3-4

Van der Luyden

(Testily to May)

What on earth makes you think Newland's coming?

May

I wrote and asked him, Papa.

Van der Luyden

Pshaw ! He never received the letter.

May

(Calmly)

Why shouldn't he, Papa? He's stopping at the Club. I wrote
him there Monday and again last night. I told him all about
everything...how Ellen had decided to go home with her hus-
band and we were giving her a farewell dinner tonight.

Van der Luyden

And you haven't seen him all week?

May

No, Papa.

Van der Luyden

Nor heard from him?

May

No, Papa.

Van der Luyden

And you and your mother have gone on trusting until the last
minute that he'd show up. How like women! If I don't think
of everything myself, it isn't done!

Mrs. van der Luyden

I don't see why Newland went to the club at all, May.

May

You know those terrible politicians he has to see...those
common Irishmen. He couldn't have them here, Mama.

Van der Luyden

Well, if he doesn't come, it will seem very discourteous to Ellen.

Mrs. van der Luyden

Of course he's never liked her, but, after all, she's your
cousin, May.

May

He wouldn't be rude to Ellen. Don't worry, Mamma. He'll
come.

(The drawing room door is thrown
open by Sands)

3-5

Sands

(Announcing)

Mr. Jackson. Mr. Beaufort.

(SILLERTON JACKSON enters with
JULIUS BEAUFORT)

Jackson

Good evening, Louisa. How are you, Henry?

(Crossing to May)

Well, May, you're looking prettier than ever.

Beaufort

(Shaking hands with his hostess)

Good evening, Mrs. van der Luyden. It's delightful to see
you again, Mrs. Archer

(With a glance around the room)

The guests of honor haven't arrived?

May

Ellen is always late.

And the count isn't coming.

Jackson

(Pricking up his ears)

Not coming? Why?

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Smoothly)

He had a little cold. He's not very strong, you know. And
Ellen simply insisted on his staying at home.

May

Isn't it too bad, on her last evening!

Beaufort

You will miss her tremendously. Won't you, Mrs. van der
Luyden?

Mrs. van der Luyden

Yes, but we think it very wise of her to go back.

Van der Luyden

(Oracularly)

After all, marriage is marriage and money is money.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Smoothly reproving her husbands
candor)

We all think the count is so charming.

Beaufort

(Acknowledging this statement
with a non-committal smile and
turning to May)

3-6

Beaufort (Cont'd)

But where's our statesman? Isn't he coming, either? Isn't
he on hand this evening, Mrs. Archer?

May

Oh, yes. He had an appointment. He'll be here any minute.
(The door is thrown open by
Sands)

Sands

Mr. Archer.

May

(Glancing at her parents with
a little gleam of triumph)

Here he is now!

(Newland enters, looking very
pale and worn. He glances
eagerly about the room from the
doorway and his face clouds in
disappointment)

Mrs. van der Luyden

Well, Newland, I'm glad to see you! Why didn't you answer
May's notes?

Archer

I'm sorry. I've been busy.

Mrs. van der Luyden

You look perfectly exhausted.

Van der Luyden

It's ridiculous to work so hard, now that you're elected.

Beaufort

(Shaking hands)

I hear they're talking about you for governor.

May

(Affectionately)

Are you comfortable at the club, dear? Have you everything
you want?

Archer

Thanks, yes.

May

I could send over some clothes...

Archer

Oh, no. I brought down all I needed.

3-7

May

(Patting his arm)

I'm glad you got here. Ellen would have been so disappointed.

Archer

She's coming?

May

Of course, dear.

(SANDS throws open the door. ARCHER
turns quickly)

Sands

Mrs. Mingott

(MRS. MINGOTT enters with easy
geniality. She wears a large
corsage of violets and carries in
her hand two florist's boxes, el-
aborately tied, one with pink, one
with lavender ribbon.

Mrs. Mingott

Good evening, Louisa. Don't frown, Henry. I know I'm late.
I've been keeping Ladislas company. He was broken-hearted
at being left behind. He's having a tray by the library fire.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Solicitously)

How is he, Catherine?

Mrs. Mingott

He says he feels much better. In fact he's coming down in
the carriage later to take Ellen home. He sent these flowers
to you and May.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Taking one of the boxes)

How charming of him! How thoughtful!

May

(Taking her box, exstatically)

Oh, isn't that like him!

(Turning appreciatively to the
roomful)

He always thinks of the loveliest things to do!

Mrs. Mingott

(To Mr. van der Luyden)

It's very nice of you, Henry, to give this party for Ellen.

Van der Luyden

(In pompous pleasure)

3-8

Van der Luyden (Cont'd)

Louisa and I consider it quite a little occasion.

Mrs. Mingott

(Cheerfully)

Yes, I bought a new dress for it and took the family diamonds
out of the bank.

May

(Who has opened her box and discovered a little frilled bouquet of red roses, white pinks and blue forget-me-nots)

Oh, how sweet! Red, white and blue! And, Mama, listen to
what he says!

(Reading the card)

"To my little cousin, who is more beautiful than any flower.
Ladislas."

Mrs. van der Luyden

Charming!

(Taking from her box a magnificent
corsage of orchids)

Oh, the dear boy!

(She reads her card in quite a little
flutter of excitement)

"For my Cousin Louisa, who has taught me to love my American
family as only they deserve." Why....why...

(Solemnly)

That's really beautiful! There's nothing like the cultivated
European mind.

(She pins the flowers to her frock
with ingenuous pleasure)

Mrs. Mingott

(To May)

May, your husband has fallen in love with me. It's true!

He's come to see me four times this last week!

(Turning to Archer)

Haven't you, Newland? I'm sorry I never was in. Ladislas
is stopping with me, and I've been out every minute showing
him the town. Did you want anything in particular?

Archer

No. Nothing. Nothing at all.

Mrs. Mingott

Listen to the man! I thought you were going to pay me a
compliment. Now if I gave Beaufort a chance like that....

(To Beaufort)

Say something pretty, Beaufort!

Beaufort

I can't think. I'm too dazzled.

3-9

Mrs. Mingott
It's the diamonds.

Beaufort
It's the eyes!

Mrs. Mingott
Perhaps it's a tear. I'm very sad tonight. Henry, I hope you're going to give us the Madeira Uncle Peter bought to celebrate Napoleon's return from Elba.

Van der Luyden
(Cautiously)
I have only two bottles left.

Mrs. Mingott
(With great good humor)
Splendid! One for Beaufort and one for me.

Mrs. van der Luyden
We'll drink it in Ellen's honor. Do you know it's almost just a year since you brought her to May's coming out ball?

Mrs. Mingott
And think of all that's happened since! Here's Ellen with her little problems delightfully solved, and May an old married woman, and Newland on the way to be governor!

Mrs. van der Luyden
Yes, God has been very kind to the family. I trust we are properly grateful. What is it, Henry?

Van der Luyden
(Glancing at his watch, in a sepulchral whisper)
The ducks have been five minutes in the oven!

Mrs. van der Luyden
(In pardonable irritation)
I can't help that, my dear. You gave the order.

Van der Luyden
If I had known that we...

Mrs. van der Luyden
Ssh! Here's Ellen.

Sands
(Throwing open the door)
Countess Olenska.

(ALL turn as ELLEN enters, beautiful and assured, in elaborate evening

3-10

dress. Her head and neck and
bosom are heavy with the Sobieski
emeralds. She advances at once
toward Mrs. van der Luyden)

Ellen

It was dear of you, Cousin Louisa, to ask me here tonight.
It was dear of May to think of it.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Regretfully)

If only Ladislas could have come with you! I hear his cold
is better.

Ellen

(Smiling)

Do you know, Cousin Louisa, to be quite frank, he hasn't got
one!

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Indignantly)

He hasn't got one!

May

(With a disappointed pout)

Then why didn't he come?

Ellen

(Charmingly)

I wouldn't let him. I wanted this last evening with just
my own family...and one very dear old friend.

(She smiles at Beaufort)

Mrs. van der Luyden

But, my dear, your husband is your family.

Ellen

(Gaily)

Oh, no. I should call him a...a super relative-in-law!

Mrs. van der Luyden

But did you realize he'll go back to Europe without meeting
Newland?

Ellen

Yes. I thought of that. But, even so...

(Kissing Mrs. Mingott)

Good evening, Granny. We've had such a day over the trunks.
But they're all on board now.

(To van der Luyden)

Good evening, Cousin Henry.

Van der Luyden

My dear, you are very welcome.

3-12

(He does not speak)

Ellen

(Lightly)

Poor Newland! Straighten his tie, May.

May

He dressed at the club.

(She straightens his tie affection-
ately)

Newland, where did you get those terrible studs?

Ellen

(Smiling)

Perhaps he borrowed them from the doorman!

May

(Indulgently)

I have his pearls upstairs. I brought them down with me
from Albany. You'd leave your head behind you, Newland,
if it weren't screwed on!

Sands

(Appearing at the door)

Dinner is served, madam.

Archer

(Abruptly, to Ellen)

May I take you in?

May

(Reprovingly)

Newland, dear, don't you realize this is an occasion? Ellen
must go in with Papa.

Van der Luyden

(Presenting his arm)

My dear, it is a great privilege to carry you off from these
young men.

Ellen

(Accepting his arm with a smile)

You find me a willing captive, Cousin Henry.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(To Archer, admonishingly)

Newland, dear, will you take Cousin Catherine?

Mrs. Mingott

(As he offers his arm)

Promise me not to talk about railroads! I don't care how
wicked they are, so long as Ohio Central goes on paying me
ten percent and...

3-13

Mrs. van der Luyden

Mr. Beaufort, I've given you May.

(Beaufort and May drop in line.
She herself accepts Jackson's arm)

It's really provoking of Ellen to have kept Ladislas at home.
You can't imagine how we are all going to miss him. He seems
to me already just like my own nephew. Why when I realize
it may be years before we see him again...

(In a festive chaos of talk and laughter,
the little procession forms and passes through
the drawing room door as the curtain
falls. It rises again almost immediately.
Dinner is over. The ladies of the party
are sitting around the fire, taking coffee.
Mrs. van der Luyden presides over the
silver service. Mrs. Mingott sits en-
throned in the largest armchair, smack-
ing her lips over a little glass of liquer
May is knitting an afghan. Ellen leans
back idly, coffee cup in hand.)

IMrs. Mingott

I love Chartreuse. It's so bad for me.

(She holds up her little glass and
looks appreciatively at the golden
liquid against the lamplight)

Mrs. van der Luyden

Coffee, May?

May

No, thank you, Mamma. I'm afraid of not sleeping. My
doctor says that the main thing is to get plenty of rest.

Mrs. Mingott

You're looking very strong and rosy, my dear.

May

Oh, I'm feeling splendidly.

Mrs. Mingott

(Benevolently) .

Let me see the little afghan.

May

(Handing it to her)

It's just ten purl, ten plain. That makes the plaid.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Complacently)

Blue for a boy.

Mrs. Mingott

3-16

Beaufort
(Leaning on the piano, looking down at Ellen)

So it's over, madame la comtesse.

Ellen
(Still playing idly)

What's over?

Beaufort
Your little interlude on West Twenty-third Street. Your little comedy on the New York stage. The curtain falls. The orchestra plays. The audience prepares to leave the theatre.

Ellen
(With a smile)
Do you think they liked my performance?

Beaufort
I, for one, nearly split my gloves.

Ellen
(With a little humorous glance at the roomful of relatives)
I hope the critics will speak well of it tomorrow.

Beaufort
They don't appreciate the foreign artist. No matter. You are a true comedienne.

Ellen
Was I so very ...funny?

Beaufort
Isn't the best comedy always close to tears?

May
(Calling from across the room)
Ellen, dear, won't you play for us again?

Mrs. Mingott
Try the Polonaise, Ellen.

Ellen
(Gaily)
I'm afraid I've forgotten it.

May
I was looking through the music rack this morning. I thought Newland might want Ellen to play. He's so fond of music. But there was just the Hymn Book.

3-17

Ellen

(Laughing)

I might depart to the triumphant strains of a Recessional.

Beaufort

You depart, at any rate, in triumph.

(In a lower voice)

And so farewell to my Leonardo.

Ellen

(Playing again)

Are you sorry to lose her?

Beaufort

As you know, I never had her.

Ellen

She will miss your loyalty. Won't you come to look at her
sometimes, high up in her heavenly gilded frame?

Beaufort

(Gravely)

Would it please her?

Ellen

Yes.

Beaufort

Then I shall come.

Ellen

So we'll meet in that European gallery, the great American
collector and the little over-rated canvas!

(SANDS enters)

Sands

(To Mrs. van der Luyden)

Count Olenski is calling for the countess. He is waiting
in the carriage.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(All smiles)

Oh, how delightful!

(To Sands)

Ask him to come up, Sands.

Ellen

No. I made him promise not to come in. No! Really, Cousin
Louisa, I...I mean it.

(To Beaufort)

Au revoir!

(To Mrs. Mingott)

3-18

Ellen (Cont'd)

You will forgive us if we run away?

