Scene. _Same as Act I. It is half past one of same day. Curtain
discloses Knox seated at right front and waiting. He is dejected
in attitude._
(_Margaret enters from right rear, and advances to him. He rises
awkwardly and shakes hands. She is very calm and self-possessed._)
{Margaret}
I knew you would come. Strange that I had to send for you so soon
after last night--
(_With alarm and sudden change of manner._) What is the matter? You
are sick. Your hand is cold.
(_She warms it in both of her hands._)
{Knox}
It is flame or freeze with me.
(_Smiling._) And I'd rather flame.
{Margaret}
(_Becoming aware that she is warming his hand._)
Sit down and tell me what is the matter.
(_Leading him by the hand she seats him, at the same time seating
herself._)
{Knox}
(_Abruptly._) After you left last night, Hubbard stole those
documents back again.
{Margaret}
(_Very matter-of-fact._) Yes; he was in your bedroom while I was
there.
{Knox}
(_Startled._) How do you know that? Anyway, he did not know who you
were.
{Margaret}
Oh yes he did.
{Knox}
(_Angrily._) And he has dared--?
{Margaret}
Yes; not two hours ago. He announced the fact before my father,
my mother, Connie, the servants, everybody.
{Knox}
(_Rising to his feet and beginning to pace perturbedly up and
down._) The cur!
{Margaret} (_Quietly._) I believe, among other things, I told him
he was that myself.
(_She laughs cynically._) Oh, it was a pretty family party, I
assure you. Mother said she didn't believe it--but that was
only hysteria. Of course she believes it--the worst. So does
Connie--everybody.
{Knox}
(_Stopping abruptly and looking at her horror-stricken._) You don't
mean they charged----?
{Margaret}
No; I don't mean that. I mean more. They didn't charge. They
accepted it as a proven fact that I was guilty. That you were
my--lover.
{Knox}
On that man's testimony?
{Margaret}
He had two witnesses in an adjoining room.
{Knox}
(_Relieved._) All the better. They can testify to nothing more than
the truth, and the truth is not serious. In our case it is good,
for we renounced each other.
{Margaret}
You don't know these men. It is easy to guess that they have been
well trained. They would swear to anything.
(_She laughs bitterly._) They are my father's men, you know, his
paid sleuth-hounds.
{Knox}
(_Collapsing in chair, holding head in hands, and groaning._) How
you must have suffered. What a terrible time, what a terrible
time! I can see it all--before everybody--your nearest and
dearest. Ah, I could not understand, after our parting last
night, why you should have sent for me today. But now I know.
{Margaret}
No you don't, at all.
{Knox}
(_Ignoring her and again beginning to pace back and forth,
thinking on his feet._) What's the difference? I am ruined
politically. Their scheme has worked out only too well. Gifford
warned me, you warned me, everybody warned me. But I was a fool,
blind--with a fool's folly. There is nothing left but you now.
(_He pauses, and the light of a new thought irradiates his face._)
Do you know, Margaret, I thank God it has happened as it
has. What if my usefulness is destroyed? There will be other
men--other leaders. I but make way for another. The cause of the
people can never be lost. And though I am driven from the fight,
I am driven to you. We are driven together. It is fate. Again I
thank God for it.
(_He approaches her and tries to clasp her in his arms, but she
steps back._)
{Margaret}
(_Smiling sadly._) Ah, now you flame. The tables are reversed. Last
night it was I. We are fortunate that we choose diverse times for
our moods--else there would be naught but one sweet melting mad
disaster.
{Knox}
But it is not as if we had done this thing deliberately and
selfishly. We have renounced. We have struggled against it until
we were beaten. And now we are driven together, not by our doing
but Fate's. After this affair this morning there is nothing
for you but to come to me. And as for me, despite my best, I am
finished. I have failed. As I told you, the papers are stolen.
There will be no speech this afternoon.
{Margaret}
(_Quietly._) Yes there will.
{Knox}
Impossible. I would make a triple fool of myself. I would be
unable to substantiate my charges.
{Margaret}
You will substantiate them. What a chain of theft it is. My
father steals from the people. The documents that prove his
stealing are stolen by Gherst. Hubbard steals them from you and
returns them to my father. And I steal them from my father and
pass them back to you.
{Knox} (_Astounded._) You?--You?--
{Margaret}
Yes; this very morning. That was the cause of all the trouble.
