Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 96

MRS. X. Then he gets angry, and he stamps his foot just like this: "Blame that cook who can't learn how to make coffee." Or: "The idiot--now that girl has forgotten to fix my study lamp again." Then there is a draught through the floor and his feet get cold. "Gee, but it's freezing, and those blanked idiots don't even know enough to keep the house warm."

[_She rubs the sole of one slipper against the instep of the other._ MISS Y. _breaks into prolonged laughter_.

MRS. X. And then he comes home and has to hunt for his slippers--Mary has pushed them under the bureau. Well, perhaps it is not right to be making fun of one's own husband. He's pretty good for all that--a real dear little hubby, that's what he is. You should have such a husband--what are you laughing at? Can't you tell? Then, you see, I know he is faithful. Yes, I know, for he has told me himself--what in the world makes you giggle like that? That nasty Betty tried to get him away from me while I was on the road. Can you think of anything more infamous? [_Pause._] But I'd have scratched the eyes out of her face, that's what I'd have done, if I had been at home when she tried it.

[_Pause._] I'm glad Bob told me all about it, so I didn't have to hear it first from somebody else. [_Pause._] And, just think of it, Betty was not the only one! I don't know why it is, but all women seem to be crazy after my husband. It must be because they imagine his government position gives him something to say about the engagements. Perhaps you've tried it yourself--you may have set your traps for him, too? Yes, I don't trust you very far--but I know he never cared for you--and then I have been thinking you rather had a grudge against him.

[_Pause. They look at each other in an embarra.s.sed manner._

MRS. X. Amelia, spend the evening with us, won't you? Just to show that you are not angry--not with me, at least. I cannot tell exactly why, but it seems so awfully unpleasant to have you--you--for an enemy. Perhaps because I got in your way that time [_rallentando_] or--I don't know--really, I don't know at all----

[_Pause._ MISS Y. _gazes searchingly at_ MRS. X.

MRS. X. [_Thoughtfully._] It was so peculiar, the way our acquaintance--why, I was afraid of you when I first met you; so afraid that I did not dare to let you out of sight. It didn't matter where I tried to go--I always found myself near you. I didn't have the courage to be your enemy--and so I became your friend. But there was always something discordant in the air when you called at our home, for I saw that my husband didn't like you--and it annoyed me--just as it does when a dress won't fit. I've tried my very best to make him appear friendly to you at least, but I couldn't move him--not until you were engaged.

Then you two became such fast friends that it almost looked as if you had not dared to show your real feelings before, when it was not safe--and later--let me see, now! I didn't get jealous--strange, was it not? And I remember the baptism--you were acting as G.o.dmother, and I made him kiss you--and he did, but both of you looked terribly embarra.s.sed--that is, I didn't think of it then--or afterwards, even--I never thought of it--till--_now_! [_Rises impulsively._] Why don't you say something? You have not uttered a single word all this time. You've just let me go on talking. You've been sitting there staring at me only, and your eyes have drawn out of me all these thoughts which were lying in me like silk in a coc.o.o.n--thoughts--bad thoughts maybe--let me think.

Why did you break your engagement? Why have you never called on us afterward? Why don't you want to be with us to-night?

[MISS Y. _makes a motion as if intending to speak_.

MRS. X. No, you don't need to say anything at all. All is clear to me now. So, that's the reason of it all. Yes, yes! Everything fits together now. Shame on you! I don't want to sit at the same table with you.

[_Moves her things to another table._] That's why I must put those hateful tulips on his slippers--because you love them. [_Throws the slippers on the floor._] That's why we have to spend the summer in the mountains--because you can't bear the salt smell of the ocean; that's why my boy had to be called Eskil--because that was your father's name; that's why I had to wear your color, and read your books, and eat your favorite dishes, and drink your drinks--this chocolate, for instance; that's why--great heavens!--it's terrible to think of it--it's terrible!

Everything was forced on me by you--even your pa.s.sions. Your soul bored itself into mine as a worm into an apple, and it ate and ate and burrowed and burrowed, till nothing was left but the outside sh.e.l.l and a little black dust. I wanted to run away from you, but I couldn't. You were always on hand like a snake, with your black eyes, to charm me--I felt how my wings beat the air only to drag me down--I was in the water with my feet tied together, and the harder I worked with my arms, the further down I went--down, down, till I sank to the bottom, where you lay in wait like a monster crab to catch me with your claws--and now I'm there! Shame on you! How I hate you, hate you, hate you! But you, you just sit there, silent and calm and indifferent, whether the moon is new or full; whether it's Christmas or mid-summer; whether other people are happy or unhappy. You are incapable of hatred and you don't know how to love. As a cat in front of a mouse-hole, you are sitting there. You can't drag your prey out, and you can't pursue it, but you can outwait it. Here you sit in this comer--do you know they've nicknamed it "the mousetrap" on your account? Here you read the papers to see if anybody is in trouble, or if anybody is about to be discharged from the theatre.