Mrs. van der Luyden

So soon?

Ellen

The boat sails at ten.

Archer

(Ignoring all others)

You can't go like this.

May

(Pleasantly)

Oh, Ellen, don't break up the party!

(She glances at Archer, who is
on the verge of an outburst)

I...I know Papa wants to show Cousin Catherine the Conservatory.

(MR. VANDER LUYDEN steps up
with alacrity)

Mrs. Mingott

And I know I don't want to see it.

Van der Luyden

(Hurt)

I have some beautiful poinsettias.

May

They're so lovely, Cousin Catherine! All ready for Christmas!

Ellen

Really, we mustn't keep Ladislas waiting.

Van der Luyden

Just a few minutes, my dear.

(To Mrs. Mingott)

Shall we go, then, to the conservatory?

Mrs. Mingott

Oh, Lord!

(She rises with reluctance)

Mrs. van der Luyden

(To Beaufort)

I understand you have such lovely greenhouses in Peekskill.
Mrs. Beaufort specializes in tulips, doesn't she?

Beaufort

(Blandly)

She's engrossed...utterly engrossed in them.

3-19

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Equally bland)

So I've always heard.

(Pausing on the threshold)

After you, Catherine

(MRS. MINGOTT passes out unwillingly with VAN DER LUYDEN. MRS. VAN DER LUYDEN follows with BEAUFORT. JACKSON waits at the door for May)

Ellen

(A little desperately)

I...I think I'll just slip away, now, May, and send back the carriage for granny. I hate goodbyes.

May

(Looking tranquilly from Archer to Ellen)

Oh, my dear! Mamma would never forgive me.

Ellen

But I have a little headache...I...really must go.

May

Ellen doesn't care for flowers, Newland. And she's very tired. You stay and talk with her. Are you interested in poinsettias, Uncle Sillerton? If you are I think you'll be delighted with dear Papa's...

(They pass from the room together. As the door closes behind them, Archer turns on Ellen. She faces him in terror)

Archer

(Full of anger and resentment)

Well? What have you to say to me?

Ellen

Nothing, I'm going home with my husband.

(She turns toward the door)

Archer

(Seizing her roughly by the arm.)

You're not going home with your husband. You're going to stay here and give me an explanation!

(He twists her about and forces her to face him. At the sight of her eyes his resentment suddenly wavers)

Ellen! Ellen! When you look at me I...I can't believe it!

Ellen

Don't, Newland! Don't make a scene!

3-20

Archer

Why did you go back to him?

Ellen

I don't want to speak of it. I don't want to think of it!

Archer

Why did you go back to him?

Ellen

Newland, I have nothing to say. Let me go.

Archer

Where have you been all week?
(Savagely)

At Mrs. Mingott's?

Ellen

No.

Archer

Where, then?

Ellen

At the Fifth Avenue Hotel.

Archer

But you saw him! You let him come to see you! You let him..
(He chokes)

Ellen

(Frantically)

No! No!

(Pulling herself together)

Now listen to me, Newland. Since my husband landed I haven't
seen him alone.

Archer

Is that the truth?

Ellen

Yes.

(They look at one another)

Archer

(In overwhelming relief)

Oh, thank God! Thank God!

(He drops her arm and walks away
from her to conceal his working
face)

Ellen

3-21

Ellen

(Deliberately)

But I'm sailing for Europe with him tomorrow morning.

Archer

(Whirling around)

No, you're not! I won't let you!

Ellen

You can't stop me, Newland. I'm going.

Archer

But why? Why? When I left you that morning I know you
were happy. Do you remember what you said when I kissed
you goodbye at the head of the stairs? My God, if I only
hadn't gone...if I hadn't left you for a moment! I could
have kept you if I'd only stayed.

Ellen

(Very quickly, for she knows it too)

No, you couldn't. You mustn't think so.

Archer

But it was such a little time...not more than an hour and
a half! All I did was get out tickets and go to the bank.
I was back at your house by twelve, and Anastasia just
stood there and said you weren't at home. She said you'd
gone out. She wouldn't have let me come in and wait for
you, if I hadn't made her! I did wait. I waited until
half-past five. Then I went to Mrs. Mingott's and you
weren't there. Oh, I know there's an explanation! There
must be! I've been saying so to myself all week, over and
over again. "As soon as I see her...as soon as I see her,
it will be all right!"

(Again seizing her hands)

Ellen, tell me! Don't keep me in this misery any longer!
Tell me it's all right.

Ellen

(Tortured)

I can't...I can't...

Archer

But why wouldn't you see me? Why wouldn't you answer my
letters? I wrote. I telegraphed. I came to the house.
No one would open the door. I waited outside for hours...
days! Ellen, what happened? What could have happened that
morning after I left you?

(Shaking her)

Answer me! Don't you hear me speaking? Answer me!

Ellen

(Dully)

I changed my mind.

3-22

Archer

(Incredulous)

What...?

Ellen

That's all. I changed my mind.

Archer

But...but it's incredible. I don't believe it! Something happened! Somebody did something...said something! Was it your husband? What did he tell you, Ellen? Did he frighten you? If he did, you knew I was right there to...

Ellen

(Interrupting)

No, no! It wasn't my husband! Newland, how dare you say these things to me? It's I who don't understand! It's I who can't believe it! I should have thought that you, more than any man in the world, would have...oh, how can you talk like this? How can you feel like this, when all the time you know...you know just as well as I do why I can't go on!

Archer

But I don't! I don't know anything! That's what's driving me mad!

Ellen

(Staring at him)

You don't...

Archer

No. What is it? What is it?

Ellen

(Thinking hard and quickly)

Nothing. Don't let's discuss it any more. When did you see May?

Archer

(Bewildered)

May? I didn't see May.

Ellen

(Slowly)

You didn't see May?

Archer

Why, no. I haven't seen her all week. Why should I?

Ellen

But she wrote you?

Archer

3-26

## Archer (Cont'd)

to blame, it's myself. I've been a fool. I've made it hard
for you...from the very beginning. I didn't realize it at
the time. I'm afraid we...we feel things differently.

## Ellen

(Closing her eyes)

I know. It's all my fault. But you'll soon forget me.

## Archer

(Looking up)

I don't want to forget you. I couldn't, if I did. You're
the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me. I'll re-
member, always, everything about you. Just how you looked,
just how I felt...just how I adored you.

## Ellen

(Near the breaking point)

That's more than I deserve. But I'm glad...you'll think
gently of me. You see, in spite of all I've done to you
and all I...I haven't done...I want you to be happy. Oh,
Newland, I want you to be happy.

(The doors are opened and MRS.MINGOTT closely followed by MRS.VAN DER LUYDEN, appears on the threshold)

Mrs. Mingott

Well, what I now don't know about poinsettias would go in
a nutshell!

Mrs. van der Luyden

Henry is always so charming.

(MAY and JACKSON appear)

Mrs. Mingott

Come, Ellen. We mustn't keep Ladislas waiting any longer.
Good gracious, child! You're as white as a sheet!

## Ellen

(Dully)

I'm rather tired.

(VAN DER LUYDEN and BEAUFORT enter)

Mrs. Mingott

It's time you were in bed. Goodnight, Louisa, It was a
charming party.

## Beaufort

(Who has stepped to Ellen's side)

Till Europe, then.

## Ellen

(Smiling)

3-27

Ellen (Cont'd)

Mr. Beaufort and I have a rendezvous in a certain picture
gallery. Goodnight, Cousin Louisa. Goodnight, Cousin Henry.
We'll meet in Paris, won't we? It's so gay there in the
spring.

May

You'll write to us, Ellen?

Ellen

Of course. And I'll think of you.

(She kisses May tenderly)

Where's Newland?

(He steps forward)

Good luck to you! All the luck in the world.

(Speechless he clings to her hand)

Ellen

(To Newland)

There's not...much to say, is there? But I'll always re-
member. God bless you both. Goodbye.

(With a last look she turns from
Archer. MR. VAN DER LUYDEN accom-
panies her into the hall)

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Relaxing)

Well, she's gone.

May

It will seem funny without her.

Beaufort

As if some one had turned out the light. Goodnight,
Mrs. van der Luyden.

Mrs. van der Luyden

Goodnight, Mr. Beaufort.

Mrs. Mingott

Goodnight, Louisa.

(To Jackson)

Shall we give you a lift, Sillerton?

Jackson

Thank you. I was about to suggest it myself.

(He follows MRS. MINGOTT and BEAUFORT)

May

It went off beautifully, Mamma.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Beginning to turn out the lamps)

Those emeralds are too large to be ladylike.

3-29

May

(Radiantly)

Something I've been longing and hoping for. Something
you've been wanting, too.

Something

Archer

(Staring)

You don't mean...a baby?

May

(Smiling triumphantly into his eyes)

Yes.

Archer

Oh, my dear...my dear!

May

(Happily)

You didn't guess?

You never thought...?

Archer

No. I never thought.

May

I'm...terribly happy.

Archer

Of course, dear.

(With a sudden surge of realization)

May!

May, did you tell Ellen?

May

Yes. That morning I came down from Albany. Newland!

Newland, you don't mind my telling her?

Archer

Mind? Why, no, dear.

No.

May

(Clinging to him)

Newland,

be nice to me!

Please be good to me!

Oh, Newland..

be kind!

(She buries her face on his knee.
Automatically he slips his arm
around her. He strokes her fair
hair)

Archer

It's all right, dear. I will. Of course I will. Don't...
don't worry. It's all right...

(She is clinging to him as the
curtain falls)

3-30

ACT THREE

Scene 2:

Forty years later. The salon of Ellen Olenska's house in Paris on a September afternoon. The room is typically French, charmingly furnished in the period of Louis Quinze. The cream-colored walls are panelled, the delicate mouldings touched, here and there, with the glint of tarnished gold. Three tall Franch windows are symmetrically grouped at the back of the room. The yellow afternoon sunlight is filtering through their draped curtains. There is a white marble fireplace in the same position as the Victorian mantel in her little New York house in the preceding acts. The furniture is grouped about it in the same way. The chaise-longue is placed at right angles from the hearth a big armchair facing the fire. Behind the head of the chaise-longue is a large jar of white azaleas, forming a background as in the preceding scenes. The same Spanish shawl is draped over the back of the chaise-longue. The tea table is placed beside it. A little ebony cane is leaning inconspicuously against the fireplace. A small fire is smouldering on the hearth. The room is penetrated by an abiding sense of the personality of the occupant. Its atmosphere in spite of the French furniture, is strangely the same as that of the little parlor on West 23rd Street. On the rising of the curtain the stage is empty. A bell rings without and Jean, the old butler, enters from a door at left, opposite the fireplace, crosses the room and goes out by another door at right, which leads to the outer hall. The opening and closing of the entrance door is heard. The BUTLER re-appears, showing in NEWLAND ARCHER, now a man of seventy years, and NEWLAND, Jr., his youngest son - a charming, self-assured boy of twenty-two.

3-33

## Archer (Cont'd)

beans. My last ambition is to take first prize for vegetables at the county fair!

## Newland

What rot, Dad! You could have such a good time over here. You could take a chateau in the country and fill it with amusing people. You could see something of Madame Olenska again. You used to be great friends, didn't you?

## Archer

Yes. Great friends.

## Newland

Wasn't her husband an awful rotter?

## Archer

Yes.

(He turns from the window and walks to the fire)

## Newland

He died, didn't he?

## Archer

Thirty years ago.

## Newland

Well, you'd have a wonderful time with her.

(A brief pause)

Wouldn't you?

(Another pause)

I say, Dad, what was she like?

## Archer

Like?

(He seats himself a trifle shakily in the armchair by the fire)

That's rather hard to say.

## Newland

(Taking his stand on the hearth rug)

Wasn't she most awfully lovely?

## Archer

Lovely? I don't know.

She was...different.

## Newland

Ah, that's what is always comes down to! When she comes, she's different...and one never knows why.

## Archer

(Smiling)

My dear boy, it appears you're growing up!

3-34

Newland

Don't be prehistoric, Dad. Wasn't she really, for you...
<u>the woman?</u>

Archer

(Gazing appalled at his amazing son)

<u>The woman?..</u>

Newland

Yes. The woman you'd have chucked everything for, only you
didn't.

Archer

(Quite solemnly)

I didn't.

Newland

Well, my generation's different. We chuck things more
easily. We think resisted temptations turn into lost
opportunities!

(Archer hears this dictum in
silence)

Though mother said....

(He pauses)

Archer

(Surprised)

Your mother....?

Newland

Yes. The day before she died. When she sent for me alone...
you remember? She said she knew we children were safe with
you, and always would be, because once, when she'd asked you
to, you gave up the thing you wanted most in the world for
her sake.

Archer

(Staring at him)

Your mother told you that?

Newland

Yes. So I remember some things I'd heard...just little
things you know...and I decided that the thing you'd wanted
most in the world was Madame Olenska. That's why I was so
surprised when you thought of sailing from Naples. To go
home without seeing her, after thinking about her for forty
years...and she of you!

