ain’t goin’ to help me none with the bank, a brother of mine bein’ in
jail.
BEN
So they’re laughing at me, are they, damn them.
NETTIE (_at door right_)
She’s coming!
[_There is a moment’s pause and Jane enters door right. Hannah
follows to door and looks on eagerly._
JANE
I sent for you, Ben.
BEN
I won’t budge.
JANE (_wearily_)
Must we go through all this again?
BEN
I ain’t going to move out of this chair to-day. You do what you
damned please.
JANE
I am sorry, but you must.
BEN
Send for Jim Jay, have me locked up, do as you please. Oh, I’ve said
it before, but this time I mean it.
JANE
And you won’t come?
BEN
No.
JANE
Then I’ll do the best I can alone.
[_She crosses up to wall closet and opens it and selects a large
bottle, and turns. Ben rises quickly._
BEN
What do you want of that?
JANE
It’s one of the horses. I don’t know what’s the matter with her.
She’s down in her stall, just breathing. She won’t pay any attention
to me.
BEN
Old Nellie?
JANE
Yes.
BEN
What you got? (_He steps to her and takes the bottle from her and
looks at it_) That stuff’s no good. Here! (_He steps to cabinet and
selects another bottle_) If you hadn’t spent five minutes stalling
around, I might have had a better chance.
[_He exits quickly at left._
HANNAH
I allers said ’twas easier to catch flies with honey than ’twas with
vinegar.
HENRY
What’s Ben know about horses?
JANE
A lot.
HENRY
I didn’t know that.
JANE
Neither did Ben, six weeks ago.
[_She exits._
HENRY
Mother was like that, about animals. I guess Ben sort of takes after
her.
EMMA (_shocked_)
Ben! Like your mother!
HANNAH
Of course he is. He’s the “spit and image of her.”
[_She exits._
NETTIE
She made him go! It wouldn’t surprise me a mite if she’d pushed that
old horse over herself.
[_Jane enters._
JANE
He wouldn’t let me in the barn. (_For the first time in the play,
she laughs lightly_) Well--(_She looks about at them_) we have quite
a family gathering here this afternoon. I am wondering if there is
any--special reason for it?
HENRY
I wanted to talk with yer for just a minute, Jane.
SADIE
So do I.
JANE
Anybody else?
[_She looks about._
ELLA
I do.
NETTIE
So do I.
JANE
I’ve a lot to do; suppose I answer you all at once. I’m sorry, but I
won’t lend you any money.
HENRY
Of course, I didn’t think they’d call that note of mine; it’s only
five hundred, and you could just endorse it.
JANE
No!
SADIE
I was going to ask you----
JANE
No!
ELLA
I got a chance to be independent, Jane, and----No. I haven’t any
money. I won’t have before the first of the month.
EMMA
No money!
HENRY
I bet you’re worth as much to-day as you was the day mother died.
JANE
To a penny. I’ve lived, and run this house, and half supported all
of you on what I’ve made the place earn. Yesterday I spent the first
dollar that I didn’t have to spend. I mean, on myself. But that’s no
business of yours. I _am_ worth just as much as the day I took the
property, and I’m not going to run behind, so you see, after all, I’m
a real Jordan.
EMMA
Seems so. I never knew one of ’em yet who didn’t seem to think he
could take it with him.
HENRY
Well, Jane, I don’t know as it’s any use tryin’ to get you to change
your mind?
JANE
I’m sorry.
EMMA
You can leave that for us to be. I guess it’s about the only thing
we’ve got a right to. Get your things on, Nettie!
NETTIE
I’m going to stay a while with Aunt Ella; I won’t be late.
HENRY
I don’t know what I’m goin’ to do about that note. I s’pose I’ll find
some way out of it.
JANE
I hope so.
EMMA
Thank yer. Of course we know there’s always the poorhouse. Come,
Henry.
[_She exits at left, leaving the outside door open._
HENRY
Emma is a little upset. I hope you won’t mind her talk. I guess her
part of it ain’t any too easy.
[_He exits, shutting the door._
ELLA (_to Jane_)
Poor Henry! Of course I s’pose you’re right not to lend it to him.
But I don’t know as _I_ could do it, but I’m sensitive.
JANE
Perhaps it’s harder to say no than you think.
[_Hannah enters._
HANNAH
I got everything ready for to-morrow’s wash, but the sheets off your
bed, Miss Ella.
