Clyde Fitch

“ 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! ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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! ”

“ Trotter. Say! The youngest daughter is a good looker—very classy.
Miss Sillerton. That's the one we told you about, the one we want you to marry.
Miss Godesby. Yes, with your money and her cleverness, she'll rubber neck you into the smartest push in town!
Trotter. You've promised I shall know the whole classy lot before spring.
Miss Godesby. So you will if you do as we tell you. But you mustn't let society see that you know you're getting in; nothing pleases society so much as to think you're a blatant idiot. It makes everybody feel you're their equal—that's why you get in. ”

“ Miss Godesby. I have nothing to do with any one in this matter but Sterling himself, who has robbed me, and I'll gladly see him suffer for it!
Warden. Now look here, Miss Godesby, you belong to a pretty tough crowd in society, but I know at heart you're not a bad sort! What good will it do you? Granted even that you don't care for Mrs. Sterling, still don't tell me you're the kind of woman to take a cruel pleasure in seeing another woman suffer! I wouldn't believe it! You're not one of those catty creatures! You're a clever woman, and I don't doubt you can be a pretty hard one, too, at times ”

“ Sterling. Oh, come, you're joking! [Warden makes an angry exclamation.] Why're you telling me all this now?
Warden. Because I want you to be careful. I want you to know some one is watching you! Some one who knows what you've come to! Some one who knows you can't resist temptation! Some one who knows money not yours has stuck to your fingers!
Sterling. You mind your own business.
Warden. I'll mind yours if it's necessary to protect people who are dear to me!
[Sterling looks at him with a sudden suspicion.
Sterling. [Insinuatingly.] I didn't know you were particularly attached to Mrs. Hunter. ”

“ Trotter, mother; but I ask you to allow Aunt Ruth and me to decide this matter between us.
Mrs. Hunter. Trotter says divorce was made for woman!
Ruth. And what was made for man, please? Polygamy?
Mrs. Hunter. I don't know anything about politics! But I could count a dozen women in a breath, all divorced, or trying to be, or ought to be!
Ruth. And each one of them getting a cold shoulder.
Blanche. What of it if their hearts are warm—poor climbers after happiness!
Ruth. Believe me, dear, the chill spreads. You're going to be selfish?
Mrs. Hunter. She's going to be sensible. ”

“ Blanche is the only one of us who really went everywhere. Come along, "Poppa," give me a swing! I haven't had one for years!
[She sweeps off the snow from the seat of the swing with her hand.
Trotter. Your mother certainly did represent—
Clara. [Sitting in the swing.] Oh, well, now don't blame mama! She couldn't help herself; she always thought you dreadfully handsome! Swing me!
Trotter. I don't care, anyway. I'm deucedly proud of your mother,—I mean of my wife,—and I'd just as lief throw up the whole society business and go off and live happily by ourselves.
Clara. O dear! ”

“ Oh, would you? [Rising, she takes a chair nearer to Mrs. Hunter.] You dear thing!
Mrs. Hunter. The dresses are no use to us now, and when we're out of mourning—they'll be out of style. You could wear Jess' things perfectly, Julia.
Miss Sillerton. And even something of yours could be made over for us.
Mrs. Hunter. But I'm so much older than you!
Miss Sillerton. [Thoughtlessly.] Yes, but you never dress appropriately to your age.
Clara. [Laughing delightedly.] That's pretty good!
Miss Sillerton. [Saves herself.] You know what I mean, you always look so youthful, you can't dress any older. ”

“ Blanche Sterling, her oldest daughter, is her antithesis,—a handsome, dignified woman, young, sincere, and showing, in her attitude to the others and in her own point of view, the warmth of a true, evenly-balanced nature. Jessica is a typical second child,—nice, good, self-effacing, sympathetic, unspoiled. Clara is her opposite,—spoiled, petulant, pretty, pert, and selfish. ”

“ Hunter. But isn't he going to bring a counter suit?
Sterling. No.
Ruth. I hope not. I am an old-fashioned woman and don't believe in divorce!
Miss Godesby. Really! But then you're not married!
Miss Sillerton. What is the reason for so much divorce nowadays?
Ruth. Marriage is the principal one.
Blanche. I don't believe in divorce, either.
Miss Sillerton. My dear, no woman married to as handsome a man as Mr. Sterling would.
Trotter. You people are all out of date! More people get divorced nowadays than get married.
Blanche. Too many people do—that's the trouble. ”

“ Ruth. [Interrupting and refusing his hand.] Oh, no.
Sterling. Don't you think I can win her love back?
Ruth. No.
Sterling. Won't you help me try?
Ruth. No. It would be useless.
Warden. Come with me to Blanche; I must speak with her.
[Warden and Ruth go out Right.
Mason. [Alone with Sterling.] Go away and make your wife understand you are never coming back.
Sterling. But the loneliness, the misery, away—alone.
Mason. Kill them with hard work; you have other heavy debts, you know. I came to see you about this business of your acknowledgments to Miss Godesby and Miss Hunter. ”

“ Miss Sillerton is a handsome, attractive woman, most fashionably dressed and perfectly conventional in character and intelligence. Miss Godesby is a little slow, more assertive, sharper of tongue, more acutely intelligent, and equally smartly dressed. She has still a remnant of real, sincere feeling buried under a cynical mask which her life in a fast set has developed for her self-preservation. Trotter is a foolish young person, meaning well enough according to his lights, which are not of the biggest and brightest. ”

