks me fifty times a day.
INA
Really, darling?
DI
Really and truly, and he knows it, too.
DWIGHT
A-ha! The lovelorn maiden all forlorn makes up her mind not to be so
lorn as she thought she was. How does it seem not to be in love with
him, Di--eh?
DI
Papa, if you make fun of me any more I’ll--I’ll let the first train of
cars I can find run over me....
[_Sobs as she runs to house._]
MRS. BETT
Wait, darling! Tell grandma! Did Bobby have another wife too?
[_Exeunt MRS. BETT and DI._]
INA
Di, I’d be ashamed, when papa’s so good to you. Oh, my! what parents
have to put up with....
DWIGHT
Bear and forbear, pettie--bear and forbear.... By the way, Lulu, haven’t
I some mail somewhere about?
LULU
Yes, there’s a letter there. I’ll get it for you.
[_She reaches through the window._]
DWIGHT
A-ha! An epistle from my dear brother Ninian.
INA
Oh, from Ninian, Dwight?
DWIGHT
From Ninian--the husband of Miss Lulu Bett.... You opened the letter?...
Your sister has been opening my mail.
INA
But, Dwight, if it’s from Ninian----
DWIGHT
It is my mail.
INA
Well, what does he say?
DWIGHT
I shall read the letter in my own time. My present concern is this
disregard for my wishes. What excuse have you to offer?
LULU
None.
INA
Dwight, she knows what’s in it and we don’t. Hurry up.
DWIGHT
She is an ungrateful woman.
[_Opens the letter, with the clipping._]
INA
[_Over his shoulder._]
Ah!... Dwight, then he was....
DWIGHT
M--m--m--m. So after having been absent with my brother for a month you
find that you were not married to him.
LULU
You see, Dwight, he told the truth. He did have another wife. He didn’t
just leave me.
DWIGHT
But this seems to me to make you considerably worse off than if he had.
LULU
Oh, no! No! If he hadn’t--hadn’t liked me, he wouldn’t have told me
about her. You see that, don’t you?
DWIGHT
That your apology?... Look here, Lulu! This is a bad business. The less
you say about it the better for all our sakes. You see that, don’t
you?
LULU
See that? Why, no. I wanted you to write to him so I could tell the
truth. You said I mustn’t tell the truth till I had the proofs.
DWIGHT
Tell whom?
LULU
Tell everybody. I want them to know.
DWIGHT
Then you care nothing for our feelings in this matter?
LULU
Your feelings?
DWIGHT
How this will reflect on us--it’s nothing to you that we have a brother
who’s a bigamist?
LULU
But it’s me--it’s me.
DWIGHT
You! You’re completely out of it. You’ve nothing more to say about it
whatever. Just let it be as it is ... drop it. That’s all I suggest.
LULU
I want people to know the truth.
DWIGHT
But it’s nobody’s business but our business ... for all our sakes let us
drop this matter.... Now I tell you, Lulu--here are three of us. Our
interests are the same in this thing--only Ninian is our relative
and he’s nothing to you now. Is he?
LULU
Why----
DWIGHT
Let’s have a vote. Your snap judgment is to tell this disgraceful fact
broadcast. Mine is, least said soonest mended. What do you say, Ina?
INA
Oh, goodness--if we get mixed up in a scandal like this we’ll never get
away from it. Why, I wouldn’t have people know of it for worlds.
DWIGHT
Exactly. Ina has stated it exactly. Lulu, I think you should be
reconciled.
INA
My poor poor sister! Oh, Dwight! when I think of it--what have I done,
what have _we_ done--that I should have a good kind loving
husband--be so protected, so loved, when other women.... Darling!
You _know_ how sorry I am--we all are----
LULU
Then give me the only thing I’ve got--that’s my pride. My pride that he
didn’t want to get rid of me.
DWIGHT
What about my pride? Do you think I want everybody to know that my
brother did a thing like that?
LULU
You can’t help that.
DWIGHT
But I want you to help it. I want you to promise me that you won’t shame
us like this before all our friends.
LULU
You want me to promise what?
DWIGHT
I want you--I ask you to promise me that you will keep this with us--a
family secret.
LULU
No! No! I won’t do it! I won’t do it! I won’t do it!
DWIGHT
You refuse to do this small thing for us?