(He shakes his head over the incom-
prehensible inhibitions of a previous
generation)

Archer

(Simply)

21.

Ellen

(Triumphantly.) Ah, there's something you've forgotten! The cotillion you wouldn't dance with me!

Archer

(Firmly.) There never was any such cotillion.

Ellen

Oh, yes there was! Right here at the Van der Luyden's, too, at a Christmas party. I was eight years old...much too young to have come. But Granny always indulged me. You were at least thirteen... and my secret hero.

Archer

Was I?

Ellen

Yes. I was very romantic and I had no partner for the cotillion. So Cousin Louisa insisted on your sacrificing yourself.

Archer

You're making it up!

Ellen

I'm not! I'm not! I remember it perfectly. I didn't know it was a sacrifice. I thought you really wanted to. I thought I looked quite nice in my new plaid frock. I didn't mind a bit that she'd made you! I was perfectly blissful. And then, you know, when she brought you up to me, you just didn't. You wouldn't. You said I was too little. You said it right before me and I ran to the dressing room and cried in an armchair until my nurse came to take me home. The armchair's still there. I dropped my wrap on it this evening.

Archer

(Contemplating the radiant creature before him.) It's all a delusion. It never, never happened.

Ellen

But it did! How could I forget it? My first rebuff!

Archer

(Smiling.) Wasn't it also your last?

23.

## Archer

How do you mean ended?

## Ellen

Little girls grow up when they're married, don't they? Well I married. That's my story. It's very dull. What's yours?

## Archer

Oh, the usual thing. Harvard, you know, and the law school. I was just starting to practise in '61, when the war broke out. I went with the 55th Volunteers. We were at Gettysburg.

## Ellen

Were you wounded?

## Archer

No. Four years without a scratch. But afterwards I couldn't settle down again to the law.

## Ellen

You found it dull?

## Archer

Yes, and...and unnecessary, too. I mean the law's a defense of the established order and I saw so much that wasn't worth defending.

## Ellen

(Who has begun to listen attentively.) Perhaps that was because you weren't very old.

## Archer

I suppose so. Anyway, I went West and joined up with Custer to fight Indians. We licked the Cheyennes in northwestern Kansas. But all the time we were pushing them over the Rockies, herding them in reservations, killing their buffalo and clearing the plains for the prairie schooner I had the funniest feeling I was on the wrong side. I mean I...I...

(He breaks off apologetically with a boyish grin.)

Oh, I can't help it! I guess I was born to fight for the under dog!

## Ellen

(With real sadness.) You poor man!

24.

### Archer

No, lucky man. Although it's hard to keep on believing you're a crusader when everyone else says you're a fool.

(Smiling.)

Especially when you have a tendency to agree with them!

### Ellen

Do they all say that?

### Archer

Pretty nearly.

### Ellen

I don't. I say you're splendid.

(As he starts to protest.)

Sh! Don't argue now! Go on with the story.

### Archer

All right. I came back to my law office. I'm with old Mr. Letterblair, you know, your mother's cousin.

We've had some big fights.

### Ellen

What was the biggest?

### Archer

You're sure it won't bore you?

### Ellen

Quite sure.

### Archer

(Pleased.) Well, it is interesting...that is, if you're interested. But most ladies...

### Ellen

Ah, I'm different from most ladies! Whom were you fighting?

### Archer

(Warming up.) The contractors who put up the new court house in City Hall Park. It was really Tweed, though. Do you know who Tweed is?

26.

them outweighs the bad. Now we're headed for big things. We've
saved the Union and we're opening up the West. We're going to
get richer and stronger and greater all the time. I shouldn't be
surprised if we ended by being the greatest nation on earth. But
all that greatness is going to bring us great temptations too. It's
the way with success. And whether we stay up or go down, survive
or perish, live or die, depends completely on how we meet those
temptations. I'm thirty-two. If I'm lucky I may live fifty years.
Well, I want to spend those fifty years trying to keep our moral bal-
ance on the right side. I can't do it without power. That's why
I'm in politics. But it's not for myself. You see that, don't you?
It's just to help me do my job as well as I can. Oh, I may fail...
the way I've failed in this attack on Tweed. I may not be strong
enough or big enough to come out on top but anyhow I'm going to have
a whack at it. My flag's up! My hat's in the ring! I'll keep on
fighting while there's a breath in my body and...

(Breaking off.)

but good Lord! I'm making a speech.

Ellen

(Who has been listening with glowing attention.) No, it isn't a
speech! It's a saga! It's adventure! It's romance! It's young
America riding out in quest of the Grail!

Archer

(Grinning.)

Now you're laughing at me, too.

Ellen

(Aflame.) I'm not! And you won't fail! You will come out on top.
I know you will. Don't listen to all these stupid little New Yorkers
with their stupid rich empty little lives. They're all your enemies...
just like Tweed and his gang only more dangerous. Those are the only
enemies to be afraid of...the friends who love you and want to make you
like themselves. Oh, I hope, I do hope, that when you...

(She breaks off suddenly in embarrassment.)

Archer

(Curious.)

Go on and finish it.

Ellen

(Smiling a little.)

I'm afraid I haven't known you long enough.

Archer

What about the Snow Queen and Red Rover?

27.

## Ellen

That's true. I'd forgotten them.

(Frankly.)

I hope that when the time comes for you to settle down and marry, you'll find the woman who can really help you. You'll need help... It's not an easy road you've chosen, is it? And the right woman will make all the difference. Oh, I don't insist upon a lady politician! But if she's interested enough in you she'll be interested in politics because you're in them. Just as she'd be interested in tea and coffee if you owned a grocery shop. If she's the right kind, you can fight the devil from a fortress and a sanctuary. If she's the wrong kind, you'll be left high and dry in the garden of the enchantress and you won't do any fighting any more.

## Archer

How do you mean, enchantress?

## Ellen

(Lightly.) Isn't there always an enchantress waiting for the young knight errant to come riding by...especially if he's good looking and wears nice armor. She sits and sings beneath her apple-tree and in the high walls that surround her there's a little door. Such an easy inviting little door...usually a trifle ajar. But if the young man goes through and it shuts behind him, he is lost. Oh, he may enjoy himself inside...he probably will, but the main thing is that he never, never, never will get out.

## Archer

I suppose you mean I must keep away from bad women. Well I do.

## Ellen

(Smiling.) That's good. But the enchantress isn't always a bad woman. As a matter of fact she's usually a helpless human being, who clings to a man and cries like a frightened child, "Oh, don't leave me! I have no one else! Don't leave me or I'll die!" That's her only spell but it's enough. The man feels sorry for her...and his life is ruined.

## Archer

I see. But you needn't worry. I'm quite safe.

## Ellen

Then nothing can stop you and you're bound to win. I'm proud to think I recognize it, here in the very beginning. I'll remember that, later on, when you're a white-haired statesman and I'm a garrulous little old lady! When the crowds are cheering you in the

28.

street and you're bowing right and left in a very lordly manner,
I'll tell the nearest policeman that I backed you when you ran for
alderman.

## Archer

(Grinning.) You can tell him that you and Mr. Barney Maloney, the saloon-keeper, were about the only ones who did.

## Ellen

Very well. And meanwhile we're going to be great friends?

## Archer

Of course. That is, if you'll let me.

## Ellen

(Extending her hand.) It's a bargain?

## Archer

(Taking it.) It's a bargain.
(They shake hands.)

## Ellen

(Looking up at him mischievously.) Will you seal it by giving me back my lost cotillion? Will you dance it with me here to-night?
(His face lights up, then clouds again.)

## Archer

If I only could! But I've got to run off to a Firemen's Ball on Second Avenue. I've an astonishingly wide acquaintance in the Fire Department!

## Ellen

(Jumping up and laughing gaily.) See here, you can't turn me down again! I'll go with you, and we'll dance it there!

## Archer

Would you really? Just as you are?

## Ellen

Of course! Unless you think I ought to put on a fireman's uniform.

## Archer

But you look so...so...

33.

The Duke

Ah, thanks. Mrs. Beaufort's counting on me.

Jackson

Good stolid wife, Katrina Beaufort. Stands without hitching.

The Duke

(Impersonally.) Beaufort tells me it's lovely country.

Jackson

How does he know? He's never there. He's always down here running
after some woman. They saw now it's Ellen Olenska. I understand
he knew her abroad.

The Duke

(Frigidly.) Everyone in Europe knew Madame Olenska.

Jackson

Yes, but she oughtn't to see too much of Beaufort here. A woman
in her position...eh, duke?

The Duke

(With rising indignation.) The position of Madame Olenska is very
distinguished.

Jackson

Oh, quite. I saw her husband once in London. A sneering fellow...
rather handsome head, but eyes with a lot of lashes. I'm told he
ran through her money like water. Yes, she's had plenty of provoca-
tion, still...there's been a lot of talk! Of course I don't be-
lieve this story of the young French secretary, myself, but I'll
wager Beaufort does.

The Duke

No man who knew Madame Olenska in Europe could make that mistake, Mr. Jackson.

Jackson

(Fraternally.) No Anglo-Saxon, perhaps, but Beaufort's an Austrian
Jew. Changed his name from Schönemacht. Oh, clever fellow, knows
a lot about art and all that, but Jews don't get the finer distinc-
tions...especially when it comes to women.

39.

## Beaufort

Oh, words! European, American! I'm not speaking of technical nationalities, but of states of mind.

(Suddenly.)

Do you remember the day I first had tea with you at the Palazzo Ludovici?

## Ellen

Of course. Who brought you? Bibi Hohenlohe?

## Beaufort

Yes. Young Hohenlohe. I'll never forget you in that Roman drawing-room, surrounded by your little court. It was your perfect setting.

## Ellen

(Trapped into sentiment.) Oh, Rome! Rome is a place apart. I did love that drawing-room...and the city outside! There used to be a certain color in the evening sky...clear orange, fading to an unearthly green at the horizon. We saw it the night we drove out to Frascati.

## Beaufort

(Slowly.) I remember another drive...in Paris after Princess Mathilde's party. We went around the Bois for hours. You wore a mantilla of black lace and there was the scent of lilacs in the moonlight...unseen lilacs. The air was heavy with them.

## Ellen

Yes, and the woods all silvery and the acacias like white ghosts. I remember everything. Even those mysterious couples sitting on the benches, strolling down the moonlit alleys, driving past us through the summer night.

## Beaufort

Men and women who know how to live, who know what living's for.

## Ellen

(With a little effort to shake off the spell.) How far away it seems.

## Beaufort

Can you ever forget it?

## Ellen

(Bitterly.) I wish I could. My life in Europe wasn't all gaiety and beauty.

41.

(Leaning back.)

And how are the pictures? Are you in hot pursuit of some new
masterpiece?

Beaufort

(Looking gravely at her.) I am.

Ellen

(Interested.) Really? What is it?

Beaufort

It is, perhaps...a Leonardo.

Ellen

A Leonardo? Which?

Beaufort

(His eyes upon her.) I call it...Portrait of an Unknown Lady. I have admired it for a long time. I know it well. I saw it first in the palace of a foreign nobleman. It was beyond my reach. Then...something happened. It disappeared from his collection. Nothing is eternal...even in great European galleries. We know that, we collectors. So I, for one, was not surprised when this great portrait turned up in New York.

Ellen

(Faintly smiling.) Really? I hope it stays here.

Beaufort

Why? It shouldn't, you know, Americans don't understand Leonardo...
yet.

Ellen

So you want it?

Beaufort

I want it.

Ellen

(With veiled irony.) For your collection?

42.

## Beaufort

For myself. My galleries would exist only as a setting for that perfect canvas.

## Ellen

Is she so beautiful then...this Unknown Lady?

## Beaufort

Some might not think so.

## Ellen

What is she like?

## Beaufort

(Gazing gravely at the lady before him.) She is smiling, with a little touch of mockery. But her gaiety is tender and in her eyes is knowledge. I think she has known disillusion, but she has kept her charity. There is sadness in her face, illusive pathos, something a little wistful and unattained. It is only the loves of revery that have touched it with desire. The austerity of her spirit burns there like a flame. She sits against a background of white flowers. For me she is the perfect woman, beheld at last and infinitely desired.

## Ellen

(A little shakily.) I think you...you overestimate her charm.

## Beaufort

As to that, Madame Olenska, I am the best judge.

## Ellen

Is she...the picture, I mean, on the market?

## Beaufort

No.

## Ellen

But you hope it will fall into your hands.

## Beaufort

My hands are open. Men of my race have learned to wait.

46.

Ellen

Yes. The last time you came and we were alone, I thought you were
a little...silent. A little...oh I don't know how to put it. But
I said to myself, "The next time he comes, I shall have at least
fifteen young people here to cheer him up." So I did. Although
there weren't fifteen.

Archer

It seemed to me as if there were about fifteen hundred.

Ellen

(Kindly.) And they didn't cheer you up?

Archer

No, they didn't.

Ellen

Then I think you were wise to leave us all and go south.

Archer

I couldn't help it. I went straight from here to the station and
got my ticket. I left the next morning.