“ Well, as to that, she decides to stay, leaving love out of the question.
Warden. And you'll accept that sacrifice! You don't even love her. You're only thinking of yourself now. Love, real love, forgets itself. You, after having spoilt half her life, are willing to spoil the rest, for your own sake!
Sterling. No, for the boy's sake, and her sake—to save a scandal—the world—
[Interrupted.
Warden. [Beside himself.] Oh, damn the world! It's heaven and hell you'd better think of. Scandal! It couldn't harm her, and the hurt it would do you is a small price to pay. Those whom God has joined—yes! ”

“ Trotter. Who buy what?
Miss Sillerton. We—buy their winter clothes.
Trotter. For Heaven's sake!
Miss Godesby. Laugh, you silly! I heard the Reed girls planning to come to-morrow. They didn't dare come to-day. Those girls haven't any sand! They're always getting left.
Trotter. You two are Dodo birds!
Miss Godesby. I say, Eleanor, you're such a lobster about prices and Mrs. Hunter's no idiot, we'd better agree on some sort of a signal! Listen! if you like a gown very much, ask the price, then say to me, "My dear, your hat pin is coming out." ”

“ Tell us where we all stand—are we the only ones to suffer or are there others who will perhaps be less generous in their treatment of you? Tell us now while there is time perhaps to save us from public scandal, from the disgrace which would stamp your wife as the wife of a thief, and send your boy out into the world the son of a convict cheat. ”

“ He is a man of thirty-eight or forty, a singularly attractive personality; he is handsome and distinguished. His hair is grayer than his years may account for and his manner betrays a nervous system overtaxed and barely under control. At the moment that he enters he is evidently laboring under some especial, and only half-concealed, nervous strain. In spite of his irritability at times with his wife, there is an undercurrent of tenderness which reveals his real love for Blanche.
Sterling. Oh, you're all here! Have I missed old Mason?
Ruth. Yes, but Blanche will tell you what he had to say. ”

“ Sterling. It began fourteen months ago, after Ned Warden put me on my feet; I got a little ahead—why not get way ahead? There were plenty of men around me making their fortunes! I wanted to equal them—climb as high as they; it seemed easy enough for them, and luck had begun to come my way. We're all climbers of some sort in this world. I was a climber after wealth and everything it brings—
[He stops a moment.
Blanche. [Her voice comes throbbing with pathetic emotion through the darkness.] And I after happiness and all it brings. ”

“ A big arm-chair is beside the table, and other chairs conversationally close. There is a table near the door at Right, piled with Christmas gifts, still wrapped in white paper; they are tied with many colored ribbons and bunches of holly. There are doors Right and Left. After the curtain rises on an empty stage, Ruth enters quickly; while she has her buoyant manner, she is, of course, more serious than usual. She carries a bunch of fresh violets in her hand. She looks about the room with a sort of curiosity. She is waiting for some one to appear. ”

“ Mason. Does he handle any one else's affairs?
Warden. I know he takes care of that Godesby woman's property.
Mason. And she wouldn't hold her tongue if a crash came!
Warden. Not for a minute! Is Miss Hunter suspicious?
Mason. Yes. Does Sterling realize that to-morrow he will most probably be a ruined cheat?
Warden. Very likely.
Mason. If he made up his mind to-night it was all up with him, he might do—what?
Warden. Run away with whatever money he has left, or kill himself. I don't know if he's enough of a coward for that or not. There's one hold on him—he loves his wife. ”

“ Blanche. Mother, don't you want to go upstairs?
Jessica. [Sincerely moved.] Yes, I hate this room now.
Mrs. Hunter. [Rising.] Hate this room! When we've just had it done! Louis Kinge!
Blanche. Louis Quinze, dear! She means the associations now, mother.
Mrs. Hunter. Oh, yes, but that's weak and foolish, Jessie. No, Blanche— [Sitting again.] —I'm too exhausted to move. Ring for tea.
[Blanche rings the bell beside the mantel.
Clara. [Crossing to piano, forgets and starts to play a music-hall song, but Mrs. Hunter stops her.] Oh, yes, tea! I'm starved!
Mrs. Hunter. Clara, darling! ”

“ Ruth. [To Blanche, aside.] You won't allow this!
Blanche. Certainly not. [Blanche crosses to her mother and they go to one side together; Blanche speaks in a lowered voice.] You've amazed and shocked me! I will not tolerate such a thing; we'll talk it over to-night.
[She leaves her and returns to her guests, Mrs. Hunter standing where she is left, biting her lips and almost crying with rage and mortification.
Miss Godesby. [Before the musicians, to Blanche as she joins her.] I'm crazy about these men, Mrs. Sterling; they play so awfully well—especially that one with the lovely legs! ”

“ Blanche. But Mrs. Mason is hopelessly insane; surely—
Ruth. A principle is a principle; I took my stand against divorce. What can you do for a principle if you don't give up everything for it? Nothing! And that is what I mean. To-day I am not sorry—I am happy.
[There is another slight pause. Richard is heard upstairs singing a Christmas carol, "Once in Royal David's City," etc.
Blanche. [With great emotion.] But if it breaks my heart—if it breaks my heart?
Ruth. Hearts don't break from the pain that comes of doing right, but from the sorrow of doing wrong! ”

“ Blanche. The friend of all of us—
Mrs. Hunter. Yes, of course, Mr. Warden saw to everything.
Blanche. He will be here any moment!
Mason. When he comes, will you send him on to me, please?
Ruth. Yes.
Mason. Very well. Good-by. [Shakes hands with Blanche.] I am very sorry to have been the bearer of such bad news.
Mrs. Hunter. [Shaking hands with him.] Please overlook anything I may have said; at such a moment, with the loss of all my money—and my dear husband—I don't know what to say!
Mason. Naturally. [To the others.] Good-by. [To Ruth, who follows him.] I'll come to see you in the morning. ”