LULU
Can’t you understand anything? I’ve lived here all my life--on your
money. I’ve not been strong enough to work they say--well, but I’ve
been strong enough to be a hired girl in your house--and I’ve been
glad to pay for my keep.... But there wasn’t a thing about it that I
liked. Nothing about being here that I liked.... Well, then I got a
little something, same as other folks. I thought I was married and I
went off on the train and he bought me things and I saw different
towns. And then it was all a mistake. I didn’t have any of it. I
came back here and went into your kitchen again--I don’t know why I
came back. I suppose it’s because I’m most thirty-four and new
things ain’t so easy any more--but what have I got or what’ll I ever
have? And now you want to put on to me having folks look at me and
think he run off and left me and having them all wonder. I can’t
stand it. I can’t stand it. I can’t....
DWIGHT
You’d rather they’d know he fooled you when he had another wife?
LULU
Yes. Because he wanted me. How do I know--maybe he wanted me only just
because he was lonesome, the way I was. I don’t care why. And I
won’t have folks think he went and left me.
DWIGHT
That is wicked vanity.
LULU
That’s the truth. Well, why can’t they know the truth?
DWIGHT
And bring disgrace on us all?
LULU
It’s me--It’s me----
DWIGHT
You--you--you--you’re always thinking of yourself.
LULU
Who else thinks of me. And who do you think of--who do you think of,
Dwight? I’ll tell you that, because I know you better than any one
else in the world knows you--better even than Ina. And I know that
you’d sacrifice Ina, Di, mother, Monona, Ninian--everybody, just to
your own idea of who you are. You’re one of the men who can smother
a whole family and not even know you’re doing it.
DWIGHT
You listen to me. It’s Ninian I’m thinking about.
LULU
Ninian....
DWIGHT
Yes, yes ... Ninian!... Of course if you don’t care what happens to him,
it doesn’t matter.
LULU
What do you mean?
DWIGHT
If you don’t love him any more....
LULU
You know I love him. I’ll always love him.
DWIGHT
That’s likely. A woman doesn’t send the man she loves to prison.
LULU
I send him to prison! Why, he’s brought me the only happiness I’ve ever
had....
DWIGHT
But prison is just where he’ll go and you’ll be the one to send him
there.
LULU
Oh! That couldn’t be.... That couldn’t be....
DWIGHT
Don’t you realize that bigamy is a crime? If you tell this thing he’ll
go to prison ... nothing can save him.
LULU
I never thought of that....
DWIGHT
It’s time you did think. Now will you promise to keep this with us, a
family secret?
LULU
Yes. I promise.
DWIGHT
You will?...
LULU
Yes ... I will.
DWIGHT
A ... h. You’ll be happy some day to think you’ve done this for us,
Lulu.
LULU
I s’pose so....
INA
This makes up for everything. My sweet self-sacrificing sister!
LULU
Oh, stop that!
INA
Oh, the pity of it ... the pity of it!...
LULU
Don’t you go around pitying me! I’ll have you know I’m glad the whole
thing happened.
CURTAIN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT III
THE SAME. _Discover MRS. BETT, tidying the porch and singing. It is the
following morning._
[_Enter LULU with bag._]
MRS. BETT
Where you going now, for pity sakes?
LULU
Mother. Now, mother darling, listen and try to understand.
MRS. BETT
Well, I am listening, Lulie.
LULU
Mother, I can’t stay here. I can’t stay here any longer. I’ve got to get
clear away from Dwight and Ina.
MRS. BETT
You want to live somewhere else, Lulie?
LULU
I can’t live here and have people think Ninian left me. I can’t tell the
truth and bring disgrace on Ninian. And I can’t stay here in
Dwight’s kitchen a day longer. Oh, mother! I wish you could see----
MRS. BETT
Why, Lulie, I do see that.
LULU
You do, mother?
MRS. BETT
I’ve often wondered why you didn’t go before.
LULU
Oh, mother, you dear----
MRS. BETT
You needn’t think because I’m old I don’t know a thing or two.
LULU
You want me to go?
MRS. BETT
It’s all I can do for you now, Lulie. Just to want you to go. I’m old
and I’m weak and I can’t keep care of you like when you was little.
LULU
Oh, mother, I’m so glad!
MRS. BETT
I ain’t exactly glad----
LULU
Dearest, I mean I was so afraid you wouldn’t understand----
MRS. BETT
Why wouldn’t I understand, I’d like to know? You speak like I didn’t
have a brain in my skull.
LULU
No, dear, but----
MRS. BETT
You mind me, Lulie, and go on. Go on.... Say, scat’s sake, you can’t go.
You ain’t got any money.
LULU
Yes, mother, I have. I’ve got twelve dollars.