If I hadn't stolen them nothing would have happened. Hubbard had
just returned them to my father.
{Knox}
(_Profoundly touched._) And you did this for me--?
{Margaret}
Dear man, I didn't do it for you. I wasn't brave enough. I should
have given in. I don't mind confessing that I started to do it
for you, but it soon grew so terrible that I was afraid. It
grew so terrible that had it been for you alone I should have
surrendered. But out of the terror of it all I caught a wider
vision, and all that you said last night rose before me. And I
knew that you were right. I thought of all the people, and of
the little children. I did it for them, after all. You speak for
them. I stole the papers so that you could use them in speaking
for the people. Don't you see, dear man?
(_Changing to angry recollection._) Do you know what they cost
me? Do you know what was done to me, to-day, this morning, in my
father's house? I was shamed, humiliated, as I would never
have dreamed it possible. Do you know what they did to me?
The servants were called in, and by them I was stripped before
everybody--my family, Hubbard, the Reverend Mr. Rutland, the
secretary, everybody.
{Knox}
(_Stunned._) Stripped--you?
{Margaret}
Every stitch. My father commanded it
{Knox}
(_Suddenly visioning the scene._) My God!
{Margaret}
(_Recovering herself and speaking cynically, with a laugh at his
shocked face._) No; it was not so bad as that. There was a screen.
(_Knox appears somewhat relieved._) But it fell down in the midst
of the struggle.
{Knox}
But in heaven's name why was this done to you?
{Margaret}
Searching for the lost letters. They knew I had taken them.
(_Speaking gravely._)
So you see, I have earned those papers. And I have earned the
right to say what shall be done with them. I shall give them to
you, and you will use them in your speech this afternoon.
{Knox}
I don't want them.
{Margaret}
(_Going to bell and ringing._) Oh yes you do. They are more
valuable right now than anything else in the world.
{Knox}
(_Shaking his head._) I wish it hadn't happened.
{Margaret}
(_Returning to him, pausing by his chair, and caressing his hair._)
What?
{Knox}
This morning--your recovering the letters. I had adjusted
myself to their loss, and the loss of the fight, and the finding
of--you.
(_He reaches up, draws down her hand, and presses it to his lips._)
So--give them back to your father.
(_Margaret draws quickly away from him._) (_Enter Man-servant at
right rear._)
{Margaret}
Send Linda to me.
(_Exit Man-servant._)
{Knox}
What are you doing?
{Margaret}
(_Sitting down._) I am going to send Linda for them. They are still
in my father's house, hidden, of all places, behind Lincoln's
portrait. He will guard them safely, I know.
{Knox}
(_With fervor._) Margaret! Margaret! Don't send for them. Let them
go. I don't want them.
(_Rising and going toward her impulsively._) (_Margaret rises and
retreats, holding him off._) I want you--you--you.
(_He catches her hand and kisses it. She tears it away from him,
but tenderly._)
{Margaret}
(_Still retreating, roguishly and tenderly._) Dear, dear man, I
love to see you so. But it cannot be.
(_Looking anxiously toward right rear._) No, no, please, please sit
down.
(_Enter Linda from right rear. She is dressed for the street._)
{Margaret}
(_Surprised._) Where are you going?
{Linda}
Tommy and the nurse and I were going down town. There is some
shopping she wants to do.
{Margaret}
Very good. But go first to my father's house. Listen closely. In
the library, behind the portrait of Lincoln--you know it? (_Linda
nods._)
You will find a packet of papers. It took me five seconds to put
it there. It will take you no longer to get it. Let no one see
you. Let it appear as though you had brought Tommy to see his
grandmother and cheer her up. You know she is not feeling very
well just now. After you get the papers, leave Tommy there and
bring them immediately back to me. Step on a chair to the ledge
of the bookcase, and reach behind the portrait. You should be
back inside fifteen minutes. Take the car.
{Linda}
Tommy and the nurse are already in it, waiting for me.
{Margaret}
Be careful. Be quick.
(_Linda nods to each instruction and makes exit._)
{Knox}
(_Bursting out passionately._) This is madness. You are sacrificing
yourself, and me. I don't want them. I want you. I am tired.
What does anything matter except love? I have pursued ideals long
enough. Now I want you.
