Zona Gale

“ 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. ”

“ 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 I've 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.... ”

“ 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. ”