MRS. BETT
And I ain’t got much. Only enough to bury me nice.
LULU
Don’t you worry, mother. I’ll be all right. I’ll get work.
MRS. BETT
Mother wants to help you. Here, Lulie, you take my funeral fifty. Joke
on Dwight to make him bury me.
LULU
Oh, no, mother, I couldn’t.
MRS. BETT
You mind me, Lulie. Do as mother tells you.
LULU
Mother, dearest! Oh, I wish I could take you with me!
MRS. BETT
You needn’t to worry about me. If I get lonesome I can give Dwight the
dickens.
LULU
Good-by--dear--good-by. I’ll go the back way, they won’t see me.
[_LULU kisses her and turns away. Left._]
MRS. BETT
Lulie. Mother loves you. You know that, don’t you?
LULU
Dearest, yes--yes, I do know.
[_She goes. MRS. BETT trembles, turns, sees her dustcloth, goes on
working and begins to hum._]
[_Enter DWIGHT._]
DWIGHT
Ready for breakfast, Mama Bett?
MRS. BETT
No, I ain’t ready.
DWIGHT
Neither is the breakfast. Lulu must be having the tantrim.
MRS. BETT
I s’pose you think that’s funny.
DWIGHT
Lulu ought to think of you--old folks ought to have regular meals----
MRS. BETT
Old? Old? Me, old?
DWIGHT
Well, you’re hungry. That’s what makes you so cross, Mama Bett.
MRS. BETT
All you think of is food, anyhow.
DWIGHT
Who has a better right? Who provides the food we eat?
MRS. BETT
That’s all you’re good for.
DWIGHT
Well, I may not amount to much in this old world of ours but I flatter
myself I’m a good provider.
MRS. BETT
If I was going to brag I’d brag original.
DWIGHT
You mustn’t talk like that. You know you’re my best girl.
MRS. BETT
Don’t you best-girl me.
DWIGHT
There, there, there....
MRS. BETT
Now look at you. Walking all over me like I wasn’t here--like I wasn’t
nowhere.
DWIGHT
Now, Mama Bett, you’re havin’ the tantrim.
MRS. BETT
Am I? All right then I am. What you going to do about it? How you going
to stop me?
DWIGHT
Now, now, now, now....
[_Enter INA._]
INA
Dwight, I can’t think what’s happened to Lulu. Breakfast isn’t even
started.
DWIGHT
Lulu must be having a rendezvous.
[_Grandma snorts._]
INA
That’s randevoo, Dwightie. Not rendezvous.
DWIGHT
You two are pretty particular, seems to me.
MRS. BETT
Oh, no! We ain’t used to the best.
[_DI is at the door._]
DI
Hello, family! What’s the matter with breakfast?
MRS. BETT
There ain’t any.
INA
Di, let’s you and I get breakfast just to show Aunt Lulu that we can.
MRS. BETT
Say if you two are going to get breakfast, I’ll go over to Grandma Gates
for a snack.
[_Enter MONONA._]
MONONA
What do you s’pose? Aunt Lulu’s trunk is locked and strapped in her
room.
INA
Monona, stop imagining things.
MONONA
Well, it is. And I saw her going down the walk with her satchel when I
was washing me.
DWIGHT
Lulu must be completely out of her mind.
MRS. BETT
First time I’ve known her to show good sense in years.
INA
Why, mama!
DWIGHT
Mother Bett, do you know where Lulu is?
MRS. BETT
Mother knows a-plenty.
INA
Mama, what do you mean?
MRS. BETT
I know all about Lulie being gone. She went this morning. I told her to
go.
INA
Why, mama! How can you talk so! When Dwight has been so good to you and
Lulu....
MRS. BETT
Good, yes, he’s give us a pillow and a baked potato----
DWIGHT
So! You and Lulu presume to upset the arrangement of my household
without one word to me.
MRS. BETT
Upset, upset--You cockroach!...
INA
Monona! Stop listening. Now run away and play. Di, you go and begin
breakfast.
DI
Yes, mummy.
MONONA
Aw, let me stay.
INA
[_Exeunt DI and MONONA._]
Go at once, children.
Mother, you ought not to use such language before young people.
MRS. BETT
Don’t you think they’re fooled. What do you suppose Di was going to run
away with Bobby Larkin for, only to get away from you.
DWIGHT
Mother Bett!
MRS. BETT
What do you suppose Lulu married Ninian for--only to get shed of both of
you.