ELLA
Good Land! I forgot ’em. Nettie will bring ’em right down.
NETTIE (_to Jane_)
After that, I’m going to stay and help Aunt Ella. I was wondering if
you’d be here all the afternoon.
JANE
Yes.
NETTIE (_charmingly_)
Nothing special, you know. I’d just like to have a little visit with
you.
[_She exits at left with Ella._
HANNAH (_looks after her_)
Every time I listen to that girl I get fur on my tongue.
JANE
Fur?
HANNAH
Like when my dyspepsia’s coming. There’s two things I can’t abide,
her and cucumbers.
[_She crosses to door left._
JANE
Hannah!
HANNAH (_stops_)
Well?
JANE (_rather shyly_)
We are going to have rather a special supper to-night.
HANNAH (_doubtfully_)
We are?
JANE
Yes. That’s why I had you roast that turkey yesterday.
HANNAH (_firmly_)
That’s for Sunday!
JANE
No, it’s for to-night.
HANNAH (_angrily_)
Why is it?
JANE
It’s my birthday.
HANNAH
I didn’t know that.
JANE
No, it isn’t exactly a national holiday, but we’ll have the turkey,
and I’ll get some preserves up, and I want you to bake a cake, a
round one. We’ll have candles on it. I got some at the store this
morning.
HANNAH (_shocked_)
Candles?
JANE
Yes.
HANNAH
Who’s going to be to this party?
JANE (_a little self-conscious_)
Why--just--just ourselves.
HANNAH
Just you and Mr. Ben and Miss Ella?
JANE
Yes.
HANNAH
You don’t want candles on that cake, you want crape on it.
[_She exits door left._
[_Jane crosses up and starts to clear the dining-room table of its
red table cover, as Ben enters door left._
BEN (_cheerfully_)
Well, I fixed Old Nellie up. (_He puts his bottle back in its place
in the wall cabinet_) Just got her in time. Thought she was gone for
a minute, but she’s going to be all right.
JANE
That’s good.
[_She folds the tablecloth up and puts it away._
BEN (_in front of fire_)
She knew what I was doin’ for her too; you could tell by the way she
looked at me! She’ll be all right, poor old critter. I remember her
when she was a colt, year before I went to high school.
[_Jane crosses into room, shutting the dining-room door after her._
JANE
You like animals, don’t you, Ben?
BEN (_surprised_)
I don’t know. I don’t like to see ’em suffer.
JANE
Why?
BEN
I guess it’s mostly because they ain’t to blame for it. I mean what
comes to ’em ain’t their fault. If a woman thinks she’s sick, ’til
she gets sick, that’s her business. If a man gets drunk, or eats like
a hog, he’s got to pay for it, and he ought to. Animals live cleaner
than we do anyhow--and when you do anything for ’em they’ve got
gratitude. Folks haven’t.
JANE
Hand me that sewing basket, Ben.
[_She has seated herself at left center by table. Ben at left of
table, hands her the basket as she picks up some sewing._
BEN
It’s funny, but except for a dog or two, I don’t remember carin’
nothin’ for any of the live things, when I lived here I mean.
JANE
I guess that’s because you didn’t do much for them.
BEN
I guess so--Sometimes I kind of think I’d like to be here when spring
comes--and see all the young critters coming into the world--I should
think there’d be a lot a feller could do, to make it easier for ’em.
JANE
Yes.
BEN
Everybody’s always makin’ a fuss over women and their babies. I guess
animals have got some feelings, too.
JANE (_sewing_)
Yes.
BEN
I _know_ it--Yes, sometimes I sort of wish I could be here, in the
spring.
JANE
You’ll be a big help.
BEN
I’ll be in prison. (_He looks at her. She drops her head and goes on
sewing_) You forgot that, didn’t yer?
JANE
Yes.
BEN
What’s the difference? A prison ain’t just a place; it’s bein’
somewheres you don’t want to be, and that’s where I’ve always been.
JANE
You liked the army?
BEN
I s’pose so.
JANE
Why?
BEN
I don’t know, there was things to do, and you did ’em.
JANE
And some one to tell you what to do?
BEN
Maybe that’s it, somebody that knew better’n I did. It galled me at
first, but pretty soon we got over in France, an’ I saw we was really
doin’ something, then I didn’t mind. I just got to doin’ what I was
told, and it worked out all right.
JANE
You liked France, too?