{Margaret}
(_Gravely._) Ah, there you have expressed the pith of it. You will
now forsake ideals for me--(_He attempts to interrupt._) No, no;
not that I am less than an ideal. I have no silly vanity that
way. But I want you to remain ideal, and you can only by going
on--not by being turned back. Anybody can play the coward and
assert they are fatigued. I could not love a coward. It was your
strength that saved us last night. I could not have loved you
as I do, now, had you been weak last night. You can only keep my
love--
{Knox}
(_Interrupting, bitterly._) By foregoing it--for an ideal.
Margaret, what is the biggest thing in the world? Love. There is
the greatest ideal of all.
{Margaret}
(_Playfully._) Love of man and woman?
{Knox}
What else?
{Margaret}
(_Gravely._) There is one thing greater--love of man for his
fellowman.
{Knox}
Oh, how you turn my preachments back on me. It is a lesson.
Nevermore shall I preach. Henceforth--
{Margaret}
Yes.
(_Chalmers enters unobserved at left, pauses, and looks on._)
{Knox}
Henceforth I love. Listen.
{Margaret}
You are overwrought. It will pass, and you will see your path
straight before you, and know that I am right. You cannot run
away from the fight.
{Knox}
I can--and will. I want you, and you want me--the man's and
woman's need for each other. Come, go with me--now. Let us snatch
at happiness while we may.
(_He arises, approaches her, and gets her hand in his. She becomes
more complaisant, and, instead of repulsing him, is willing to
listen and receive._) As I have said, the fight will go on just
the same. Scores of men, better men, stronger men, than I, will
rise to take my place. Why do I talk this way? Because I love
you, love you, love you. Nothing else exists in all the world but
love of you.
{Margaret}
(_Melting and wavering._) Ah, you flame, you flame.
(_Chalmers utters an inarticulate cry of rage and rushes forward
at Knox_)
(_Margaret and Knox are startled by the cry and discover Chalmer's
presence._)
{Margaret}
(_Confronting Chalmers and thrusting him slightly back from Knox,
and continuing to hold him off from Knox._) No, Tom, no
dramatics, please. This excitement of yours is only automatic and
conventional. You really don't mean it. You don't even feel it.
You do it because it is expected of you and because it is your
training. Besides, it is bad for your heart. Remember Dr. West's
warning--
(_Chalmers, making an unusually violent effort to get at Knox,
suddenly staggers weakly back, signs of pain on his face, holding
a hand convulsively clasped over his heart. Margaret catches him
and supports him to a chair, into which he collapses._)
{Chalmers}
(_Muttering weakly._) My heart! My heart!
{Knox}
(_Approaching._) Can I do anything?
{Margaret}
(_Calmly._) No; it is all right. He will be better presently.
(_She is bending over Chalmers, her hand on his wrist, when
suddenly, as a sign he is recovering, he violently flings her
hand off and straightens up._)
{Knox}
(_Undecidedly._) I shall go now.
{Margaret}
No. You will wait until Linda comes back. Besides, you can't run
away from this and leave me alone to face it.
{Knox}
(_Hurt, showing that he will stay._) I am not a coward.
{Chalmers}
(_In a stifled voice that grows stronger._) Yes; wait I have a word
for you.
(_He pauses a moment, and when he speaks again his voice is all
right._)
(_Witheringly._) A nice specimen of a reformer, I must say. You,
who babbled yesterday about theft. The most high, righteous and
noble Ali Baba, who has come into the den of thieves and who is
also a thief.
(_Mimicking Margaret._) "Ah, you flame, you flame!"
(_In his natural voice._) I should call you; you thief, you thief,
you wife-stealer, you.
{Margaret}
(_Coolly._) I should scarcely call it theft.
{Chalmers}
(_Sneeringly._) Yes; I forgot. You mean it is not theft for him to
take what already belongs to him.
{Margaret}
Not quite that--but in taking what has been freely offered to
him.
{Chalmers}
You mean you have so forgotten your womanhood as to offer--
{Margaret}
Just that. Last night. And Mr. Knox did himself the honor of
refusing me.
{Knox}
(_Bursting forth._) You see, nothing else remains, Margaret.
{Chalmers}
(_Twittingly._) Ah, "Margaret."
{Knox}
(_Ignoring him._) The situation is intolerable.
{Chalmers}
(_Emphatically_). It is intolerable. Don't you think you had better
leave this house? Every moment of your presence dishonors it.
{Margaret}
Don't talk of honor, Tom.
{Chalmers}
I make no excuses for myself. I fancy I never fooled you
very much. But at any rate I never used my own house for such
purposes.