INA
Oh please, please, somebody think a little bit of me. Dwight, do go
after Lulu--go to the depot--she couldn’t get away before the 8:37.
DWIGHT
My dear Ina, my dignity----
INA
Oh, please do go!
DWIGHT
Oh, my heavens! what a house full of women----
INA
Dwight, we can’t get along without Lulu.
DWIGHT
Upsetting things about my ears....
[_Exit._]
INA
Mama, I do think it’s too bad of you--oh! now I’ll try to get some
breakfast.
[_Exit._]
MRS. BETT
Going to try to, he-e!
[_Enter MONONA._]
MONONA
Oh, grandma isn’t it fun with so much going on!
MRS. BETT
What’s that, you little ape?
MONONA
Oh, I just love it! Everybody makes such funny faces.
MRS. BETT
Some people are born with funny faces. Monona, ain’t you ever going to
grow up?
MONONA
Grandma, I am grown up.
MRS. BETT
You don’t act like it.
MONONA
Well, grown folks don’t neither.
MRS. BETT
Sh-hh-hhh, stop talking back to me.
MONONA
Everybody shushes me. If I don’t talk, how’ll they know I’m there?
MRS. BETT
I guess they could bear up if they didn’t know you was there.
MONONA
I’d better get in, or I’ll catch it.
[_MONONA sings a silly song._]
MRS. BETT
[_Rocking in rhythm with the song._]
Scot’s sake, what am I doing! Them wicked words.
[_Enter DI._]
DI
Monona, mama wants you.
MONONA
I’d better go or I’ll catch it. I’ll catch it anyway----
[_Exit._]
[_Enter NINIAN._]
DI
Uncle Ninian! Well it’s just about time you showed up.
NINIAN
You’re right, Di. But I came as soon as I could.
DI
You might as well know. I think you’re a perfect slunge.
MRS. BETT
Land sakes!
NINIAN
Mrs. Bett.
MRS. BETT
Don’t you come near me! Don’t you speak to me! You whited centipede!
NINIAN
That’s what I expected and that’s what I deserve.
MRS. BETT
Move on! Move on!
NINIAN
Let me tell you something first, Mother Bett.
MRS. BETT
Don’t you “mother” me.
NINIAN
Yes, that’s just what I mean, _Mother_ Bett. I’ve found that the woman I
married died in Rio years ago. Here’s a letter from the consul.
MRS. BETT
Dead? Ain’t that nice! But what ailed you all the time? A man with any
get-up-and-get would have known that all along.
NINIAN
I’m not excusing myself any, Mother Bett.
MRS. BETT
Well, perhaps you’re as good as you know how to be. Anyway, your
mother’s responsible for a good deal without counting you.
NINIAN
Mother Bett, where is Lulu?
MRS. BETT
Who, Lulie? Oh, she’s run away.
NINIAN
What do you say?
MRS. BETT
She’s gone off on the train this morning. I told her to go.
NINIAN
Mother Bett, Mother Bett--where has she gone?
MRS. BETT
Gone to call her soul her own, I guess.
NINIAN
But Mother Bett, where did Lulu go?
MRS. BETT
She might be at the depot.
NINIAN
Can I catch her?
MRS. BETT
You can catch her if ye can run in them white--mittens.
NINIAN
Run? Watch me.
[_Exit running._]
DI
Oh! Grandma, isn’t it just too romantic?
MRS. BETT
What do you mean--rheumatic?
[_Enter MONONA._]
MONONA
Breakfast’s ready, grandma.
MRS. BETT
Breakfast! I wouldn’t know coffee from flapjacks.
MONONA
I’ve been catching it all morning and I didn’t do a thing.
MRS. BETT
What’s that, little ape?
MONONA
Grandma, honestly, do you see why because Aunt Lulu ran away the whole
family should pick on me?
MRS. BETT
Come here, you poor neglected child!
MONONA
Mama’s getting breakfast and she’s burned all over and she’s so
cross--m-m-m. Why here she comes now!
MRS. BETT
Who?
DI
Aunt Lulu!
[_Enter LULU._]
LULU
Mother----
MONONA
Oh, goody--now they’ll pick on you instead of me.
MRS. BETT
[_Softly._]
Monona! You run down the road as tight as you can and catch your Uncle
Ninian quick--Sh-sh-sh----
MONONA
Uncle Ninian! Oh--oh!
[_Exit._]
LULU
Mother--what do you think I’ve heard?
MRS. BETT
Land knows! my head’s whirlin’. Who found you?
