Clyde Fitch

“ Thank you, Aunt Ruth, but I must stay with mother and be Blanche's right-hand man!
Clara. I might go on the stage.
Mrs. Hunter. My dear, smart people don't any more.
Clara. I'd like to be a sort of Anna Held.
Jessica. I don't see why I couldn't learn typewriting, Blanche?
Mrs. Hunter. Huh! Why, you could never even learn to play the piano; I don't think you'd be much good at typewriting.
Clara. You want to be a typewriter, because in the papers they always have an old gentleman taking them to theatres and supper! No, sir, if there is to be any "old man's darling" in this family, I'll be it! ”

“ It doesn't take all for itself—it sacrifices all for another. Love isn't an enemy that lays traps and makes ambushes,—love is a friend whose heart is a divine magnet! Real love makes an angel of a woman and a hero of a man, but love such as you have—oh, the happiness in this world that's been lost through it!
Coast. You don't know me!
Georgiana. I didn't, but I do! You've dragged down my brother, sacrificed him and my belief in him, almost, for your own selfish end, tried to trap me into marrying you when you know I didn't love you.
Coast. But you would—
Georgiana. ”

“ Everybody repeating to each other the same absurd commonplaces over and over again. Society conversation in one way is like a Wagner opera: it is composed of the same themes, which recur over and over again; only, in the conversation referred to, these themes are deadly, dull, fatuous remarks. As for balls and evening parties, I don't care about dancing any more, somehow, and to see the young débutantes about me almost breaks my heart, full of memories of my daughter and what she might have been. Tears are not becoming to a very low-necked dress, and shouldn't be worn with powder and jewels. ”

“ Blanche. Do you realize, dear, that you haven't been able to do anything for me for a long time? Lately, even I hardly ever see you—I stay home night after night alone.
Sterling. That's your own fault, dear; Ned Warden's always ready to take you anywhere you like.
Blanche. [With the ghost of a jest.] But do you think it's quite right for me to take up all Mr. Warden's time?
Sterling. Why not, if he likes it?
Blanche. And don't you think people will soon talk?
Sterling. Darling! People always talk, and who cares! ”

“ Wolton's hand and the two women stand, facing Fletcher who stands.
Marion. You repeat, if you dare, the vile slander of my father!
Mrs. Wolton. Your father?
Fletcher. All that I said is true, and more!
Mrs. Wolton. What is true? What did he say? [A pause. Fletcher remains doggedly silent.
Marion. Ah! You daren't repeat it before my mother! [Fletcher sneers.] You know she would prove the lie in your face! Did you think you would frighten me into marrying you! Do you think a man with a reputation like yours, could injure the reputation of a man like my father, loved by everyone! ”

“ You ought to stand by him out of loyalty,—but never mind that! You've got to stand by him because if you ruin him you'll ruin yourselves. You and mother could never hold up your heads again in our world—in the world you love—if you left Steve. After all, though our world may be careless sometimes of what it does itself, it is very particular about what those people do who are its guests! Of course, Louise, it does come hardest on you, for yourself and for the children—but still you've got to stand by Steve.
Mrs. Carley. Sam! ”

“ If I must be a mother-in-law (horrid name) , I want to be a nice one and be loved. I shall do my best. Only it is the giving you up. O Rob, darling! What shall I do without you—without my blessed son? Breakfast alone, luncheon alone, dinner alone, everything alone! Ah, I can't bear the thought of it! No! No! I don't mean that! But of course I can't and won't live with you—it's very kind and like you, dear, to say I must, but I don't believe in that. You'll see enough of me, I'm sure, as it is. And I shall have my memories. Baby and boy, you are mine alone. ”

“ Sterling. O God! to have your love back!
Blanche. You can't breathe life back into a dead thing; how different the world would be if one could!
Sterling. You can bring back life to the drowned; perhaps your love is only drowned in the sorrow I've caused.
Blanche. [Smiles sadly and shakes her head; the smile dies away.] Life to me then was like a glorious staircase, and I mounted happy step after step led by your hand till everything seemed to culminate on the day of our wedding. You men don't, can't realize, what that service means to a girl. ”

“ The curtain rises on the same scene in a dull, cold, early morning light. The lamp has burnt itself out. A tiny ray of sunlight steals through a slip between the curtains. Jinny sits by the table, her arms spread over it and her head on her arms—she is perfectly still. Austin's picture is before her. There is a moment's silence. Voices are heard outside, approaching door, at Right. Gradually what they say is distinguished.
Maggie. No, sir. She hasn't been to bed; I've been to her bedroom—that door's not unlocked.
Tillman. She's been here all night?
Maggie. Yes, sir. ”

“ Hunter and Clara go out Right.
Blanche. I wish they wouldn't advise me to do what I want to.
Ruth. Ah!
Blanche. But who do I harm by it? Surely, it wouldn't be for his good to be brought up under the influence of his father!
Ruth. If he saw you patiently bearing a cross for the sake of duty, can you imagine a stronger force for good on the boy's character? What an example you will set him! What a chance for a mother!
Blanche. But my own life, my own happiness?
Ruth. Ah, my dear, that's just it! The watchword of our age is self! We are all for ourselves ”