{Knox}
(_Springing at him._) You cur!
{Margaret}
(_Interposing._) No; don't. His heart.
{Chalmers}
(_Mimicking Margaret._) No dramatics, please.
{Margaret}
(_Plaintively, looking from one man to the other._) Men are so
strangely and wonderfully made. What am I to do with the pair of
you? Why won't you reason together like rational human beings?
{Chalmers}
(_Bitterly gay, rising to his feet._) Yes; let us come and reason
together. Be rational. Sit down and talk it over like civilized
humans. This is not the stone age. Be reassured, Mr. Knox. I
won't brain you. Margaret--
(_Indicating chair,_) Sit down. Mr. Knox--
(_Indicating chair._) Sit down.
(_All three seat themselves, in a triangle._) Behold the
problem--the ever ancient and ever young triangle of the
playwright and the short story writer--two men and a woman.
{Knox}
True, and yet not true. The triangle is incomplete. Only one of
the two men loves the woman.
{Chalmers}
Yes?
{Knox}
And I am that man.
{Chalmers}
I fancy you're right.
(_Nodding his head._) But how about the woman?
{Margaret}
She loves one of the two men.
{Knox}
And what are you going to do about it?
{Chalmers}
(_Judicially._) She has not yet indicated the man.
(_Margaret is about to indicate Knox._) Be careful, Madge. Remember
who is Tommy's father.
{Margaret}
Tom, honestly, remembering what the last years have been can you
imagine that I love you?
{Chalmers}
I'm afraid I've not--er--not flamed sufficiently.
{Margaret}
You have possibly spoken nearer the truth than you dreamed. I
married you, Tom, hoping great things of you. I hoped you would
be a power for good--
{Chalmers}
Politics again. When will women learn they must leave politics
alone?
{Margaret}
And also, I hoped for love. I knew you didn't love me when we
married, but I hoped for it to come.
{Chalmers}
And--er--may I be permitted to ask if you loved me?
{Margaret}
No; but I hoped that, too, would come.
{Chalmers}
It was, then, all a mistake.
{Margaret}
Yes; yours, and mine, and my father's.
{Knox}
We have sat down to reason this out, and we get nowhere. Margaret
and I love each other. Your triangle breaks.
{Chalmers}
It isn't a triangle after all. You forget Tommy.
{Knox} (_Petulantly._) Make it four-sided, then, but let us come to
some conclusion.
{Chalmers} (_Reflecting._) Ah, it is more than that. There is a
fifth side. There are the stolen letters which Madge has just
this morning restolen from her father. Whatever settlement takes
place, they must enter into it.
(_Changing his tone._) Look here, Madge, I am a fool. Let us talk
sensibly, you and Knox and I. Knox, you want my wife. You can
have her--on one consideration. Madge, you want Knox. You can
have him on one consideration, the same consideration. Give up
the letters and we'll forget everything.
{Margaret}
Everything?
{Chalmers}
Everything. Forgive and forget You know.
{Margaret}
You will forgive my--I--this--this adultery?
{Chalmers}
(_Doggedly._) I'll forgive anything for the letters. I've played
fast and loose with you, Madge, and I fancy your playing fast
and loose only evens things up. Return the letters and you can go
with Knox quietly. I'll see to that. There won't be a breath of
scandal. I'll give you a divorce. Or you can stay on with me
if you want to. I don't care. What I want is the letters. Is it
agreed?
(_Margaret seems to hesitate._)
{Knox}
(_Pleadingly._) Margaret.
{Margaret}
{Chalmers} (_Testily._) Am I not giving you each other? What more
do you want? Tommy stays with me. If you want Tommy, then stay
with me, but you must give up the letters.
{Margaret}
I shall not go with Mr. Knox. I shall not give up the letters. I
shall remain with Tommy.
{Chalmers}
So far as I am concerned, Knox doesn't count in this. I want the
letters and I want Tommy. If you don't give them up, I'll divorce
you on statutory grounds, and no woman, so divorced, can keep her
child. In any event, I shall keep Tommy.