LULU
Found me?
MRS. BETT
I can count up to ’leven in this house that’s went after you or went
after them that went after them--Oh land!...
LULU
Mother, the station agent said to me just now when I went to buy my
ticket, he said, “You just missed your husband. He went hurrying up
the street.” I couldn’t go till I knew.
DI
Why, Aunt Lulu, haven’t you heard----
MRS. BETT
Sh-h-h-h-- Leave it burst.
[_Enter DWIGHT._]
DWIGHT
So ... after making me traipse all over town for you and before
breakfast.... What is the meaning of this, Lulu? Answer me.
MRS. BETT
Sit down, Dwight. Take off your hat why don’t you?
[_Enter INA._]
INA
Forevermore.
LULU
Were you looking for me, Dwight?
DWIGHT
What about our breakfast, may I ask?
LULU
Haven’t you had your breakfast, Dwight? I had mine in the bakery.
MRS. BETT
In the bakery! On expense!
INA
Lulu, where have you been?
LULU
How good of you to miss me!
INA
Lulu, you don’t act like yourself.
LULU
That’s the way I heard the women talk in Savannah, Georgia. “So good of
you to miss me.”
DWIGHT
Lulu, let’s have no more of this nonsense....
LULU
Whose nonsense, Dwight? I’ve left your home for good and all. I’m going
somewhere else to work.
INA
Why, Lulu, what will people think of Dwight and me if we let you do
that?
DWIGHT
So you thought better of the promise you made to us last evening not to
tell our affairs broadcast.
LULU
Your affairs? No, Dwight, you can tell them anything you like when I’m
gone.
INA
How am I ever going to keep house without you? Dwight, you’ve simply got
to make her stay. When I think of what I went through while she was
away ... everything boils over, and what I don’t expect to b-b-boil
b-b-burns. Sister, how can you be so cruel when Dwight and I----
DWIGHT
Patience, patience, pettie.... Lulu, I ask you to stay here where you
belong.
LULU
No, Dwight, I’m through.
DWIGHT
So, sister mine, have you found some other man willing to run away with
you?
LULU
That will do, Dwight. You’ve pretended so long you can’t be honest with
yourself, any of the time. Your whole life is a lie.
MRS. BETT
Save your breath, Lulie.
[_Enter MONONA with NINIAN._]
DWIGHT
At least, Miss Lulu Bett, neither Ina nor I ever had to lie about our
marriage.
MONONA
Here he is, grandma.
LULU
Oh....
NINIAN
What’s that you’re saying, Dwight?
INA
Forevermore!
LULU
Ninian....
NINIAN
Lulu.... So I didn’t miss you.
DWIGHT
Ha! ha!... The happy bridegroom comes at last. What’s the meaning of
this, Ninian?
NINIAN
I’ll bet he’s made life beautiful for you since you got back. Anything
more to say, Dwight?
DWIGHT
Yes, Lulu was planning to run away.... I was telling her she’d better
stay here at home where she’d have us to stand by her.
NINIAN
Yes, I’ve heard how you stood by her. You’re a magnificent protector,
you are!
DWIGHT
Look here, Nin, don’t you feel that you have to sacrifice yourself. Lulu
is well enough off here.
INA
She was quite happy until you came, Ninian.
NINIAN
You hypocrites!
MRS. BETT
Hypocrites! He-e!
INA
Children, stop listening to older people.
DI
Oh, mama!...
MONONA
[_Crying._]
Oh.... Let me stay!
INA
Children!...
[_Exeunt DI and MONONA._]
Ninian, how can you say such things to us!
NINIAN
Lulu has suffered as much from you as she has from me.
MRS. BETT
That’s right, Ninian. Plain talk won’t hurt nobody around here.
NINIAN
Lulu, can you forgive me?
LULU
But Cora Waters ... what of her?
DWIGHT
Yes, what about your other wife?
NINIAN
I haven’t any other wife--just Lulu.
MRS. BETT
Cora Waters is dead. I knew it all along.
LULU
Ninian, is it true?
NINIAN
Yes, it’s true.
MRS. BETT
He’s confided in his mother. He told me all about it.
NINIAN
Will you come back to me, Lulu?
MRS. BETT
Better take him, Lulie. You can have that fifty to furnish up the
parlor.
LULU
Oh, mother! I wish we could have you with us.
NINIAN
Do you forgive me?
LULU
I forgave you in Savannah, Georgia.