“ Coast goes on the balcony. Mrs. Carley, on balcony, calls, "Here comes Dick!" Georgiana hesitates and then goes close to the window. She stands in a chair so as to see over the others' heads, hidden behind the curtain of the half-open window, and watches. The music is louder as they pass under the balcony; a flag is seen almost on level with the balcony floor. Those on the balcony wave and shout, and shouts are heard in the street. ”

“ With such a culmination everything has been worth while—the French chef and his terrible extravagances, for you must pay to be known as a good house to dine at—all the deadly afternoon parties, all the exorbitant fees paid for years to the opera singers to sing, the house at Newport—and the one at Lennox, the seasons in London, that shooting box in Scotland (it bored us to death) , it was all worth while now that we have arrived at the toppest top. And no one could become her position better than mama. A society matron of the first water is certainly her métier. ”

“ Austin. [He turns to her.] No, Jinny, not so bad as that, only I thought you were big—and you're so little, oh, so small!
Jinny. Yes, it's true; I'm small—I'm small! Oh, I'd like to be big, too! I want to be noble and strong, but I'm not—I'm as weak as water—only it's boiling water! ”

“ And doubly he couldn't with the to him cruel environment of the outraged circle holding back the sympathy of his wife from him. He would feel and cry out to her, 'Let me tell you alone, if I must tell it, and in the dark, in the dark!' when he could not see the heart-breaking shame grow upon her face, nor see his own guilty face reflected in her eyes. The end of this sentence he would reiterate, grasping it, too, on the impulse, as a means to put off the ordeal. 'In the dark,—later in the dark', he would tell her everything. But there is no time to be lost if a public scandal is to be averted. ”

“ She loves her husband.
Miss Godesby. I'm not so sure about that!
Warden. I am, and I love her. But surely the silent love of a man, like mine, is no insult to a good woman—cannot harm her! A love that is never spoken, not even whispered, can't hurt any one, except, perhaps, the one who loves. You must acknowledge even you have never heard a hint; you showed just now your real surprise at what circumstances revealed to you! I'd die sooner than bring the slightest shadow of a scandal on her, and I've hugged my secret tight. Have you any idea what such a love means? ”

“ Good morning, Bella.
[She sits by the table.
Bella. Good morning, ain't it a fine morning?
Georgiana. Is it? I haven't been out.
Bella. I'm scared to death. [Laughing nervously.] I ain't going to write the article myself, you know. It's my sister's husband's friend—she's real literary enough! She's got a typewriter.
Georgiana. One can't do everything in this world, Bella, and you must be content with being a real artiste in your own profession.
Bella. Yes, I will say without boasting, so to speak, I don't believe there's a soul in New York who can make hair go further and wear less, than me! ”

“ Tillman. [Rising and putting her arms 125 about her.] Come, dear! Now you're getting yourself all unstrung, and that won't do you any good; you've got to fight this battle out, I'm afraid, by yourself, trusting in the deep love of your husband to teach him forbearance. Your father's and my troubles were never very big because we shared the curse, so we knew how to sympathize with each other!
Jinny. What an awful thing it is!
Mrs. Tillman. Yes, my dear child. Jealousy has no saving grace, and it only destroys what is always most precious to you. Jinny, don't let it destroy your best happiness! ”

“ Ethel. [Who has looked back over her shoulder into the ball-room, goes up to arch.] Mr. Fletcher has joined Marion.
Mrs. Lorrimer. Oh, that's why Marion wished us to hurry! She wanted this room for herself and Fletcher!
Ethel. Probably.
Mrs. Lorrimer. Let's go—as if we were gone for good, and then stroll back casually in a few minutes, and see how we find them!
Kitty. Isn't that eavesdropping?
Mrs. Lorrimer. Don't be absurd! There isn't any such thing as eavesdropping nowadays. Everybody listens to everything they can, and everyone more or less knows they're being listened to. ”

“ Therefore, far from a thought of worry when I found my business visits to New York this summer becoming more and more easy to make as far as you were concerned, I used instead to get "a lump in my throat" on the train which left you here behind, believing that your love for me influenced you to hide your own feelings and aid me all you could in the performance of my duties, even at the cost of your own preferred pleasure and at the price of a good many hours of loneliness. Loneliness! Oh, what fools we men sometimes are! Yes, and how careless you women become! ”

“ Yes, it is, Georgy!
Georgiana. No!
Steven. Georgy! It is!
[Moles enters Left.
Moles. [With voice full of happy emotion which he cannot disguise.] Please, sir—
[He hesitates.
Steven. Show him here, Moles.
[Moles lowers his head and goes out.
Georgiana. Dick—?
[She looks from Steven to Louise. They all show her by their faces and movements that it is true.
Georgiana. [Whispers.] Dick!
[She stands waiting, breathless. Steven steals out with his arm about Louise.
Georgiana. [Excitedly, to herself.] Come! No, no! It can't be true! It can't be true! They killed him, those brutes out there! ”