{Margaret}
(_Speaking steadily and positively._) Listen, Tom; and you, too,
Howard. I have never for a moment entertained the thought of
giving up the letters. I may have led you to think so, but I
wanted to see just how low, you, Tom, could sink. I saw how low
you--all of you--this morning sank. I have learned--much. Where
is this fine honor, Tom, which put you on a man-killing rage a
moment ago? You'll barter it all for a few scraps of paper, and
forgive and forget adultery which does not exist--
(_Chalmers laughs skeptically._)--though I know when I say it
you will not believe me. At any rate, I shall not give up the
letters. Not if you do take Tommy away from me. Not even for
Tommy will I sacrifice all the people. As I told you this
morning, there are two million Tommys, child-laborers all, who
cannot be sacrificed for Tommy's sake or anybody's sake.
(_Chalmers shrugs his shoulders and smiles in ridicule._)
{Knox}
Surely, Margaret, there is a way out for us. Give up the letters.
What are they?--only scraps of paper. Why match them against
happiness--our happiness?
{Margaret}
But as you told me yourself, those scraps of paper represent the
happiness of millions of lives. It is not our happiness that is
matched against some scraps of paper. It is our happiness against
millions of lives--like ours. All these millions have hearts, and
loves, and desires, just like ours.
{Knox}
But it is a great social and cosmic process. It does not depend
on one man. Kill off, at this instant, every leader of the
people, and the process will go on just the same. The people will
come into their own. Theft will be unseated. It is destiny. It is
the process. Nothing can stop it.
{Margaret}
But it can be retarded.
{Knox}
You and I are no more than straws in relation to it. We cannot
stop it any more than straws can stop an ocean tide. We mean
nothing--except to each other, and to each other we mean all the
world.
{Margaret}
(_Sadly and tenderly._) All the world and immortality thrown in.
{Chalmers}
(_Breaking in._) Nice situation, sitting here and listening to
a strange man woo my wife in terms of sociology and scientific
slang.
(_Both Margaret and Knox ignore him._)
{Knox}
Dear, I want you so.
{Margaret}
(_Despairingly._) Oh! It is so hard to do right!
{Knox}
(_Eagerly._) He wants the letters very badly. Give them up for
Tommy. He will give Tommy for them.
{Chalmers}
No; emphatically no. If she wants Tommy she can stay on; but she
must give up the letters. If she wants you she may go; but she
must give up the letters.
{Knox}
(_Pleading for a decision._) Margaret.
{Margaret}
Howard. Don't tempt me and press me. It is hard enough as it is.
{Chalmers}
(_Standing up._) I've had enough of this. The thing must
be settled, and I leave it to you, Knox. Go on with your
love-making. But I won't be a witness to it. Perhaps
I--er--retard the--er--the flame process. You two must make up
your minds, and you can do it better without me. I am going to
get a drink and settle my nerves. I'll be back in a minute.
(_He moves toward exit to right._) She will yield, Knox. Be warm,
be warm.
(_Pausing in doorway._) Ah, you flame! Flame to some purpose. (_Exit
Chalmers._)
(_Knox rests his head despairingly on his hand, and Margaret,
pausing and looking at him sadly for a moment, crosses to him,
stands beside him, and caresses his hair._)
{Margaret}
It is hard, I know, dear. And it is hard for me as well.
{Knox}
It is so unnecessary.
{Margaret}
No, it is necessary. What you said last night, when I was weak,
was wise. We cannot steal from my child--
{Knox}
But if he gives you Tommy? Margaret
(_Shaking her head._) Nor can we steal from any other woman's
child--from all the children of all the women. And other things
I heard you say, and you were right. We cannot live by ourselves
alone. We are social animals. Our good and our ill--all is tied
up with all humanity.
{Knox}
(_Catching her hand and caressing it._) I do not follow you. I hear
your voice, but I do not know a word you say. Because I am loving
your voice--and you. I am so filled with love that there is no
room for anything else. And you, who yesterday were so remote and
unattainable, are so near and possible, so immediately possible.
All you have to do is to say the word, one little word. Say
it.--Say it.
(_He carries her hand to his lips and holds it there._)
{Margaret}
(_Wistfully._) I should like to. I should like to. But I can't.
{Knox}
You must.
{Margaret}
There are other and greater things that say must to me. Oh, my
dear, have you forgotten them? Things you yourself have spoken
to me--the great stinging things of the spirit, that are greater
than you and I, greater even than our love.
{Knox}
I exhaust my arguments--but still I love you.
{Margaret}
And I love you for it.
(_Chalmers enters from right, and sees Margaret still caressing
Knox's hair._)
{Chalmers}
(_With mild elation, touched with sarcasm._) Ah, I see you have
taken my advice, and reached a decision.