CURTAIN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT III
[_As originally produced December 27, 1920._]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT III
THE PIANO STORE: _Empty, bare, three or four upright pianos with bright
plush spreads and plush-covered stools. Back, a dark green sateen
curtain. It is the following morning._
[_Discover CORNISH at a little table, on which is opened a large
black book._]
[_Enter MONONA, carrying basket of parcels._]
MONONA
Oh, Mr. Cornish....
CORNISH
Hello, there, Monona! How’s everything?
MONONA
Everything’s perfectly awful up to our house.
CORNISH
Miss Lulu’s all right, I hope?
MONONA
Aunt Lulu is----
CORNISH
There! I knew it. I know this thing was going to wind up in a fit of
sickness----
MONONA
Sick.... No. She’s gone.
CORNISH
Gone! Miss Lulu gone?
MONONA
Run away.
CORNISH
Oh, with who?
MONONA
Nobody, I guess. She skipped out of the house early this morning. It was
me saw her going down the walk with her bag. It was me told
everybody. It was me found her trunk packed and locked in her room.
That’s all.
CORNISH
This is terrible, terrible--and your people not home yet?
MONONA
I should say they are. Came last night.
CORNISH
But what are they doing to find her?
MONONA
Papa said he wouldn’t do a thing. Mamma’s been getting breakfast and
she’s burned all over, and she’s so cross--m-m!
CORNISH
Yes, but aren’t they trying to find Lulu--your Aunt Lulu----
MONONA
Grandma says she knows she’s dead. Probably she’s drowned in the river
and they’ll get her out with her hair all stringy----
CORNISH
See here. I think I’ll come up to your house. I’ll put a little notice
on my door----
MONONA
I better go now. I’ll catch it anyhow. I’ve been catching it all the
morning and I didn’t do a thing. Mr. Cornish, honestly, do you see
why, because Aunt Lulu ran away, the whole family should pick on me?
CORNISH
Well, we must all help as much as we can, Monona----
MONONA
Up to our house, honestly, you’d think I was the one that had done it.
And I may!
[_Exit, running._]
CORNISH
I’ll be right there, as soon as I can lock up.
[_He disappears behind the green curtain. Pause._]
[_Enter LULU._]
LULU
Mr. Cornish. Mr. Cornish.
[_CORNISH appears._]
CORNISH
Well!
LULU
Well!
CORNISH
You’re out early.
LULU
Oh, no!
CORNISH
My, but I’m glad to see you. Won’t you sit down?
LULU
I can only stay a minute. Wasn’t that Monona just went out of here?
CORNISH
Yes, that was Monona.
LULU
Did she say anything about me?
CORNISH
She--she said you’d run away. She--she must have been mistaken.
LULU
No, she wasn’t. I have.
CORNISH
Why, Miss Lulu!
LULU
Or I’m going on the 10:10. My bag’s in the bakery. I had my breakfast in
the bakery.... I’ve left them for good.
CORNISH
Then I suppose he cut up like a hyena over that letter being opened.
LULU
Oh, he forgave me that.
CORNISH
Forgave you!
LULU
Overlooked it, rather.
CORNISH
Anyway he’s convinced now about that other Mrs. Ninian Deacon?
LULU
Yes, but you mustn’t say anything about that, please, ever.
CORNISH
Even now? Well, I’ll be jumped up. _Even now?_ Then--I guess I see why
you’re going.
LULU
It isn’t only that. I’m going ... I’m _going_!
CORNISH
I see. Would--would you tell me where?
LULU
Maybe. After a while.
CORNISH
I do want you to. Because I--I think you’re a brick.
LULU
Oh, no!
CORNISH
Yes, you are. By George! you don’t find very many _married_ women with
as good sense as you’ve got. That is, I mean----
LULU
All right. I know. Thank you.
CORNISH
You’ve been a jewel in their home--I know that. They’re going to miss
you no end.
LULU
They’ll miss my cooking.
CORNISH
They’ll miss more than that. I’ve watched you there....
LULU
You have?
CORNISH
You made the whole place go.
LULU
You don’t mean just the cooking?
CORNISH
No.
LULU
I never had but one compliment before that wasn’t for my cooking. He
told me I done up my hair nice.... That was after I took notice how
the ladies in Savannah, Georgia, done up theirs.
CORNISH
Well, well, well!...
LULU
I must go now. I wanted to say good-by to you....
CORNISH
I hate to have you go. I--I hate to have you go.
LULU
Oh, well!
CORNISH
Look here, I wish--I wish you weren’t going.