BEN
Yes.
JANE
I’d like to hear you tell about it.
BEN
Maybe I’ll go back there some time. I don’t know as I’d mind farming
a place over there. Most of their farms are awful little, but I don’t
know but what I’d like it.
JANE
Farming is farming. Why not try it here?
BEN
Look out there! (_He points out of the window at the drifted snow_)
It’s like that half the year, froze up, everything, most of all the
people. Just a family by itself, maybe. Just a few folks, good an’
bad, month after month, with nothin’ to think about but just the mean
little things, that really don’t amount to nothin’, but get to be
bigger than all the world outside.
JANE (_sewing_)
Somebody must do the farming, Ben.
BEN
Somebody like the Jordans, that’s been doin’ it generation after
generation. Well, look at us. I heard a feller, in a Y.M.C.A. hut,
tellin’ how nature brought animals into the world, able to face what
they had to face----
JANE
Yes, Ben?
BEN
That’s what nature’s done for us Jordans,--brought us into the world
half froze before we was born. Brought us into the world mean, and
hard, so’s we could live the hard, mean life we have to live.
JANE
I don’t know, Ben, but what you could live it different.
BEN
They _laugh_ over there, and sing, and God knows when I was there
they didn’t have much to sing about. I was at a rest camp, near
Nancy, after I got wounded. I told you about the French lady with all
those children that I got billeted with.
JANE
Yes.
BEN
They used to _sing_, right at the table, and laugh! God! It brought a
lump into my throat mor’n once, lookin’ at them, and rememberin’ the
Jordans!
JANE
I guess there wasn’t much laughing at your family table.
BEN
Summers nobody had much time for it, and winters,--well, I guess you
know.
JANE
Yes.
BEN
Just a few folks together, day after day, and every little thing you
don’t like about the other raspin’ on your nerves ’til it almost
drives you crazy! Most folks quiet, because they’ve said all the
things they’ve got to say a hundred times; other folks talkin’,
talkin’, talkin’ about nothing. Sometimes somebody sort of laughs,
and it scares you; seems like laughter needs the sun, same as flowers
do. Icebound, that’s what we are all of us, inside and out.
[_He stands looking grimly out window._
JANE
Not all. I laughed a lot before I came here to live.
BEN (_turns and looks at her_)
I remember, you were just a little girl.
JANE
I was fourteen. See if there’s a spool of black sewing cotton in that
drawer.
BEN (_looking in drawer_)
You mean thread?
JANE
Yes.
BEN
This it?
[_He holds up a spool of white thread._
JANE
Would you call that black?
BEN (_looks it over_)
No--it ain’t black. (_He searches and finds black thread_) Maybe this
is it!
JANE
Maybe it is! (_She takes it_) You were with that French family quite
a while, weren’t you?
BEN
Most a month; they was well off, you know; I mean, they was, before
the war. It was a nice house.
JANE (_sewing_)
How nice?
BEN (_hesitates_)
I don’t know, things--well--useful, you know, but nice, not like this.
[_He looks about._
JANE (_looks around with a sigh_)
It’s not very pretty, but it could be. I could make it.
BEN
If you did, folks would be sayin’ you wasn’t respectable.
JANE
Tell me about the dinner they gave you the night before you went back
to your company.
BEN
I told you.
JANE
Tell me again.
BEN (_smiles to himself at the remembrance_)
They was all dressed up, the whole family, and there I was with just
my dirty old uniform.
JANE
Yes.
BEN (_lost in his recollections_)
It was a fine dinner, but it wasn’t that. It was their doin’ so much
for me, folks like that--I’ve sort of pictured ’em lots of times
since then.
JANE
Go on.
BEN
All of the young ones laughing and happy, and the mother too,
laughing and tryin’ to talk to me, and neither one of us knowing much
about what the other one was sayin’.
[_He and Jane both laugh._
JANE
And the oldest daughter? The one that was most grown up?
BEN
She was scared of me somehow, but I don’t know as ever I’ve seen a
girl like her, before or since.
JANE
Maybe ’twas that dress you told me about; seems to me you don’t
remember much else about her; not so much as what color her hair was,
only just that that dress was blue.
BEN (_thoughtfully_)
Yes.
JANE (_sewing_)
Sometimes you say dark blue!
[_She is watching him closely through half-shut eyes._
BEN (_absently_)
I guess so.