Ellen

I thought it must have been rather sudden. You see you didn't
let me know.

Archer

I didn't think you cared much whether I went or stayed.

Ellen

(Gently.) That's not very nice of you, Newland. I thought we
were going to be friends and I'm always interested in what my friends
do and where they go and how they like it when they get there. You
did like it, didn't you?

Archer

Not very well.

Ellen

I'm sorry. Florida sounds so beautiful.

48.

Ellen

I have very few.

Archer

Only about fifteen hundred.

Ellen

Well, I have another one now. Don't you want to know who he is?

Archer

No, I don't.

Ellen

His name's Barney Maloney.

Archer

What?

Ellen

I wanted to hear all about the campaign...all the things I knew
you'd never tell me. So I went to see Barney.

Archer

(Incredulously.) In the saloon?

Ellen

(Laughing.) No. Over it. I called on Mrs. Maloney and Barney
came upstairs for tea. He and I held the twins while Mrs. Maloney
made the toast.

Archer

(Simply.) You're astounding.

Ellen

Barney says Tweed is shaking in his shoes at the thought of your
being state senator...when's the election?

Archer

Next November, but I may lose again.

Ellen

Barney says you won't. He says you're bound to win. He says it'll

49.

be a case of let-her-go-Gallagher, with everybody hopping onto the
toboggan.

## Archer

Does he?

(Looking at her in admiration.)

I never realized until I met you that women could sympathize with men. I mean know them, know a lot of them, all kinds...and really understand.

## Ellen

Oh, understanding! That's bought by experience. Sometimes the price is too high.

## Archer

Is it experience that makes you so different?

## Ellen

(Lightly.) Am I different?

I don't want to be.

## Archer

Well, you are.

Why, just this room...it's so foreign, so artistic,

so like you.

I...I can't tell you how wonderful it seems to be back

in it again.

## Ellen

You're very kind.

(She looks up into his eyes. Her own drop before his eager gaze.)

But of course, May asked you to be kind to me.

## Archer

I didn't need any asking.

## Ellen

(A little bitterly.) May thinks I'm a poor, helpless creature and

I suppose I am but women here are so self-sufficient. They seem never to want men, never to feel the need...no more than the blessed in heaven.

## Archer

What sort of need?

## Ellen

Don't ask me!

Don't ask me!

I don't speak your language!

50.

## Archer

Can't I speak yours?

## Ellen

Mine! You don't know it. Oh, don't you see? I only want to be
safe! Safe in your straight little streets, with your good kind
people! Safe from the world...safe from my own emotions!

## Archer

(Boyishly.) I understand...really I do. Oh, I haven't had a life
like yours...all brilliance and glamour, in those lovely places,
with art and music and clever conversation. I've never even been
abroad. But I know what it's like to come in from the open to a
tiny little world of prejudice. I know how you feel. I feel just
that way, myself. And I've been home over two years.

## Ellen

(Suddenly.) Where were you two years ago this March?

## Archer

(Reflecting.) Let me see. I was on a hunting trip in southern
Wyoming.

## Ellen

What's it like in southern Wyoming?

## Archer

Oh, space and silence. Plains and rivers and sky. All the sky
there is, stretching over you empty, just broken a bit by the prairie
ridges and maybe a clump of cotton-wood trees.

## Ellen

(Whispering, her eyes shut.) Yes.

## Archer

I used to ride all day and look at it and wonder how the future was
going to change it. Of course it's wilderness now, but it won't
always be wild. I remember one evening we rode right into the con-
struction gang that's building the Union Pacific. That's the new
transcontinental railroad, you know. Just two rails shining in the
sunset and stopping in the middle of the sage-brush! But I knew
that beyond the Rockies two other rails were coming out to meet these,
and when they do...by George! We'll have conquered the continent!

51.

Ellen

And then what?

Archer

Then we'll build cities and dig mines and plant crops and make such opportunities for the boys and girls as the children nowadays have never known. I think of it all as a kind of millennium!

(He smiles boyishly.)

Oh, I suppose it won't really be that. Nothing ever is. But those men out in Wyoming, laying those rails, are building the future more than all our Wall Street bankers. Lord, I wish I were out there again. I mean I...

(Breaking off.)

Ellen

I?

(Indifferently.)

Oh, I was on the Riviera. Won't you have another crumpet?

Archer

Thanks, I'm not very hungry to-day. Was it lovely there?

Ellen

Yes. We were at Monte Carlo. My husband is fond of gambling.

Archer

But what did you do?

Ellen

(Shrugging.) Oh, I gambled too. And I read French novels and I talked to the men who made love to me. In spite of which, my life wasn't very romantic. About as romantic, in fact, as a close, overheated room, crowded with works of art, heavy with stale perfume and the odor of unclean bodies.

(Lightly.)

I hope I don't shock you. But I can't paint anything very ex-
quisite to match your landscape of sky and prairie.

(The front door-bell jangles faintly.)

Archer

I'm glad you came home.

56.

wanted me to promise never to touch them again. She asked me to
do it for her sake.

Ellen

(Quickly.) Oh, but that wasn't May! Cousin Louisa put her up to it.

Archer

Naturally. It didn't bother me a bit. I told her so. But she
said if I refused it would prove I didn't really love her. Of
course I knew what I ought to do. I knew I ought to laugh and take
her in my arms and kiss her about two hundred times and say, "Now do
I love you? I ask you! Do I?" But I couldn't. I sat there about
three feet away from her and just couldn't. Then the truth came out.

Ellen

What truth?

Archer

(Meeting her eyes squarely.) She said it wasn't politics that had
come between us. It was another woman.

(A pause. They look at one another.)

Ellen

But you denied it, didn't you?

Archer

Why should I?

Ellen

(In despair.) But it's not true.

Archer

(Roughly.) It is. She knows it and I know it and you know it.

What's the use of pretending?

Ellen

(Shutting her eyes and bowing her head.) Oh!

Archer

But I didn't say that to May. I told her it was just nonsense,
ridiculous gossip. And I tried again to put my arms around her and
sort of drive it away. I think that's what she wanted me to do...

58.

important thing. That's what she's going to cleave to now. The
other was just an outburst...something she'd been holding back,
something emotional. May's too young to have any respect for emo-
tions, that's why she'll change her mind. It's perfectly natural.
I'd do it myself. Any woman would. The only difference is I'd
do it because I knew I loved the man. And May will do it for ex-
actly the same reason, but she won't think so. She'll think she's
doing it entirely to save him.

Archer

From what?

Ellen

From the other woman, of course. May will find it's her duty to
forget what happened on the porch last Tuesday and to take you back.

Archer

(Quietly.) If, as you say, she's handed me over to another woman... well, there it is and that's all there is to it.

Ellen

Perhaps it's not so simple. For one thing has it ever occurred to
you that this other woman might be...married?

Archer

(Defiantly.) I don't care whether she's married or not! At least
I do...but it can't make any difference. Nothing can! That is,
if...if...

Ellen

(Her tone hard.) If what?

Archer

(Simply.) If she loves me.

(Ellen makes a gesture.)

Oh, I don't suppose she can. But if I thought I had a chance...
not now, of course, but way off...years off...why, I'd be willing
to wait all my life just to touch her hand at the end. I don't
ask to be loved back. I'd just be satisfied to love her...and have
her know it maybe...and be a little glad.

Ellen

(Rising suddenly and walking away from him.) You mustn't talk to
me like this. You mustn't, it's all wrong.

62.

or unpleasant. All one knows is, there was something...and now it's gone.

(She pats him again as one would a child.)

There! That's over! Now run home, my dear, and get your own
telegram.

(She is fairly pushing him toward the door.)

Archer

(Bewildered.) But Ellen...Ellen...

Ellen

Don't forget to tell that rector! Easter's only four weeks off.

You'll be frightfully busy. I may not see you till the wedding,
so take care of yourself. Don't work too hard with Barney Maloney!

Goodbye!

Archer

(On the threshold.) But...but you can't send me off like this!

You can't...

(He seizes her hands.)

Ellen

(Laughing.) I don't wonder you're excited! I'm excited myself!

(She tears her hands from his grasp.)

Goodbye. Oh, really, you must...goodbye!

(He turns and leaves without another word. She
stands at the door, calling after him gaily and
casually.)

I'll telegraph May this evening that I gave you her message! Let me
know if I can help! I'm splendid with rectors...

(By this time the curtain has fallen.)

3.

my boy, and listen to me. That Chesapeake Canal case is coming up
before the Supreme Court to-morrow and I'm taking the four o'clock
for Washington. Before I leave though I want to hand over to you
a little matter which I prefer not to mention to the other partners...
for family reasons.

Archer

(Caught by his tone.) Whose family, sir?

Letterblair

Your wife's and mine. The Mingott family. You may or may not be
surprised to hear, Newland, that I've had a letter from the Countess
Olenska stating that she wishes to bring suit for divorce.

Archer

(After a slight pause.) Really! I'm surprised. She was in Newport
all summer. I haven't seen her since my wedding last spring.

Letterblair

Her decision is very sudden. She's met I may add with considerable
opposition.

Archer

From the family?

Letterblair

Yes. There's the devil to pay. Mrs. Mingott wrote me yesterday
in great distress. She wants me to enter into a friendly conspiracy
with herself and the van der Luydens to make the Countess change her
mind. I asked them to meet me here to-day at three o'clock and talk
it over. Then this morning I'm called to Washington. So I tele-
graphed you to come down and handle it while I'm away.

Archer

(Quietly.) That's impossible!

Letterblair

(Looking up sharply.) Why?

Archer

I'm very busy. I have this railroad bill coming up.
(He gathers conviction as he speaks.)

No, I can't take on anything more.

4.

Letterblair

(Easily.) Oh, yes, you can. See the Mingott faction to-day and
find out what it's all about. Then have a confidential talk with
Madame Olenska to-morrow. I've made an appointment with her for
five o'clock. I don't doubt you can have everything cleared up
and go back to Albany to-morrow night. Well, what about it?

Archer

I should very much prefer you to consult one of the other partners.

Letterblair

(Testily.) But this is a family matter. After all, she's your
wife's cousin. Don't forget that!

Archer

I know. And to pry into the affairs of my wife's cousin is extremely
distasteful to me.

Letterblair

(Impatiently.) Don't be ridiculous, Newland. It's only to help
her in a very difficult situation.

Archer

Can't she wait until you're free?

Letterblair

She won't wait a moment. She says she must bring action immediately.

Archer

(After a brief struggle with inner scruple.) Do you know...did she say...does she want to marry again?

Letterblair

Probably. She didn't mention it in her letter.
(Looking at his watch and rising.)
Now, I really must be going.

Archer

(Firmly.) I won't take the case. She wouldn't want me to.

Letterblair

Why, don't you get on with her?

6.

Mrs. Mingott

What!

Mrs. Van der Luyden

(Sadly.) Well, I hardly wonder. I'm sure it's all very unpleasant. And I'm not surprised that dear Newland would prefer to keep out of it.

Letterblair

I can't see that he has a leg to stand on.

(Hamilton appears with his hat and coat.)

Hamilton

Not much time, sir.

Letterblair

Now I must run. I have just twenty-four minutes to catch the ferry.

(Struggling into his overcoat with the help of Hamilton.)

Goodbye, ladies. Good afternoon, Van der Luyden. I leave you with confidence in Archer's hands. He's a little pig-headed to-day, but he's sound...very sound!

(He goes out with Hamilton.)

Mrs. Mingott

(Turning on Archer.) Now, Newland, what's all this nonsense? If Letterblair can't take the case, you've got to.

Mrs. Van der Luyden

If you could, Newland dear...for May's sake.

Archer

I'm awfully sorry, but I've no time.

Mrs. Mingott

Bosh!

Mrs. Van der Luyden

We know you're out of sympathy with Ellen. We all are. But I don't think you ought to consider that now.

Mrs. Mingott

And even if you disapprove of her you might as a lawyer make her change her mind. That's more than her grandmother can do.

7.

(She sinks into an armchair with dignity and sits enthroned amid her billowing draperies. Mrs. Van der Luyden perches primly on the edge of the other chair. Van der Luyden retreats to the fireplace. Archer sits at Letterblair's desk, unwillingly facing them.)

Archer

(Bluntly.) Why does she want a divorce?

Mrs. Mingott

Well, the fact is, she's had a letter from Olenski.

Archer

Her husband?

Mrs. Mingott

Yes. It came day before yesterday, in my care. It gave me quite a turn when I recognized his seal. I took it over to her that morning. She was at her little piano when I arrived, trying over some new music, apparently as happy as a lark.

Mrs. Van der Luyden

Of course she's easily upset.

Mrs. Mingott

She's not, Louisa! If she were I could understand. She's always shown the greatest courage and control. But the mere sight of this letter simply devastated her. She wouldn't open it, Newland. She wouldn't touch it. She just threw it away from her and stood there staring at it with her great brown eyes as if it were a snake. "I don't want to hear from him, Granny," she said. "I don't want to think of him. I just try to tell myself we're not in the same world."