(_They do not answer. Margaret moves slowly away and seats
herself._) (_Knox remains with head bowed on hand._) No?
(_Margaret shakes her head._) Well, I've thought it over, and I've
changed my terms. Madge, go with Knox, take Tommy with you.
(_Margaret wavers, but Knox, head bowed on hand, does not see
her._) There will be no scandal. I'll give you a proper divorce.
And you can have Tommy.
{Knox}
(_Suddenly raising his head, joyfully, pleadingly._) Margaret!
(_Margaret is swayed, but does not speak._)
{Chalmers}
You and I never hit it off together any too extraordinarily well,
Madge; but I'm not altogether a bad sort. I am easy-going. I
always have been easy-going. I'll make everything easy for you
now. But you see the fix I am in. You love another man, and I
simply must regain those letters. It is more important than you
realize.
{Margaret}
(_Incisively._) You make me realize how important those letters
are.
{Knox}
Give him the letters, Margaret
{Chalmers}
So she hasn't turned them over to you yet?
{Margaret}
No; I still have them.
{Knox}
Give them to him.
{Chalmers}
Selling out for a petticoat. A pretty reformer.
{Knox} (_Proudly._)
A better lover.
{Margaret}
(_To Chalmers._)
He is weak to-day. What of it? He was strong last night. He will
win back his strength again. It is human to be weak. And in his
very weakness now, I have my pride, for it is the weakness of
love. God knows I have been weak, and I am not ashamed of it. It
was the weakness of love. It is hard to stifle one's womanhood
always with morality. (_Quickly._)
But do not mistake, Tom. This of mine is no conventional
morality. I do not care about nasty gossipy tongues and
sensation-mongering sheets; nor do I care what any persons of all
the persons I know, would say if I went away with Mr. Knox this
instant. I would go, and go gladly and proudly with him, divorce
or no divorce, scandal or scandal triple-fold--if--if no one else
were hurt by what I did. (_To Knox._)
Howard, I tell you that I would go with you now, in all
willingness and joy, with May-time and the songs of all singing
birds in my heart--were it not for the others. But there is a
higher morality. We must not hurt those others. We dare not steal
our happiness from them. The future belongs to them, and we must
not, dare not, sacrifice that future nor give it in pledge for
our own happiness. Last night I came to you. I was weak--yes;
more than that--I was ignorant. I did not know, even as late as
last night, the monstrous vileness, the consummate wickedness of
present-day conditions. I learned that today, this morning, and
now. I learned that the morality of the Church was a pretense.
Far deeper than it, and vastly more powerful, was the morality
of the dollar. My father, my family, my husband, were willing to
condone what they believed was my adultery. And for what? For a
few scraps of paper that to them represented only the privilege
to plunder, the privilege to steal from the people.
(_To Chalmers._) Here are you, Tom, not only willing and eager to
give me into the arms of the man you believe my lover, but you
throw in your boy--your child and mine--to make it good measure
and acceptable. And for what? Love of some woman?--any woman?
No. Love of humanity? No. Love of God? No. Then for what? For the
privilege of perpetuating your stealing from the people--money,
bread and butter, hats, shoes, and stockings--for stealing all
these things from the people.
(_To Knox._) Now, and at last, do I realize how stern and awful
is the fight that must be waged--the fight in which you and
I, Howard, must play our parts and play them bravely and
uncomplainingly--you as well as I, but I even more than you. This
is the den of thieves. I am a child of thieves. All my family is
composed of thieves. I have been fed and reared on the fruits of
thievery. I have been a party to it all my life. Somebody must
cease from this theft, and it is I. And you must help me, Howard.
{Chalmers}
(_Emitting a low long whistle._) Strange that you never went into
the suffragette business. With such speech-making ability you
would have been a shining light.
{Knox}
(_Sadly._) The worst of it is, Margaret, you are right. But it is
hard that we cannot be happy save by stealing from the happiness
of others. Yet it hurts, deep down and terribly, to forego you.
(_Margaret thanks him with her eyes._)
{Chalmers}
(_Sarcastically._) Oh, believe me, I am not too anxious to give up
my wife. Look at her. She's a pretty good woman for any man to
possess.
{Margaret}
Tom, I'll accept a quiet divorce, marry Mr. Knox, and take Tommy
with me--on one consideration.
{Chalmers}
And what is that?