JANE
And then I say, dark as something I point out to you, that isn’t dark
at all, and you say, “No, lighter than that!”
BEN (_absently_)
Just--sort of blue.
JANE
Yes, sort of blue. It had lace on it, too, didn’t it?
BEN
Lace? Maybe--yes, lace.
JANE
There’s more than one blue dress in the world.
BEN
Like enough. Maybe there’s mor’n one family like that lady’s, but
I’ll be damned if they live in Veazie. (_He crosses and opens
cupboard and selects a bottle_) I might as well run out and see how
the old mare is getting on.
[_He selects bottle from shelf._
JANE
And you’ve got to shovel those paths for the clothes lines yet.
BEN
I know.
JANE
Well, don’t forget.
BEN
It ain’t likely you’ll let me.
[_He exits at door right. Jane laughs softly to herself, and runs
to closet and takes out a large cardboard box and putting it on the
table, she cuts the string and removes the wrapping paper, then
lifts the cover of the box and draws out a dainty light-blue gown
with soft lace on the neck and sleeves. She holds it up joyfully,
then covering her own dress with it, she looks at herself in a mirror
on wall. As she stands smiling at her reflection, there is a sharp
knock on the outside door. Jane hastily returns dress to box and as
the knock is repeated, she puts the box under the sofa at left and
crosses and opens the outside door._
_Judge Bradford enters._
JANE
Oh, it’s you, Judge! Come in.
JUDGE
I thought I’d stop on my way home and see how you were getting on,
Jane.
JANE
I’ll take your coat.
JUDGE
I’ll just put it here. (_He puts coat on chair_) Have you time to sit
down a minute?
JANE
Of course.
[_They sit._
JUDGE (_looks at her_)
That isn’t a smile on your lips, is it, Jane?
JANE
Maybe----
JUDGE (_laughingly_)
I’m glad I came!
JANE
It’s my birthday.
JUDGE
Why, Jane! (_He crosses to her and holds out his hand. She takes it_)
Many happy returns!
JANE (_thoughtfully_)
Many--happy returns--that’s a lot to ask for.
JUDGE
You’re about twenty-two, or twenty-three, aren’t you?
JANE
Twenty-three.
JUDGE
Time enough ahead of you. (_His eye falls on the box, imperfectly
hidden under the sofa; out of it a bit of the blue dress is
sticking_) Hello! What’s all that?
JANE
My birthday present.
JUDGE
Who gave it to you?
JANE
I did.
JUDGE
Good! It’s about time you started to blossom out.
JANE
I ordered a lot of things from Boston; they’ll be here to-morrow.
JUDGE
I suppose that one’s a dress?
JANE
Yes.
JUDGE (_bends over to look_)
Light blue, isn’t it?
JANE (_smiles_)
Just sort of blue--with lace on it.
JUDGE
Oh, you’re going to wear it, I suppose, in honor of your birthday?
JANE (_startled_)
To-night--oh, no--soon maybe, but not to-night.
JUDGE (_smiles_)
How soon?
JANE
Soon as I dare to; not just yet.
JUDGE
You have plenty of money; you ought to have every comfort in the
world, and some of the luxuries.
JANE (_gravely_)
Judge! I want you to do something for me.
JUDGE
And of course I’ll do it.
JANE
I want you to get Ben off. I want you to fix it so he won’t go to
State’s Prison.
JUDGE
But if he’s guilty, Jane?
JANE
I want you to go to old Mr. Kimbal for me and offer to pay him for
that barn of his that Ben burned down. Then I want you to fix it so
he won’t push the case, so’s Ben gets off.
JUDGE
Do you know what you are asking of me?
JANE
To get Ben off.
JUDGE
To compound a felony.
JANE
Those are just words, Judge, and words don’t matter much to me. I
might say I wasn’t asking you to compound a felony. I was askin’ you
to save a sinner, but those would be just words too. There’s nobody
else; you’ve _got_ to help me.
JUDGE (_thoughtfully_)
I’ve always thought a lot could be done for Ben, by a good lawyer.
JANE
It doesn’t matter how, so long as it’s done.
JUDGE
He was drinking, with a crowd of young men; the two Kimbal boys
jumped on him and beat him up rather badly. That’s about all we know,
aside from the fact that Ben was drunk, and that that night the
Kimbals’ barn was set on fire.
JANE
Just so long as you can get him off, Judge.
JUDGE
I think a case of assault could be made against the Kimbal boys, and
I think it would stand.