Mrs. Van der Luyden

(Judicially.) Hysterical.

Mrs. Mingott

I had to open it myself and read it aloud to her. And it was charming, Newland. Olenski's a thorough scamp, but he has charm. He wants her back, on her own terms. He takes all the blame. He's coming over himself to plead with her. In fact he's on the ocean now.

Archer

And that distresses Madame Olenska?

8.

Mrs. Mingott

Distresses her? Why, the poor child's wild with terror! "I'm so
afraid, Granny," she kept saying. "You don't know, Granny! You
don't understand! I'm so horribly afraid!" And she began tearing
through the morning Times trying to find what day his boat lands.
Then, when she discovered it was Tuesday, she wanted Letterblair's
address and how long did it take to get a divorce.

Mrs. Van der Luyden

Silly.

Mrs. Mingott

Anastasia came in. She seemed to understand and got her quiet again.
So I went home, wrote Letterblair myself and called on Henry and
Louisa. There's only one thing to be done. We've got to stop her.

Archer

Why, Mrs. Mingott?

Mrs. Mingott

Why? It's a world of temptation, Newland, and a pretty woman is
never safe in it alone. I'm here now, but I shan't live forever.
Who'll look after her then? No, what she needs is a husband and
even a bad husband is better than none at all.

Mrs. Van der Luyden

You see, Newland dear, we're all of one opinion.

(She smiles brightly.)

Ellen may be a little stubborn, but we're quite determined to give
the poor child's story a happy ending!

Mrs. Mingott

(Firmly.) Every family has traditions, Newland. I feel the great-
est sympathy for Ellen but after all Mingotts don't divorce.

Mrs. Van der Luyden

Dear Ellen has been tried. But we all know that many happy and
successful marriages are one long sacrifice.

Van der Luyden

(Oracularly from the hearth-rug.) I have no wish to extenuate the
count's transgressions, Newland. But still...there were compensa-
tions.

9.

Mrs. Van der Luyden

(Gently.) She had her establishments in Paris and Rome and Monte Carlo and her yacht at Cowes and her grouse moor in Scotland.

Mrs. Mingott

Nonsense, Louisa! He had them with her money.

Mrs. Van der Luyden

Well, she had the title and the family sables and that quaint old castle in Galicia...

Mrs. Mingott

(Cutting in.) Until it was sold at auction to pay his creditors! No, she went to him, with her mother's millions and she left him with two trunks and a hatbox!

Van der Luyden

But what's the use of a divorce? She'll never get back a cent of her money.

(Pointedly.)

And unless, of course, she's thinking of marrying again...

Mrs. Van der Luyden

After all, Catherine, the Duke of St. Austrey did follow her over here and he hung around Newport all last summer and he's still paying her conspicuous attentions!

Mrs. Mingott

(Exasperated.) How many times do I have to tell you she won't look at him. No, all the poor child wants is her freedom!

Mrs. Van der Luyden

Can freedom compensate her for the publicity of a law suit?

Mrs. Mingott

We feel, Newland, that the price is too high.

Mrs. Van der Luyden

Why, it would be in all the newspapers.

Van der Luyden

I hope I'm a man of courage, Newland, but my wife and I should have to leave New York. Temporarily, of course. But still...leave New York!

10.

### Archer

It might not be so bad, sir. If the Count's a gentleman...that is, if he's willing to co-operate...

### Mrs. Mingott

(Quietly.) He won't.

### Archer

What?

### Mrs. Mingott

He'll fight it with every means at his command.

### Archer

But what means has he?

(There is an awkward pause.)

### Mrs. Van der Luyden

We may as well tell him, Catherine.

(To Archer.)

I don't suppose you've heard anything about it, Newland, but dear Ellen has been sadly indiscreet.

### Van der Luyden

(With due solemnity.) If she brings this suit, she'll have to face a very grave countercharge.

### Archer

A countercharge? Why...

(With dawning realization.)

But that's impossible!

### Mrs. Van der Luyden

(Primly.) Ellen left her husband, Newland, under very unconventional circumstances.

### Van der Luyden

If she had only consulted someone at the time!

### Mrs. Van der Luyden

She did. She consulted Monsieur Rivière, her husband's secretary.

11.

## Van der Luyden

(Gently.) A young, unmarried Frenchman!

## Archer

(Coldly.) Excuse me, sir. But as I'm not taking the case, these
are things I've no right to hear.

## Mrs. Mingott

(Deeply moved.) Newland, I'm an old woman. And I've so much love
for Ellen. I've always loved her. I've always been proud of her.
Are you going to make me tell this story to a stranger?

(A slight pause.)

## Archer

(Softening.) No, Mrs. Mingott, I'll do whatever I can. But of
course...of course these charges are ridiculous.

## Mrs. Van der Luyden

She's always admitted, that Rivière helped her run away.

## Archer

What of it? I don't doubt she very much needed help.

## Van der Luyden

Imprudent, though, to go with her to Dresden.

## Mrs. Van der Luyden

To be seen with her in Paris...

## Van der Luyden

To put her on her boat at Liverpool after a fortnight in London.
(Reflectively.)

Yes, the Count has in his hands the makings of a very ugly story.

## Archer

(Very angry, very quiet.) She was a most unhappy lady, in great
distress. She was young, she was frightened, she was desperate.

## Van der Luyden

(Dryly.) You put the case very neatly for the Count.

## Mrs. Van der Luyden

You see, now, Newland, why we can't let her bring this dreadful suit.

15.

Ellen

(Sinking into it.) Can you help me get my divorce? Can you help me get it immediately?

Archer

(Soothingly.) I think so.
(With some little hesitation.)

And now if I'm to be your lawyer, may I ask you a few questions?

Ellen

Certainly.

Archer

(Always looking at the fire.) Is there any chance of your husband... fighting the case?

Ellen

How could he?

Archer

(His hesitation increasing.) There's no possibility of his bringing countercharges?

Ellen

(Vaguely.) Countercharges?

Archer

Yes. Say things that might be disagreeable to you. Things that might harm you...no matter how untrue they were.

Ellen

(Simply.) But if they were untrue, how could they harm me?

Archer

New York is a very small world, Ellen. It is ruled by a few people with old-fashioned ideas. Our legislation favors divorce. Our social customs don't.

Ellen

Never?

Archer

Never if the woman, however injured, however irreproachable, has

16.

appearance in the slightest degree against her.

(A pause.)

Ellen

What have Granny and the Yan der Luydens been telling you?

Archer

They've told me that, if you bring suit against your husband he may
reply with certain accusations against you.

Ellen

I see. But they would be only accusations.

Archer

Of course. And yet the results might be...might be embarrassing.

Ellen

Why?

Archer

When you left your husband...did you go alone?

Ellen

(Quietly.) No. I was very much upset. I was in Galicia, miles
from any railroad. I had no money. I left my husband's house with
his secretary, André Rivière.

Archer

(With something smouldering beneath his tone.) Then it's true.
This Rivière...this Frenchman...he did help you!

Ellen

(Calmly.) Yes. I owe him a great debt.

Archer

He...travelled with you to Dresden? To Paris? To London?

Ellen

Yes. He put me on the boat at Liverpool.

Archer

(After a little pause.) He...loved you?

17.

Ellen

I think so. He never told me.

Archer

(In a rush of relief.)

But then...then...

Ellen

Do Granny and the Van der Luydens believe Monsieur Rivière was my lover?

Archer

Mrs. Mingott said she didn't know.

Ellen

And you, Mr. Archer.

Do you believe it too?

Archer

(Roughly.)

You know very well, I don't believe a damned word of it.

Ellen

(In a whisper.)

Thank you.

Archer

(Turning on her.)

But all the same you were very indiscreet! You

ought to have known better! You ought to have realized you...

Ellen

(Smiling a little as she interrupts.)

Don't scold me! And besides,

I didn't lose my heard entirely. Remember, I had Anastasia.

Archer

Anastasia?

Ellen

She was with me every minute.

Wouldn't her evidence prevent... mis-

constructions?

Archer

(Decisively.)

Yes. You'll win your case.

Ellen

And I'll be free?

Completely and absolutely free?

18.

### Archer

Yes. Free to make any plans you wish.

### Ellen

(Puzzled.) Plans? How do you mean?

### Archer

You might intend...to remarry.

### Ellen

(Eagerly.) Oh, no. Not that! I just want to be out of his power, out of his reach...no matter what happens, no matter what he does! I want to be separated, cut off entirely! I want the break to be so definite, so final that he can never even think of me again!

### Archer

And that's all?

### Ellen

(Panting a little.) That's all. To me it's enough.
(A brief pause.)

### Archer

Mrs. Mingott says he wrote you a letter. May I read it?
(She produces it from her little bag and hands it to him silently. He reads it, puts it back into the envelope and returns it to her.)

I see. It's a clever letter.

### Ellen

Oh, he wants me again...that's clear enough. I don't know why. It can't be the money, he's spent all that.

(With a sudden access of terror.)

He's coming after me! He's on the ocean now! Every minute that goes by brings him a little nearer! And he'll get me...I know he'll get me unless you stop him, Newland! That's why I want the divorce, why I want it immediately! You see how important it is, don't you? You see now why I must have it started by Tuesday, before he lands!

### Archer

But he can't hurt you. Even if he's here, he can't hurt you.

### Ellen

Oh yes, he can! He's a spider...a creeping spider, and I'm caught

20.

smirch you with my degradation.

## Archer

(Very gently.) Tell me, just once, my dear, and then forget it forever.

## Ellen

(After a slight pause.) I was quite young when I married him... barely seventeen. Such happiness as I had didn't last very long. Six weeks of me was enough for him. And then...

*(She pauses.)*

## Archer

Other women?

## Ellen

Oh, yes, other women. But I didn't mind them so much...after the first. She was a peasant...on the estate, you know...hardly older than I was. She's always haunted me. She...had the baby I wanted.

*(Her voice hardens.)*

But it wasn't the women. They all have women. That's taken for granted.

## Archer

What was it, then?

## Ellen

(Slowly.) I think it was his mind...his thoughts even more than his actions. It was the horror of living with those unimaginable thoughts! The first year was the worst. I was so young, so lonely, and I did so want a child! Of course now I thank God I never had one. That's my only mercy. You see, he's not...not really sane.

## Archer

You mean that literally?

## Ellen

Yes. Of course, he's brilliant...that's what makes it so terrible. He has knowledge, taste, cultivation. He collects Renaissance enamels. Scholars come from all over Europe to look at them and he meets them with a scholarship equal to their own.

*(With bitter irony.)*

You didn't know he was an authority on the early Byzantine church, did you? He and a funny little Santa Claus of a Leipzig professor!

You should hear them discussing dogmas and heresies over their after-dinner coffee!

21.

## Archer

Have you proofs of his infidelity?

## Ellen

The women, you mean?

(He nods.)

No. Of course I could get them easily enough.

(Opening her little bag and taking from it some
papers.)

But I have here three written statements...affidavits, do you call them?...which I think will be sufficient basis for my suit.

(Handing him the first.)

This is from a French doctor.

## Archer

(As he reads it.)

The brute! The blackguard.

## Ellen

Oh, no. That isn't the worst kind of cruelty. He never did it again. After that Anastasia protected me.

(She gives him the second document.)

This is from a Polish priest.

## Archer

(Reading it.)

But good God! This...this was a child!

## Ellen

Yes. The daughter of a tenant. It was hard to hush it up. Such a nice little girl! The priest was her friend.

(Giving him the third paper.)

This is the last. A hotel-keeper in Monte Carlo...quite well-known and reliable.

## Archer

(As he reads it.)

But this is...this is incredible!

(He gulps.)

I...I didn't know such things...existed.

## Ellen

Of course they black-mailed him later. Quite large sums. I made the payments.

## Archer

But the man's a criminal! It's a case for the police!

22.

Ellen

You don't know Europe. He has everything on his side...rank, money, power.

Archer

But his family! Surely there was someone to...to.

Ellen

He has no family, except his aunt, the Countess Sobieska. She's very rich and religious. She has the Church behind her. And she loves him. She loves him in spite of everything. To her, he's just a lost child. I tried to feel that way about him, too. But it's no use. I can't! I can't! To me he's a monster, a demon, something... something out of the pit! And when I think that he's on his way to New York, and I may have to see him, hear his voice, be in the same room with him...oh! Oh!

(Her terror again threatens to overwhelm her.)

Archer

(Soothingly.)

Ssh!

It's all right! It's all right!

(She controls herself.)

Has Mrs. Mingott read these?

(He indicates the papers.)

Ellen

No. I couldn't tell her. She's old. She loves me. I'm her lost child. She made my marriage. No, I couldn't tell her. It would break her heart.

(Archer rises and strides to the window behind him. He stands with his back to the room, looking out at the snow-frosted steeple of Trinity, gleaming in the late afternoon sunshine, under a stainless New York sky. There is a silence. Finally she speaks.)

Well, there it is.

You know all my secrets.

(He remains motionless at the window. Her voice is breaking.)

Newland, don't stand like that!

Look at me!

What are you thinking?