LULU
Do you? Good-by.
CORNISH
Can’t I come to the depot with you?
LULU
You can’t leave the store alone.
CORNISH
Yes. I’ll put a little notice on the door....
LULU
No. That would be bad for the business. Good-by.
CORNISH
Good-by, Miss Lulu! Good-by, good-by, good-by!...
LULU
There’s something else. I’m going to tell you--I don’t care what Dwight
says.
[_Takes letter from her handbag._]
As long as I told you the other part, I’m going to tell you this.
CORNISH
I want to know everything you’ll let me know.
LULU
See--at the office this morning was this. It’s from Ninian.
CORNISH
Well, I should think he’d better write.
LULU
Nobody must know. It was bad enough for the family before, but now ...
here it is:
“... just want you to know you’re actually rid of me. I’ve heard
from her, in Brazil. She ran out of money and thought of me, and
her lawyer wrote to me....” ... he incloses the lawyer’s letter.
“I’ve never been any good--Dwight would tell you that if his pride
would let him tell the truth once in a while. But there isn’t
anything in my life makes me feel as bad as this....”
... well, that part doesn’t matter. But you see. He didn’t lie to
get rid of me--and she was alive just as he thought she might be!
CORNISH
And you’re free now.
LULU
That’s so--I am. I hadn’t thought of that.... It’s late. Now I’m really
going. Good-by.
CORNISH
Don’t say good-by.
LULU
It’s nearly train time.
CORNISH
Don’t you go.... Do you think you could possibly stay here with me?
LULU
Oh!...
CORNISH
I haven’t got anything. I guess maybe you’ve heard something about a
little something I’m supposed to inherit. Well, it’s only five
hundred dollars.... That little Warden house--it don’t cost
much--you’d be surprised. Rent, I mean. I can get it now. I went and
looked at it the other day but then I didn’t think ... well, I mean,
it don’t cost near as much as this store. We could furnish up the
parlor with pianos ... that is, if you could ever think of such a
thing as marrying me.
LULU
But--you _know_! Why, don’t the disgrace----
CORNISH
What disgrace?
LULU
Oh, you--you----
CORNISH
There’s only this about that. Of course, if you loved him very much then
I ought not to be talking this way to you. But I didn’t think----
LULU
You didn’t think what?
CORNISH
That you did care so very much about him. I don’t know why.
LULU
I wanted somebody of my own. That’s the reason I done what I done. I
know that now.
CORNISH
I figured that way.... Look here, I ought to tell you. I’m--I’m awful
lonesome myself. This is no place to live. Look--look here.
[_He draws the green curtain, revealing the mean little cot and
washstand._]
I guess living so is one reason why I want to get married. I want some
kind of a home.
LULU
Of course.
CORNISH
I ain’t never lived what you might say private.
LULU
I’ve lived too private.
[_Pause._]
CORNISH
Then there’s another thing. I--I don’t believe I’m ever going to be able
to do anything with the law.
LULU
I don’t see how anybody does.
CORNISH
And I’m not much good in a business way. Sometimes I think that I may
never be able to make any money.
LULU
Lots of men don’t.
CORNISH
Well, there it is. I’m no good at business. I’ll never be a lawyer.
And--and everything I say sounds wrong to me. And yet I do believe
that I’d know enough not to bully a woman. Not to make her unhappy.
Maybe--even, I could make her a little happy.
LULU
Lots of men do.
[_Voices._]
[_Enter INA, DWIGHT and MRS. BETT._]
INA
Oh, Dwight! she’s still here.
DWIGHT
So this is where we find our Lulu!
LULU
Did you want me, Dwight?
INA
Want you? Why, Lulu! are you crazy? Of course we want you. Why aren’t
you home?
[_Nursing her wrist, which is bandaged, with the other hand, which
is bandaged, too._]
MRS. BETT
Lulie, Lulie, we thought you’d gone off again.
LULU
Mother, darling....
DWIGHT
Here am I kept home from the office, trying my best to take your place.
You’re a most important personage, Miss Lulu Bett.
LULU
What did you want of me?
INA
Want of you? Why, my goodness....
DWIGHT
If you had tasted bacon fried as the bacon was fried which I have tasted
this day----
INA
Oh, Dwight, that’s not funny!
DWIGHT
No. And the muffins were not funny either. Yes they were!
LULU
How good of you to miss me!
INA
Lulu, you don’t act like yourself.
LULU
That was the way I heard the women talk in Savannah, Georgia. “So good
of you to miss me.”