JANE
What of it?
JUDGE
It is quite possible that the old man, if he knew that action was
to be taken against his sons, and if he could be tactfully assured
of payment for his barn, say by Ben, in a year’s time, might be
persuaded to petition to have the indictment against Ben withdrawn.
In that event, I think the chances would be very much in Ben’s favor.
JANE
I don’t care what names you call it, so long as it’s done. Will you
fix it?
JUDGE
Well, it’s not exactly a proper proceeding for a Judge of the Circuit
Court.
JANE
I knew you’d do it.
JUDGE
Yes, and I think you knew why, didn’t you?
JANE
Ever since she’s died, you’ve helped me about everything. Before she
died you were just as good to me, and nobody else was.
JUDGE
I am glad you said that, because it clears me from the charge of
being what poor Ben calls “one of the crow buzzards,” and I don’t
want you to think me that.
JANE
No, you’re not that.
JUDGE
I love you, Jane.
JANE
No!
JUDGE
Yes--I’ve done that for a long while. Don’t you think you could get
used to the thought of being my wife?
JANE (_gently_)
No.
JUDGE
I think I could make you happy.
JANE
No.
JUDGE
I am afraid being happy is something you don’t know very much about.
JANE
No.
JUDGE
It isn’t a thing that I am going to hurry you over, my dear, but
neither is it a thing that I am going to give up hoping for.
JANE
When you told me, that day, that Mrs. Jordan had left me all her
money, I couldn’t understand; then, afterwards, you gave me the
letter she left for me. I want you to read it.
JUDGE
What has her letter to do with us?
JANE
Maybe, reading it, you’ll get to know something you’ve got a right to
know, better than I could tell it to you.
JUDGE
Very well.
JANE
It’s here. (_She opens drawer, and selects a letter in a woman’s
old-fashioned handwriting, from a large envelope of papers_) She was
a cold woman, Judge. She never let me get close to her, although I
tried. She didn’t love me. I was as sure of it then as I am now.
(_She holds out the letter_) Read it.
JUDGE
If it’s about the thing I’ve been speaking of, I’d rather hear it in
your voice.
JANE (_reads_)
“My dear Jane, the doctor tells me I haven’t long to live, and so
I’m doing this, the meanest thing I think I’ve ever done to you. I’m
leaving you the Jordan money. Since my husband died, there has been
just one person I could get to care about; that’s Ben, who was my
baby so long after all the others had forgotten how to love me. And
Ben’s a bad son, and a bad man. I can’t leave him the money; he’d
squander it, and the Jordans’ money came hard.”
JUDGE
Poor woman! It was a bitter thing for her to have to write like that.
JANE (_reads on_)
“If squandering the money would bring him happiness, I’d face all the
Jordans in the other world and laugh at them, but I know there’s only
just one chance to save my boy,--through a woman who will hold out
her heart to him and let him trample on it, as he has on mine.”
JUDGE (_in sudden fear_)
Jane!
JANE (_reads on_)
“Who’d work, and pray, and live for him, until as age comes on, and
maybe he gets a little tired, he’ll turn to her. And you’re that
woman, Jane; you’ve loved him ever since you came to us. Although he
doesn’t even know it. The Jordan name is his, the money’s yours, and
maybe there’ll be another life for you to guard. God knows it isn’t
much I’m leaving you, but you can’t refuse it, because you love him,
and when he knows the money is yours, he will want to marry you. I’m
a wicked old woman. Maybe you’ll learn to forgive me as time goes
on--It takes a long time to make a Jordan.” (_Jane drops her hand to
her side_) Then she just signed her name.
JUDGE
Is the damnable thing she says there true?
JANE
Yes, Judge.
JUDGE
And you’re going to do this thing for her?
JANE
No, for him.
JUDGE (_bitterly_)
He isn’t worth it.
JANE
I guess you don’t understand.
JUDGE
No.
[_He crosses and picks up his coat._
JANE
You can’t go like that, angry. You have to pay a price for being a
good man, Judge--I need your help.
JUDGE
You mean _he_ needs my help?
JANE
Yes, and you’ll have to give it to him, if what you said a little
while ago was true.
JUDGE (_after a pause_)
It _was_ true, Jane. I’ll help him.
[_He picks up his hat._
JANE
I’ve an errand at the store. I’ll go with you.