Archer

(Turning.) I was thinking how we coasted down Murray Hill together... and how you looked in that little red hood.

Ellen

(Suddenly bursting into tears.)

Oh, Newland!

Newland!

Don't! I can't bear it!

(She rises and walks away.)

23.

## Archer

(Following her.)
tell me long ago?

Why didn't you tell me, Ellen?

Why didn't you send for me to help you?

## Ellen

Why didn't I send for you?

(She makes a gesture of despair.)

Oh, Newland, you shouldn't be here, now!

You shouldn't have come

back into my life.

## Archer

(Passionately.)

All I know is I never should have left it.

## Ellen

Don't say that!

You're safe!

You're happy!

Everything has

turned out right!

## Archer

(Savagely.)

Right?

(He gives a kind of laugh.)

My God!

## Ellen

Oh, no! No!

I've staked everything I have on the success of your

marriage.

## Archer

(Bitterly.)
My marriage
past human endurance.

Ellen, we can't go on like this.

It's

## Ellen

(Pitifully.)

My dear!

Can't you endure it...if I can?

(He looks at her for a moment, then realization
comes.)

## Archer

(Transfigured.)

You too?

Oh, Ellen...you, too!

(He starts towards her.)

## Ellen

(Stopping him.)

No, wait!

I won't have happiness bought by dis-

loyalty. I won't betray kindness and goodness and affection. Oh, Newland, you've been so splendid. Don't spoil it all now! I know it's hard...but we did it before. We can do it again, if we're only brave...if we only stop and think!

24.

## Archer

I can't think...

## Ellen

You must! It's like this. You've spent your life with people who believe in honesty and self-respect. I've spent mine with people who laughed them to scorn. I know what it's like to be without them. You don't, my dear.

(She turns away.)

I must go. I mustn't see you again. We mustn't see each other.

## Archer

And that's to be all for either of us?

## Ellen

What else is there?

## Archer

(Suddenly catching her in his arms.) This...

(He kisses her on the lips.)

## Ellen

(Struggling.)

Let me go! Oh! Let me go...

(She tears herself away from him and stands for a moment, her hand pressed tight against her mouth. Then pulling herself together, she goes quickly to the chair where she left her cloak, puts it on, picks up her little muff and turns to the door.)

Goodbye.

## Archer

(Hoarsely.) Ellen, listen to me! Things can be arranged. I'll speak to May. I'll tell her how we feel. She'll understand. She'll be generous. She'll let me go. Don't look so far ahead! Don't face the future! We'll get your divorce, that's the first step...

## Ellen

(Turning on the threshold.) I don't want my divorce.

## Archer

(Dumbfounded.) But your safety...your freedom...?

26.

## Scene 2.

The drawing-room of Ellen's little house on West 23rd Street. The hour is eleven in the evening. The lamps are lighted and tall candles burn on the mantelpiece. A little fire is kindled on the hearth. A tray of wine glasses, a decanter or two and a silver plate of sandwiches, -- the remnants of an informal supper, -- stand on a table. The room is filled with flowers. The duke's favorite roses are on the piano, the usual azaleas are behind Ellen's chaise longue by the fire. The curtain rises on Ellen lying there, eyes shut, cigarette in her dropped hand. The Duke of St. Austrey is leaning back in the armchair looking at the fire. Beaufort sits nearby, very quietly, head bowed. Both men hold lighted cigars but just now they are not smoking. They are listening to Saramonte, the Spanish pianist, who seated at the piano, is playing the last bars of a Liszt Rhapsody as the curtain rises. He finishes and there is a moment of silence.

Ellen

(Unclosing her eyes.) Oh, magnificent!

Beaufort

(Applauding lightly.) Splendid, senor! (The duke grunts appreciatively.)

Ellen

I never heard it played as well. Not even by Liszt himself.

Saramonte

Ah! There is a compliment!

Ellen

It's true. I thought he slurred in the cadenzas. I used to hear him at Madame Metternich's.

Saramonte

(Enthusiastic.) Dear Madame Metternich! Her Sunday evenings... ah, there was music!

27.

Beaufort

That was Vienna.

Saramonte

That was heaven.

Ellen

(Smiling.) And we are in New York. I wonder that Europeans care to visit us. Who do you?

Saramonte

Because Americans pay me twelve hundred dollars a night for a little Chopin.

Ellen

(Laughing.) Oh, you are shameless!

Saramonte

No. I am practical.

Ellen

And you, duke?

The Duke

(Smoking comfortably.) I am here for a vacation.

Ellen

I see. You may look as if you were calling on a lady in her New York drawing-room, but you are really sitting under the palm trees of some desert isle three thousand miles from Picidilly, listening to the native tom-toms in the company of a female cannibal who counts for nothing in the British scheme of things.

Beaufort

Lovely cannibals count supremely. They eat men.

Ellen

(Smiling.) Only the missionaries who come to convert them. They Never eat their fellow countrymen. And why are you here...if your life is in danger?

Beaufort

(Quietly.) I am waiting for my Leonardo.

28.

Ellen

Still?

Beaufort

Always.

(There is a wail of wind in the street outside.)

The Duke

I say! Listen to that!

Ellen

The storm's turning into a blizzard.

(To Saramonte.)

You have a bad night for your journey, senor.

Beaufort

(Casually.) And Count Olenski for his landing. His boat's the
Italia, isn't it? I saw it docked at eight!

Saramonte

(Ingenuously.) Count Olenski coming? Ah, I did not know! What
a happy evening for you, madame la comtesse!

Ellen

(With quiet dignity.) He is not coming here. This is...a
business trip, only.

Beaufort

I must put him up at a club. What's his hotel?

Ellen

I'm afraid I don't know.

(There is a brief pause.)

Saramonte

(Rising from the piano.) Ah, well, I must be off.

Ellen

No, no! Not yet!

Saramonte

But my midnight train.

30.

Continue, Senor Saramonte, I beg of you!

(His eye meets Ellen's and wanders deliberately around the little group of men.)

I would not interrupt the Liebestod.

(There is an instant's pause. Then Saramonte goes on. Olenski's eyes return to Ellen. They look at one another as the music continues. Suddenly Saramonte breaks off in confusion.)

## Saramonte

I...I am sorry, madame la comtesse. I am not in the mood to-night. My apologies.

(He rises from the piano. Olenski advances toward Ellen with his eager, boyish smile. Anastasia, eyeing him fearfully, shrinks from the room.)

## Olenski

How charming, ma chère how...how adorably like home to find you in the midst of a musical party with all these old friends!

(His smile beams upon the group of men, in hospitable welcome, then returns to Ellen.)

I always liked that dress. You wore it first at Lady Radfield's, didn't you?

(He turns easily to the duke.)

I heard you were here, dear fellow. Chained to the chariot wheels of some fair American!

(He includes Ellen, delightfully, in his boyish smile.)

When an Englishman forsakes the empire, cherchez la femme!

(With a friendly hand on Saramonte's shoulder.)

And what a surprise to find you in New York, senor! Never heard you play anything better than that snatch of the Liebestod. And...

(His expression is deliberately puzzled.)

Herr...Herr Schomacht? Ach! Bitte, entschuldigen Sie mich! Mr.

Beaufort, of course. It's so long...I had forgotten!

(He smiles on everyone with the air of a host who would put them all at ease.)

I have been calling on your grandmother, Ellen. I found her just the same...a great American lady!

(He turns again to the men.)

I have...how do you say?...a warm heart for Mrs. Mingott.

(He looks at Ellen with happy eyes and a note of tenderness creeps into his voice.)

She gave me my wife.

## Ellen

(Coldly.) Granny told you where to find me?

32.

Olenski

(To Saramonte.) Hasta otra vez, se dios quiere!...

The Duke

(To Ellen, bluntly.) Would you like me to stay?

Ellen

(Understanding and smiling.) No. It's all right.
(He presses her hand and turns to Olenski at
the door.)

The Duke

(Bluff, but significant.) You don't want a lift, Olenski? Drop
you at your hotel. It's a bad night. Hard to get a hansom.

Olenski

(Affably.) No, thank you. I want to talk with my wife.
(Again with his boyish smile.)
Do you wonder?
(He wafts him into the hall.)

Beaufort

(To Ellen.) I have a feeling, madame, that masterpieces are on
the auction-block to-night.

Ellen

Not masterpieces. Just a worn-out slave.

Beaufort

At all events, may I put in a bid?

Ellen

A bid?

Beaufort

(Very close to her.) My worship. My longing. My unappeasable
desire...

Olenski

(Smiling at them from the door.) The duke is waiting for you, Herr
Beaufort.

34.

Olenski

Then you know my reasons.

Ellen

No. I am still at a loss.

Olenski

(Sitting on the chaise-longue beside her, very sweetly and tenderly.)
Ellen, don't be hard! Don't be unforgiving! I come as a penitent.
I love you. I have never ceased to love you...

Ellen

(Rising quickly and standing on the hearth-rug.) I do not believe you.

Olenski

(Looking up in ingenuous surprise.) Why? It appears to me very
natural. Ma chere, you underestimate your charm! I am lonely, I
am desolate, I cannot forget certain memories...half bitter, half
sweet...the memories of our happiness together.

(Starting to his feet.)

Ah, Ellen! Ellen, ma bien aimee! Can you forget them?

Ellen

(Drily.) I try to.

Olenski

(Romantically, ignoring her comment.) "O souvenirs charmants des
premier jour d'amour!" No, no! It is impossible! Without you,
my life is an empty house, a fire that has gone out, a well that has
run dry!

Ellen

Boris, why not put the cards on the table? Whatever the game is, I
prefer to play it that way.

Olenski

(Gently reproving.) Ah, don't be cynical! It is not like you.
It...it hurts me, chere, to find you cynical.

Ellen

I'm sorry. What is it you want of me?

Olenski

(With ardor.) Only yourself! You are always in my lonely heart.

35.

Whenever I hear music, I miss you. Whenever I look at the stars, I think of you. Whenever I kneel at God's altar, I pray for you. Whenever Beauty comes to me in any form...and you come with it. Look! I have brought you a little present.

(He takes a small box from his pocket and gives it to her.)

Oh, it is very simple. Only a pot-pourri from the petals of your favorite rose...the yellow rose bush by the fountain, you remember? I made it myself. It is a breath of perfume from the past...our past, beloved! The box is quite good, too. Chinese, 16th century.

## Ellen

(Who has untied the conquettish knot of silver ribbon around the box and opened it.)

I'm afraid you made a little mistake. That was a yellow rose. These petals are red.

(Sniffing it.)

Delicious! Just like the kind they sell at Bianchi's on Rue de la Paix. She closes the box and puts it on the mantelpiece.

## Olenski

(Shaking his head, but smiling.) Always suspicious! I fear my little present is a failure. You will, perhaps, be more impressed by the Sobieski emeralds. Dear Tante Sophie sends them to you with her love. The Empress Catherine gave them to my grandfather. He was very handsome. So are they. I had them all reset in Paris. I should have brought them here to-night, cherie, but I thought...ah, foolish that I am!...you might be more touched by my little offering. To-morrow morning I shall present the emeralds.

## Ellen

Poor Tante Sophie! How is she, Boris?

## Olenski

(Seizing this opportunity.) Pining, longing for you...as we all are, Ellen! Have you no pity? Can't you understand? Your friends, high and low, great personages, peasants working in the fields...they speak of you, they wait, they hope.

(With his charming smile.)

Why, it has become a public mission...my journey to America! When I left the castle Peter Ivanovitch stopped me on the station platform. His grandson was with him. "Will she come back for Christmas?" he said, and there were tears in the old fellow's eyes.

## Ellen

He recalled, perhaps, the Christmas two years ago when you had his son nearly flogged to death for poaching.

(Olenski turns abruptly away from her and paces the room in irritation. He stops with the stage between them.)

36.

Olenski

But this life in America...you cannot care for it! What pleasures
have you? What companionship?

(She continues to look at him coldly. A hint
of annoyance creeps into his tone.)

St. Austrey is a stupid Englishman. Saramonte...

(He snaps his fingers contemptuously.)

a pianist! And as for Herr Schoenmacht...! Can such canaille
reconcile you to the pangs of exile?

Ellen

(Icily.) Has it ever occurred to you that I might have American
friends?

Olenski

(Genuinely shocked.) Americans? Ma chère, I thought you had
discrimination, taste!

Ellen

I find Americans more congenial than you imagine.

Olenski

But what can they offer you in this horrible country?

(Pleadingly.)

Come back with me, ma mie! We shall have Christmas on the Riviera...
open the palazzo in Rome. I need your advice on a Cellino salt-cellar!
We'll go to Paris for the spring, run over to London for the season,
and spend the summer quietly at home.

Ellen

(Bitterly.) Home!

Olenski

That beautiful word! And Ellen, listen! We'll do everything you
always talked about...clean up the village, found that school, build
that hospital!

Ellen

(Ironically.) Wouldn't it all be rather expensive. You forget
you are ruined. You forget you ruined me.