Here you watch your victims and calculate your chances and take your tributes. Poor Amelia! Do you know, I pity you all the same, for I know you are unhappy--unhappy as one who has been wounded, and malicious because you are wounded. I ought to be angry with you, but really I can't--you are so small, after all--and as to Bob, why, that does not bother me in the least. What does it matter to me, anyhow? If you or somebody else taught me to drink chocolate--what of that? [_Takes a spoonful of chocolate; then, sententiously._] They say chocolate is very wholesome. And if I have learned from you how to dress--_tant mieux!_--it has only given me a stronger hold on my husband--and you have lost where I have gained. Yes, judging by several signs, I think you have lost him already. Of course, you meant me to break with him--as you did, and as you are now regretting--but, you see, _I_ never would do that. It wouldn't do to be narrow-minded, you know. And why should I take only what n.o.body else wants? Perhaps, after all, I am the stronger now. You never got anything from me; you merely gave--and thus happened to me what happened to the thief--I had what you missed when you woke up. How explain in any other way that, in your hand, everything proved worthless and useless? You were never able to keep a man's love, in spite of your tulips and your pa.s.sions--and I could; you could never learn the art of living from the books--as I learned it; you bore no little Eskil, although that was your father's name. And why do you keep silent always and everywhere--silent, ever silent? I used to think it was because you were so strong; and maybe the simple truth was you never had anything to say--because you were unable to think! [_Rises and picks up the slippers._] I'm going home now--I'll take the tulips with me--your tulips. You couldn't learn anything from others; you couldn't bend--and so you broke like a dry stem--and I didn't. Thank you, Amelia, for all your instructions. I thank you that you have taught me how to love my husband. Now I'm going home--to him! [_Exit._

CURTAIN

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

COLLECTIONS OF ONE-ACT PLAYS

_The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays._ The Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston, 1921.

Baker, Geo. Pierce. _Plays of the 47 Works.h.i.+p_ (two volumes) and _Plays of the Harvard Dramatic Club_ (two volumes). Brentano's, New York City, 1918-20.

Clark, Barrett H., _Representative One-Act Plays by British and Irish Authors_. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1921.

Cohen, Helen Louise, _One-Act Plays by Modern Authors_. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1921.

Eliot, Samuel A., _Little Theatre Cla.s.sics_, one-act versions of standard plays from the modern and the cla.s.sic plays. Four volumes now issued. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1918.

Mayorga, Margaret Gardner, _Representative One-Act Plays by American Authors_. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1919.

Moses, Montrose J., _Representative One-Act Plays by Continental European Authors_. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1922.

Shay, Frank, and Loving, Pierre, _Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays_. Stewart and Kidd Company, Cincinnati, 1920.

_Wisconsin Plays_, First and Second Series. B. W. Huebsch, New York City, 1914, 1918.

Smith, Alice M., _Short Plays by Representative Authors_. The Macmillan Company, New York City, 1921.

_A Volume of Plays from the Drama_, 59 East Van Buren Street, Chicago, is announced for 1922.

_A Volume of One-Act Plays_ from the work of Professor Franz Rickaby, of the University of North Dakota, is under way.

_A Volume of One-Act Plays_, from the work of Professor Frederick H. Koch, of the University of North Carolina, is under way.

LISTS OF ONE-ACT PLAYS

_Bibliography of Published Plays Available in English._ World Drama Promoters, La Jolla, California.

Cheney, Sheldon, _The Art Theatre_. (Appendix: _Plays Produced at the Arts and Crafts Theatre, Detroit_.) Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1917.

Clapp, John Mantel, _Plays for Amateurs_. _Bulletin of The Drama League of America_, Chicago, 1915.

Clark, Barrett Harper, _How to Produce Amateur Plays_. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1917.

d.i.c.kinson, Thomas H., _The Insurgent Theatre_. (Appendix: _List of Plays Produced by Little Theatres_.) B. W. Huebsch, New York, 1917.

Drummond, Alex. M., _Fifty One-Act Plays_. _Quarterly Journal of Public Speaking_, Vol. I, p. 234, 1915.

Drummond, Alex. M., _One-Act Plays for Schools and Colleges_.

_Education_, Vol. 4, p. 372, 1918.

Faxon, F. W., _Dramatic Index_. Published from year to year, Boston.

French, Samuel, _Guide to Selecting Plays_. Catalogues, etc. Samuel French, publisher, New York.

Johnson, Gertrude, _Choosing a Play_. Lists of various types of one-act plays in the Appendix. The Century Company, New York, 1920.

Kaplan, Samuel, _Actable One-Act Plays_. Chicago Public Library, Chicago, 1916.

Koch, Frederick H., _Community Drama Service_. A select list of one-act plays. Extension Series, Number 36, in _University of North Carolina Record_, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1920.

Lewis, B. Roland, _The Technique of the One-Act Play_ (Appendix: _Contemporary One-Act Plays_). John W. Luce and Company, Boston, 1918.

Lewis, B. Roland, _The One-Act Play in Colleges and High Schools_.

A select list of fifty one-act plays. _Bulletin of Extension Division of University of Utah_, Series No. 2, Vol. 10, No. 16, Salt Lake City, 1920.

Lewis, B. Roland, _One Hundred Representative One-Act Plays_, in _The Drama_, April, 1921, Vol. 11, No. 7, Chicago.

Lewis, B. Roland. _Bulletin on the One-Act Play_, prepared for The Drama League of America. Contains a selected list of one hundred and fifty one-act plays, with a.n.a.lyses, etc. The Drama League of America, Chicago, Illinois, 1921.