DWIGHT
Lulu, what does this mean? No more of this nonsense.
LULU
Whose nonsense, Dwight?
DWIGHT
We know that your trunk is locked and strapped in your room and you were
seen going down the street with a bag. You have flown here,
presumably to discuss your situation with an outsider. Is this fair
to us?
LULU
What do you want me to do, Dwight?
INA
Do? Why, we want you to come home.
LULU
Home!
DWIGHT
Also to explain your amazing behavior.
CORNISH
May I do that, Miss Lulu?
LULU
No--no thank you. I think I’d like to speak for myself. Dwight, I’ve
left your home for good and all.
INA
Sister....
MRS. BETT
Lulie ... Lulie!...
DWIGHT
Ah-ha! You have thought better of the promise you made to Ina and me
last evening not to tell our affairs broadcast.
LULU
I’ve thought no better of it--and no worse. I couldn’t. But I’ve been
thinking of something else. Of you, Dwight.
DWIGHT
Ah--I’m flattered.
LULU
... Let it go at that.... In any case, I’ve left your home.
INA
But where are you going?
LULU
I meant to go somewhere else and work.
INA
Go somewhere else and work. Cook? Lulu, have you no consideration for
Dwight and me at all? What would people think if we let you do
that....
DWIGHT
Patience, patience, pettie. Let’s have no more of this, Lulu. I imagine
you’re not quite well. Come home with us, now, there’s a good girl.
LULU
No, Dwight.
INA
Lulu, I simply can’t keep house without you. When I think of going
through with what I went through this summer while you were away....
Everything b-boils over and what I don’t expect to b-boil
b-burns....
[_Sobs._]
Dwightie, you’ve got to make her stay.
DWIGHT
Pettie--control yourself.... Lulu, I ask you, I implore you, to come
back home with us.
CORNISH
Miss Lulu....
LULU
Yes?
CORNISH
May I tell them?
LULU
What is there to tell them?
CORNISH
I think Miss Lulu and I are going to--arrange.
LULU
O but not yet--not yet.
DWIGHT
What--you? You and Cornish? I should think not. How can you?
LULU
Cora Waters is alive. Ninian’s heard from her. There’s her lawyer’s
letter.
INA
Forevermore!
MRS. BETT
What you talking--what you talking. I want to know but I ain’t got
something in my head.... Lulie, you ain’t going to get married
again, are you--after waiting so long?
DWIGHT
Don’t be disturbed, Mother Bett. She wasn’t married that first time. No
marriage about it.
INA
Dwight! If Lulu marries Mr. Cornish, then everybody’ll have to know
about Ninian and his other wife.
LULU
That’s so. You would have to tell, wouldn’t you? I never thought of
that. Well--you can get used to the idea while I’m gone.
DWIGHT
Gone?
INA
Gone where?
MRS. BETT
Where you goin’ now, for pity sakes?
LULU
Away. I thought I wanted somebody of my own. Well, maybe it was just
myself.
DWIGHT
What ridiculous talk is this?
CORNISH
Lulu--couldn’t you stay with me----
LULU
Sometime, maybe. I don’t know. But first I want to see out of my own
eyes. For the first time in my life. Good-by, mother.
MRS. BETT
Lulie, Lulie....
LULU
[_At the door._]
Good-by. Good-by, all of you. I’m going I don’t know where--to work at I
don’t know what. But I’m going from choice!
[_Exit._]
[_CORNISH follows her._]
MRS. BETT
Who’s going to do your work now, I’d like to know?
CURTAIN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Notes
This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. New original
cover art included with this ebook is granted to the public domain.
The printed text is somewhat inconsistent in how it indents lines of
stage directions other than the first line; in this text, all stage
directions (other than initial scene descriptions) are indented
after the first line.
The following changes and corrections have been made:
• p. xvii: Replaced “Louis” with “Louise” in name “Louise Closser
Hale.”
• p. 45: Replaced “wont” with “won’t” in phrase “Oh, maybe Ina won’t
go.”
• p. 51: Added closing bracket to stage direction “Exit NINIAN.”
• p. 63: Added closing bracket to stage direction after phrase “one
note of laughter, thin and high.”
• p. 85: Replaced “hadn’” with “hadn’t” in phrase “I hadn’t been a
good wife to Ninian.”
• p. 158: Added period after phrase “Lulu, you don’t act like
yourself.”
• p. 159: Replaced “your” with “you’re” in phrase “What’s that
you’re saying, Dwight?”