Olenski

(Happily.) Ah, ma chère, here is my little piece of good news!
Dear Tante Sophie has offered to set us up and how do you say it? see
us through!

37.

Ellen

(Incredulous.) Tante Sophie? But she said she never would help you again!

Olenski

(With a little self-satisfied laugh.) Ah, she did not mean it. I am all she has, Ellen. And she is a rich...a very rich old woman! She will pay my debts and give us quite a proper income, if...

Ellen

If what?

Olenski

(Wistfully.) If you will come back to me.

Ellen

(With dawning realization.) I see!

Olenski

Yes. She makes that condition. She is devoted to you, ma chère. She relies on you completely. Oh, I have been frank! I have admitted many of my follies! But she relies...and how wisely!... on your restraining hand to guide me in the future!

Ellen

And you really think I would put myself again in your power?

Olenski

My power!

(Laughing.)

Comme tu es absurde, mignonne!

(Suddenly serious.)

You will be entirely and absolutely free. Tante Sophie...heaven
bless her!...guarantees you complete financial independence.

(As Ellen starts to speak.)

Wait, wait, ma chère ! It is a question of millions! And I do
not mean francs...no, I mean dollars! Millions of American dollars!

(Laughing.)

You see I speak your language! I...

Ellen

(Interrupting.)
fuse your offer.
of the world.

Boris, we needn't continue this interview. I refuse your offer. I wouldn't live with you again for all the kingdoms

(He considers her for a moment, then smiles.)

38.

Olenski

(Diplomatically.) You would not have to live with me, ma chere.
Much as I should deplore such arrangements, they are possible...even
frequent. If you will lend only your beautiful countenance, your
exquisite presence to my unhappy life, I can assure you that your
personal security, your privacy, will never be violated.

(A brief pause.)
You do not believe it?

Ellen

Yes. But only because I know I mean nothing to you but the hope
of a large income. If you wanted me, you would take me. But you
will never want me again. I see you so clearly, Boris. To you,
I am...only disconcerting.

(Again he considers her.)

Olenski

(Tactfully.) When I said you would be free, Ellen, I meant it in all senses of the word. Your life would be your own affair. Ellen... I hope I am too generous to begrudge you any little happiness that came your way.

(Delicately.)

St. Austrey? I do not care for the type myself, but I know some
women find it very attractive. Saramonte? Beaufort? I should
lift an eyebrow perhaps...but say not a single word. Europe, chérie,
is an orchard full of romantic fruits. What joy to pluck them...from
new trees and old! Not Rivière, unfortunately. Rivière died this
winter in Rome.

Ellen

(Deeply moved.) Rivière? Dead?

Olenski

Yes...poor fellow! You hadn't heard?

Ellen

No, I hadn't heard. How...how did he die?

Olenski

(Looking carefully at his finger nails.) Oh, he shot himself one
evening.

Ellen

(In horror.) Shot himself? Why?

39.

Olenski

(Sympathetically.) It is always difficult to understand such acts.
He was a man of impulse...surely, ma chère, you know that! Impossible
to fathom his motives. Even for me, who met him that afternoon.

Ellen

(Staring at him.) You...met him?

Olenski

Yes, in the Vatican Library. He was doing some research work for
old Schmeltzenbach. Valuable man, Rivière. I spoke to him...took
occasion to point out that he had involved both you and himself in a
very considerable scandal. A scandal which, unless I were extremely
generous, might result in your ruin. Of course I explained that I
was willing, even anxious to offer you the refuge your situation de-
manded. I assured him of my belief in your ultimate return. He
seemed unaccountably agitated. But then he was always hypersensitive,
was he not, ma mie?

Ellen

(Quietly.) You killed him. You killed him with a lie.

Olenski

(Gently.) Had I desired to kill him, I should have done so with a
sword. But I sympathize with you in your very natural concern.
Peace be to his ashes

(More cheerfully.)

Let me remind you however, that the world is full of men...chevaliers
eager to console the fair! And when a woman has your neck and
shoulders...

Ellen

(Interrupting.) Stop it!

Olenski

(Ominously.) Ellen, I've been very patient with you, do not try my
patience too far. As your husband, I command you to return to me.

Ellen

I shall pay no attention to any such commands. I have my freedom
at last.

Olenski

(With a sudden snarl.) Freedom! Freedom! Have I not said you could
be your own mistress and anyone's else you like?

40.

Ellen

You're insulting. Please leave my house.

Olenski

(His face distorted.) Not until we arrive at an understanding.
You know me, Ellen! You know my determination!

Ellen

Unless you leave my house immediately I swear to you that I shall
tell Granny and Tante Sophie and every one of our European friends
exactly what you are. I have those affidavits. I have them
safely. They are in the hands of my lawyer.

Olenski

Ah, we are independent!

(With ferocity.)

Do you think I will lose that fortune for the caprice of a woman?
And that woman my wife?

(Through his teeth.)

You do not know me, ma chere. I see that I must teach you again!

Ellen

Not this time, Boris. I am in my own country, among my own people.

Olenski

(Purring, as he comes toward her.) Silly, vulgar little American!

Ellen

(Shrinking away from him in terror.) Boris: Don't come near me!
Don't touch me! Keep away! Keep away, do you hear me?

(He is about to seize her by the wrist when she
screams aloud.)

Anastasia! Vieni! Vieni subito!
(The door is thrown open and Anastasia rushes into
the room. Olenski, with a great effort, turns
from Ellen and greets her with a smile.)

Olenski

Ah, che fedeltà! Un bicchiere di vino Anastasia.

(Trembling she pours him a glass of wine and
offers it to him on the tray.)

Grazie.

(He drains it at a gulp.)

41.

Anastasia

(To Ellen.) Signora?

Ellen

(With a little smile.) Si. Va bene.

(Anastasia goes out a little reluctantly.)

Ellen

(As if nothing had happened.) And now, if you don't mind...

(Glancing at the clock.)

It's after twelve.

Olenski

(All compunctions.) Ah, ma chère, I have fatigued you! A night's sleep will refresh us both. To-morrow morning I shall bring the emeralds.

Ellen

(Shaking her head.) No. I won't see you again.

Olenski

(Pleading.) Wait two days...three days! Then consider it again!

Ellen

It's no use. You have my answer.

Olenski

(Tenderly.) Look at me, little Ellen! Look at me!

Ellen

(Closing her eyes.) Please go. I am very tired.

Olenski

Ah, I shall never give you up!

(He makes a movement to take her hand, but she retreats before him. As she does so a sudden peal of the jangling doorbell wakes the echoes in the silent house. Ellen and Olenski stand startled for a moment. The door is opened by Anastasia, who, with an expression of amazement, shows in Archer. He is in a state of uncontrollable emotion. He holds his hat in his bare hand. His overcoat is flecked with snow. He stands as if bewildered. Anastasia goes out softly. Olenski looks at

45.

## Archer

Yes, you do! And anyway, it's too late.

## Ellen

Why?

## Archer

I've told May.

## Ellen

(Aghast.) Oh, Newland! Oh, how could you?

## Archer

(A little wildly.) Listen to me, dearest! I've been in hell all week. Knowing that scoundrel was coming, knowing you needed me, thinking of you every minute...with May beside me! Oh, Ellen! Ellen! You've been at least alone!

## Ellen

(With an instinctive movement of pity.) My dear, my dear...

## Archer

It wasn't until last night that it really came to me...that I felt quite certain of what we had to do.

(He speaks rapidly, as one recalling a hideous dream.)

It was May, the sight of May that brought it home to me. We were alone after dinner. She was sewing by the fire. She was so pretty, Ellen...so placid and serene. I watched her hands. They looked so capable, moving back and forth in the lamplight. I watched her gold thimble and her wedding-ring. All they meant was domesticity. Nothing more. I swear it, Ellen...

(His voice is breaking.)

Nothing more...even to May! Well, I watched her and I knew that in all the years to come I never could share a single thought with her...or a single feeling. She looked so young, Ellen, and so strong. I knew we'd go on for endless evenings, just like that...she and I... until we died. And then I thought...Ellen, I couldn't help it... what if she should die? Die soon, and leave me free. She might. People do. Even young people, sometimes. And suddenly I realized what I was thinking. I realized I was looking at May and wishing her dead...just because she stood between us.

## Ellen

(In horror.) Newland! Don't talk like that! Don't think like that! You mustn't!

46.

## Archer

Oh, that's over. It was over in a moment...when I saw that our going away together would solve everything. It's so simple. It came to me like a great light. It drove all the shadows away. May wasn't an enemy any longer. She was just someone I felt terribly sorry for. You understand that, don't you?

## Ellen

And you told her? You told her...about us?

## Archer

No. Not then. I thought it all over. I law awake all night, planning. This morning I made my arrangements...took the train at noon. I left May a letter.

## Ellen

(With a piteous gesture of remonstrance.) A letter? Oh, Newland!

## Archer

There was no use talking. It would only have hurt her. Nothing could have changed me. I left everything in her hands. She can say what she likes, do what she likes...give any story to the family or to the world. I told her the truth.

(His face lights up.)

I told her I loved you...that I'd always loved you, since the night we met. I told her I'd learned through loving you what love could mean. I told her I shouldn't have married her. I asked her to forgive me, and to remember it was only because I was trying so hard to do the right thing that I'd done her that great wrong.

## Ellen

(Pitifully.) Oh, Newland! Think what you're doing now to yourself and your life and your future!

## Archer

What do I care about my future? I mean that kind of a future. It's all attended to. I wrote my party leader. I left the note with May's letter and asked her to forward it to the Capitol this evening. I asked her to read it so she'd know exactly what I said. I just told them I was leaving the country unexpectedly on a personal matter, so I couldn't bring up my railroad bill on the twentieth.

## Ellen

(Who has been gazing at him in growing horror.) So I've ruined you. I knew I should. I couldn't touch your life without soiling and

47.

spoiling it.

(Eagerly.)

Oh, but it's not too late! You can go back! You can tell them it
was all a mistake! May will forgive. She can't help it. She
loves you.

Archer

That's all finished...dead and buried. I shall never go back. I
shall never leave you.

Ellen

(Looking at him steadily.) And what do you want, Newland? Do
you want me to be your mistress, since I can't be your wife?

Archer

No. I don't want that and you know it. I want to marry you. I
want to have you always, with no shadow between us. Ellen, dearest,
there needn't be! Only come away with me to-morrow, anywhere...any-
where you say! Just come! May will set me free. We'll get your
divorce. It'll be all right...

Ellen

(Interrupting.) Stop, Newland! Oh, can't you see? I couldn't
take you on those terms? It would be robbing May of everything.
I'd rather be your mistress than your wife!

Archer

Don't talk nonsense! You can't rob May of what she hasn't got,
of what she's never had! I'm going to take you off to a place where
things like that don't count...where we'll just be two human beings
who love each other, who are the whole of life to each other, and
nothing else in the world matters!

Ellen

(Sadly.) Ah, my dear, where is that place? Have you ever been
there? I know so many who tried to find it and they all got out
by mistake at some wayside station...like Boulogne or Pisa or Monte
Carlo. And it wasn't at all different from the old world they had
left, only smaller and dingier and more promiscuous.

Archer

Oh, that's Europe! This country's different. We don't think like
that over here. We'll go West, you and I. I'll have my career
out there, where there's room for it! You'll love the West, Ellen.
And we'll be married. We'll have a home there, too, in some new

48.

city! And children, Ellen...your children and mine! Splendid sons and daughters.

Ellen

(With deep emotion.)

Our sons and daughters...

Archer

Do you think I could let any other woman be their mother?

Ellen

(Tremulously.)

Oh...

(Then recovering herself with a desperate effort.)

No! No! It's a dream... a beautiful dream!

It can't come true!

Archer

I'll make it.

Ellen

You can't! You say you can make a career out there, but you can't!

Your whole life will be a failure. You can't do anything, anywhere...
if you put me first!

Archer

All right! I'll be a failure, then.

Ellen

And it will be my fault. You'll blame me for it...oh, yes you will!

I can see it like the writing on the wall! You wouldn't put it into
words. You're too generous for that. But you'd feel it! You'd

realize what I'd done to you! And you'd hate me...

Archer

(Breaking in.)

Hate you?

Ellen

(Swept on.) Yes, and you'd be right! Oh, Newland, you don't know
me! You don't understand me! I'm not what you think. I'm light!

I'm selfish! I'm frivolous and pleasure-loving! Even if you could
marry me, Newland, it wouldn't make any difference. I'd spoil your
life just the same. I'd care too much! I'd keep you to myself!

I'd kill every chance of doing your work in the world!

Archer

All right, then. I'll forget the world. I'll live for you and you

only!

only!

49.

(As she starts to protest.)

It's no use! It's too late! Do you remember what you told me that
first night at the Van der Luydens? About the enchantress and her
garden and the little door? Well, I've gone through it. It's shut
behind me. I'm safe inside. And oh, my dearest! I'm going to
stay here forever!

Ellen

You won't be happy! You can't be! Newland, I'm not the great love
of your life. Your great love is the country! You're dedicated
to all those boys and girls of the future. Be true to them! They
need you! They have no one else! And you can't help them, you can't
defend them, Newland, with a stain on your honor!