[_She takes hat and coat from rack and puts them on._
JUDGE
Is it anything I could have sent up for you?
JANE (_putting on coat_)
I guess not. You see, I’ve got to match a color.
JUDGE
Another new dress?
JANE (_they start toward door_)
Just a ribbon, for my hair.
JUDGE
I didn’t know women still wore ribbons in their hair.
JANE
It seems they do--in France.
[_They exit together at left to the outside door and off._
_Nettie and Ella enter quickly, after a slight pause, Nettie running
in from right, followed more sedately by Ella._
NETTIE
You see! I was right! She went with him.
[_She has run to window left and is looking out._
ELLA
That’s what money does. If mother hadn’t left her everything, he
wouldn’t have touched her with a ten-foot pole.
NETTIE
Well, if she’s fool enough to stay in this place, I guess he’s about
the best there is.
ELLA
Then trust her for gettin’ him; by the time she gets through in
Veazie, this town will be barer than Mother Hubbard’s cupboard by the
time the dog got there. (_Her eye falls on Jane’s box, partly under
sofa._) What’s that?
[_She bends over, looking at it._
NETTIE
What?
ELLA
I never saw it before. (_She draws it out_) Looks like a dress. See!
Blue silk!
NETTIE
Open it.
ELLA (_hesitates_)
Must be hers! Maybe she wouldn’t like it.
NETTIE
Maybe she wouldn’t know it.
ELLA
A cat can look at a king!
[_She opens the box and holds up the blue dress._
NETTIE
Oh! Oh!
ELLA (_really moved_)
Some folks would say a dress like that wasn’t decent, but I wouldn’t
care, not if it was mine, and it might have been mine--but for her.
NETTIE
Yours! Grandma wouldn’t have left her money to you. She hated old
people. Everybody does. She’d have left it to me, but for Jane
Crosby!
ELLA (_looks at dress_)
I always wanted a dress like this; when I was young, I used to dream
about one, but mother only laughed. For years I counted on gettin’ me
what I wanted, when she died; now I never will.
NETTIE (_fiercely_)
I will--somehow!
ELLA
Maybe but not me. Oh, if I could have the feelin’ of a dress like
that on me, if I could wear it once, where folks could see me--Just
once! Oh, I know how they’d laugh--I wouldn’t care----
NETTIE (_almost in tears_)
I can’t stand it if she’s going to wear things like that.
ELLA
I’ll put it back.
[_She starts to do so._
NETTIE (_catches her hand_)
Not yet.
ELLA
I guess the less we look at it, the better off we’ll be.
[_There is a ring at the front door._
NETTIE
Who’s that?
ELLA
Here! (_She hands the box to Nettie_) Shove it back under the sofa.
I’ll go and see. (_She turns and crosses to door left and out to the
vestibule. Nettie, with the box in her arms, hesitates for a moment
then turns and exits at right, taking the box with her. Ella opens
the outside door at left, showing Orin on the doorstep. Ella looks at
him angrily_) For time’s sake, what are _you_ ringing the bell for?
ORIN
Mum says for me not to act like I belonged here.
ELLA
Well, I’m goin’ to shut the door. Git in or git out!
ORIN
I got a note. (_He enters room as Ella shuts door_) It’s for her.
ELLA (_holds out hand_)
Let me see it.
ORIN
Mum said not to let on I had nothin’ if you came nosin’ around.
[_Jane enters from left._
JANE
I just ran across to the store. I haven’t been five minutes.
[_She takes coat off._
ELLA
He’s got a note for you, from Sadie.
JANE
Oh, let me see it, Orin.
ORIN (_gives her note_)
She said, if you said is they an answer, I was to say yes, they is.
JANE
Just a minute.
[_She opens note and reads it._
ELLA
I must say she didn’t lose much time.
JANE (_after reading note_) Poor Sadie! Wait, Orin! (_She sits at
table and takes checkbook from the drawer and writes_) Just take this
to your mother.
ELLA
You don’t mean you’re goin’ to----
JANE
Be quiet, Ella. Here, Orin. (_She hands him check_) Don’t lose it,
and run along.
ORIN
All right. Mum said we was goin’ to have dinner early, and go to a
movie! Good night.
JANE (_again writing in checkbook_)
Good night.
[_Orin exits._
ELLA
So you sent her her rent money, after all?
JANE
Here!
[_She rises and hands a check to Ella._
ELLA
What’s that?
JANE