{Margaret}
That I retain the letters. They are to be used in his speech this
afternoon.
{Chalmers}
No they're not.
{Margaret}
Whatever happens, do whatever worst you can possibly do, that
speech will be given this afternoon. Your worst to me will be
none too great a price for me to pay.
{Chalmers}
No letters, no divorce, no Tommy, nothing.
{Margaret}
Then will you compel me to remain here. I have done nothing
wrong, and I don't imagine you will make a scandal.
(_Enter Linda at right rear, pausing and looking inquiringly._)
There they are now.
(_To Linda._) Yes; give them to me.
(_Linda, advancing, draws package of documents from her breast.
As she is handing them to Margaret, Chalmers attempts to seise
them._)
{Knox}
(_Springing forward and thrusting Chalmers back._) That you shall
not!
(_Chalmers is afflicted with heart-seizure, and staggers._)
{Margaret}
(_Maternally, solicitously._) Tom, don't! Your heart! Be careful!
(_Chalmers starts to stagger toward bell_) Howard! Stop him! Don't
let him ring, or the servants will get the letters away from us.
(_Knox starts to interpose, but Chalmers, growing weaker, sinks
into a chair, head thrown back and legs out straight before him._)
Linda, a glass of water.
(_Linda gives documents to Margaret, and makes running exit to
right rear._) (_Margaret bends anxiously over Chalmers._) (_A pause._)
{Knox}
(_Touching her hand._) Give them to me.
(_Margaret gives him the documents, which he holds in his hand,
at the same time she thanks him with her eyes._) (_Enter Linda with
glass of water, which she hands to Margaret._) (_Margaret tries to
place the glass to Chalmer's lips._)
{Chalmers}
(_Dashing the glass violently from her hand to the floor and
speaking in smothered voice._) Bring me a whiskey and soda.
(_Linda looks at Margaret interrogatively. Margaret is undecided
what to say, shrugs her shoulders in helplessness, and nods her
head._)
(_Linda makes hurried exit to right._)
{Margaret}
(_To Knox._) You will go now and you will give the speech.
{Knox}
(_Placing documents in inside coat pocket._) I will give the
speech.
{Margaret}
And all the forces making for the good time coming will be
quickened by your words. Let the voices of the millions be in it.
(_Chalmers, legs still stretched out, laughs cynically._)
You know where my heart lies. Some day, in all pride and honor,
stealing from no one, hurting no one, we shall come together--to
be together always.
{Knox}
(_Drearily._) And in the meantime?
{Margaret}
We must wait
{Knox}
(_Decidedly._) We will wait.
{Chalmers}
(_Straightening up._) For me to die? eh?
(_During the following speech Linda enters from right with whiskey
and soda and gives it to Chalmers, who thirstily drinks half of
it. Margaret dismisses Linda with her eyes, and Linda makes exit
to right rear._)
{Knox}
I hadn't that in mind, but now that you mention it, it seems
to the point. That heart of yours isn't going to carry you
much farther. You have played fast and loose with it as with
everything else. You are like the carter who steals hay from his
horse that he may gamble. You have stolen from your heart. Some
day, soon, like the horse, it will quit We can afford to wait. It
won't be long.
{Chalmers}
(_After laughing incredulously and sipping his whiskey._) Well,
Knox, neither of us wins. You don't get the woman. Neither do I.
She remains under my roof, and I fancy that is about all. I won't
divorce her. What's the good? But I've got her tied hard and fast
by Tommy. You won't get her.
(_Knox, ignoring hint, goes to right rear and pauses in doorway._)
{Margaret}
Work. Bravely work. You are my knight. Go.
(_Knox makes exit._)
(_Margaret stands quietly, face averted from audience and turned
toward where Knox was last to be seen._)
{Chalmers}
Madge.
(_Margaret neither moves nor answers._) I say, Madge.
(_He stands up and moves toward her, holding whiskey glass in one
hand._) That speech is going to make a devil of a row. But I don't
think it will be so bad as your father says. It looks pretty
dark, but such things blow over. They always do blow over. And so
with you and me. Maybe we can manage to forget all this and patch
it up somehow.
(_She gives no sign that she is aware of his existence._) Why don't
you speak? (_Pause._)
(_He touches her arm._) Madge.
{Margaret}
(_Turning upon him in a blase of wrath and with unutterable
loathing._)
Don't touch me!
(_Chalmers recoils._)
Curtain