Archer

Without you nothing's worth defending.

Ellen

But it is! You know it is!

(Looking up at him, her eyes shining.)

My darling, listen to me. We're here to-night in this little room
of mine close together and shut-in and safe, but we can't go on.
We're chained to different destinies. Oh, I'm not afraid of separation!
I'll have you always in my heart, even if you're half the
world away! I've been lonely and despairing and afraid. But the
loneliness and the fear and the darkness are all gone. When I turn
back into my thoughts, I'll find you there. You must think of me like
that, Newland...a child, a frightened child, going into a room at night
where there's always a light!

Archer

(Incredulous.) You mean I won't see you again? This is the end?

Ellen

(At the end of her strength.) It must be, Newland. Have pity on
me! Have pity! It's the last thing I ask of you.

Archer

(Desperately.) But, Ellen...

Ellen

(Bursting suddenly into hysterical sobs.) Go away! Go away! It's
too much! I can't stand it! I can't stand it a moment longer!
Why don't you go? Oh, my God, why don't you go...why don't you go?

53.

her watch and again expectantly at the door.
Ellen enters. She is very pale and beautifully
dressed in rather formal negligee. She advances
calmly into the room. Her expression, as she
looks at May, is completely enigmatic, but very
tender, with a strange tranquillity that seems
drawn from some secret inner source. Throughout
the scene that follows she preserves a curiously
detached attitude, as of one so deeply plunged in
the depths of thought and emotion that the world
without means nothing to her.)

Ellen

(Quietly.) Good morning, May.

May

(With a pleasant smile.) Good morning, dear. I've just arrived from Albany. I came at a moment's notice...to see my doctor.

Ellen

(Very gently.) Yes? Won't you sit down?

May

(Doing so.) I will, dear. I don't want to get overtired.
(Looking up ingenuously into Ellen's face.)
Did you see Newland last night, by any chance?

Ellen

Yes. He dropped in rather late. I'd been giving a little party for
Saramonte...you know, the pianist.

May

Oh...I thought I understood Anastasia to say that he wasn't here.

Ellen

(As she drops down on her chaise-longue.) Poor Anastasia! All
Americans look alike to her.

May

She's not very efficient, is she? But it's hard to get good parlor
maids. I've had three myself this autumn. Did you talk with Newland
last night? Or were there too many people?

Ellen

No, I talked with him.

54.

May

Did he seem tired, Ellen?

Ellen

I thought he seemed...rather under a strain.

May

That's just what I think, Ellen. I'm worried about him. He's not himself. I see it in lots of little ways. Oh, a wife can tell! He hasn't been sleeping well this week, and he doesn't eat anything. He's worn to a shadow. You must have noticed it.

Ellen

Yes. I did.

May

I think something's bothering him. Oh, of course it can't be important...so long as he keeps his sense of proportion. But I think that's what he's been losing lately.

(She smiles brightly at Ellen.)

Nothing ought to count with Newland, ought it, except his career?

Ellen

(Quietly.) Nothing.

May

(Still smiling.) I've come to see that so clearly. I know I used to be awfully stupid about politics and reform and all the things he's so interested in. But now I firmly believe he'll be the next governor. Papa says all the big bankers think he'll end in Washington! Of course he ought to...with the family connection. But wouldn't it be splendid! Some United States senators are really very distinguished. And Ellen dear, do you know...

(With another generous smile.)

I shall always give you the credit for seeing it first.

Ellen

(Blankly.) Seeing what first?

May

Why, that reform could lead to anything pleasant. Anything attractive, I mean...anything one would care to do. You saw it first. It was very clever of you.

55.

Ellen

(With a faint smile.)

Thank you.

May

So now you must help us save him, Ellen, from all this worry about
little things...things that don't really matter, when you look at
his life as a whole. My dear, he's so impulsive! He dashed off
yesterday without word, just leaving me a note to give to his party
leader. And do you know what he said in it? He said he was going
away on a matter of great importance and couldn't get back to present
his railroad bill on the twentieth!

Ellen

Really?

May

Of course I kept the note.

(Very earnestly.)

He's got to come back, Ellen. The Governor says that bill is the
turning-point of his career! His business here...whatever it is...
can be arranged, I'm sure. He didn't mention it to you last night,
did he?

Ellen

He said nothing about business.

May

No. Of course he wouldn't. I understand so completely his want-
ing to get away...for a trip, you know. And I think he ought to have
it. He needs a change. After his bill's passed, he might go West
for some hunting. But...he doesn't want to go alone, and that's
just the difficulty.

(After a tiny pause.)

In a little while...I can't very well go with him.

(She smiles triumphantly.)

I haven't told him yet, but I know he'll be so happy. It's better
than any trip, after all, my little secret. It's worth staying
home for! You see, Ellen dear, I'm going to have a baby.

(For an instant Ellen sits motionless, her eyes
fixed steadily on May without a tremor of the
lashes. Then she rises abruptly.)

Ellen

(Softly.)

Oh, May!

A baby!

How lovely!

How...lovely for you!

May

(Happily.)

Yes.

And for Newland, too.

56.

Ellen

For Newland, too, of course. It's just what he needed.

May

Yes, he loves babies. He's always wanted them. You know what he says about every country needing men who can work hard and fight hard and have plenty of children.

Ellen

I know. I know.

(She turns away and leans for a moment on her little chimney shelf, gazing down at the dead coals on the hearth, almost speaking to herself.)

He would always have wanted...children.

May

(Practically.) I think it will change our life a great deal. It will give us so much in common.

Ellen

(Still looking into the empty grate.) Yes. Yes, of course.

(She gives a little shiver as of cold.)

May

(Sympathetically.) You don't look well, dear. How have you been?

Here I've talked all this time about Newland and me when I haven't seen you for months! What are your plans?

Ellen

My plans?

(She turns now to face May.)

Oh...they're rather in the making.

May

I thought you were so wise, dear, to give up your divorce. Mamma was very gratified. She wrote me such a happy letter. She said your husband was coming over to beg you to forgive him.

(Rather timidly.)

Oh, Ellen, if...if you only could!

Ellen

I have. You're the first person I've told. He arrived last night. When he goes back to Europe I shall go with him.

58.

I know how it was. I can understand people not a bit like myself.
I can quite understand that you...you just wanted a little excitement.
But now everything will come right for you.

Ellen

(Very sweetly.) I hope so, May.

May

When do you and the count sail?

Ellen

As soon as possible. Next week perhaps.

May

Then I'll see you again. I shan't go back to Albany just yet. I want
to be near my doctor. I feel I can't be too careful...just at first.

Ellen

No. You can't be too careful.

May

(Brightly.) So it isn't goodbye. I'm staying with Mamma. We must
give you a party, dear. I want so much to meet your husband.

(She turns toward the door.)

Isn't that Newland's muffler?

(She picks it up.)

How absurdly careless of him! I'll take it with me.

Ellen

Will you tell Newland I'm going?

May

Didn't you tell him last night?

Ellen

No. I only made up my mind this morning.

May

Really? I'll miss you so much, dear. We'll all miss you. Poor
Cousin Catherine and Papa and Mamma and, of course, Newland. I've
always said, Ellen, you brought so much into our lives...so much that
was foreign and...and fascinating!

(They are at the door.)

59.

Ellen

(Gently.) Did I? You're looking so well, my dear...so very pretty.

May

I'm feeling awfully well.

(She puts up her little pink face to be kissed.)

I suppose it's because I'm so happy!

Ellen

(With a smile not quite of this earth.) So am I. I'm so happy for both of you.

(May goes out as

The curtain falls.

2.

May

It's Ellen's farewell party. And I know of the two she'd rather
have Mr. Beaufort.

Mrs. van der Luyden

I can't understand why.

May

I think he amuses her.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Resigned.) Well, if amusement is what people want! I believe in taking entertaining seriously. I hope the canvas backs will be good. Last time Papa thought they were a little rare.

May

What color is the Roman punch?

Mrs. van der Luyden

Pink. To match the roses. We're giving Ellen a very handsome
send-off. I hope she appreciates it.

May

I'm afraid she never notices whether things are nice.

Mrs. Van der Luyden

Yes, the count is really much more sensitive.

May

Oh, he's a dear! Wait till you see the emeralds he brought her! I
don't know how she ever quarreled with him.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Tolerantly.) I have no doubt there were faults on both sides.

Van der Luyden

(Entering fussily.) Has any word come from Newland?

May

Not yet, Papa.

Van der Luyden

There! What did I tell you? We'll be a man short!

4.

Sands

Yes, sir.

(He goes out.)

Van der Luyden

(Testily to May.)

May

I wrote and asked him, Papa.

Van der Luyden

Pshaw! He never received the letter.

May

(Calmly.) Why shouldn't he, Papa? He's stopping at the Club. I wrote him there Monday and again last night. I told him all about everything...how Ellen had decided to go home with her husband and we were giving them a farewell party to-night.

Van der Luyden

May

No, Papa.

Van der Luyden

Nor heard from him?

May

No, Papa.

Van der Luyden

Mrs. van der Luyden

May

You know those terrible politicians he has to see...those common Irishmen. He couldn't have them here, Mamma.

16.

Ellen

(Gaily.) I'm afraid I've forgotten it.

May

Ellen

(Laughing.) I might depart to the triumphant strains of a Recessional.

Beaufort

You depart, at any rate, in triumph.
(In a lower voice.)
And so farewell to my Leonardo.

Ellen

(Playing again.) Are you sorry to lose her?

Beaufort

I never had her. Perhaps I wanted her too much. And to want, no
matter how desperately, doesn't give one the right to hope.

Ellen

Can't one enjoy Leonardos without possessing them?

Beaufort

I don't know. I wonder.

Ellen

Come to the gallery and try. You've admired her for so long...she
would miss your loyalty. She'll wait and watch for you...up there,
in her lovely frame. Remember that.

Beaufort

(Gravely.) I shall remember.

Ellen

So we'll meet in that European gallery...the great American collector
and the little over-rated canvas!

(She rises.)

Till then, au revoir.

18.

Ellen

Really, I must go. Boris....?

Olenski

(Contemplating Archer with sympathy.) Ma chère, allow me to see
these...what do they call themselves?

Van der Luyden

Poinsettias. Shall we go, then, to the conservatory? Catherine?

Mrs. Mingott

Oh, Lord!

(She rises with reluctance.)

Mrs. van der Luyden

(To Beaufort.) I understand you have such lovely greenhouses in
Peekskill. Mrs. Beaufort specializes in tulips, doesn't she?

Beaufort

(Blandly.) She's engrossed...utterly engrossed in them.

Mrs. van der Luyden

(Equally bland.) So I've always heard.
(Pausing on the threshold.)

After you, Catherine.

(Mrs. Mingott passes out unwillingly with van der
Luyden. Mrs. van der Luyden follows with Beaufort.
Olenski waits tactfully at the door for May.)

Ellen

(A little desperately.) I...I think we'll just slip away, May, while
they're looking at the flowers. I hate goodbyes.

May

(Looking tranquilly from Archer to Ellen.) Oh, my dear! Mamma
would never forgive me. They'll be back in a moment.

Ellen

But I have a little headache.

(With a glance of appeal at Olenski.)

Boris, do you mind? We...really must go.

Olenski

(Smiling sweetly.) Ah, chérie! You know my love of Nature! My wife

19.

is bored by flowers, Cousin Newland. May I leave her in your care?
(He turns to May.)

Some day I will show you the gardens of my villa at Monte Carlo.
You have never visited Monte Carlo? No? Ah, but you would adore
it, Cousin May! The sky at Monte Carlo is...
(As the door closes behind them, Archer turns on
Ellen. She faces him in terror.)

Archer

(Full of anger and resentment.) Well? What have you to say to me?

Ellen

Nothing. I'm going home.
(She turns toward the door.)

Archer

(Seizing her roughly by the arm.) You're not going home! You're
going to stay here and give me an explanation!
(He twists her about and forces her to face him.
At the sight of her eyes his resentment suddenly
wavers.)

Ellen

Archer

Why did you go back to him?

Ellen

Archer

Why did you go back to him?

Ellen

Archer

Where have you been all week?
(Savagely.)

At Mrs. Mingott's?

Ellen

No.

20.

Archer

Where, then?

Ellen

At the Fifth Avenue Hotel.

Archer

But you saw him! You let him come to see you! You let him...
(He chokes.)

Ellen

(Frantically.) No! No! (Pulling herself together.)

Now listen to me, Newland. Until this evening in the cab, I haven't seen my husband alone since the night you found us together.

Archer

Is that the truth?

Ellen

Yes.

(They look at one another.)

Archer

(In overwhelming relief.) Oh, thank God! Thank God! (He drops her arm and walks away from her to conceal his working face.)

Ellen

(Deliberately.) But I'm sailing for Europe with him to-morrow morning.

Archer

(Whirling around.) No, you're not! I won't let you!

Ellen

Archer

But why? Why? When I left you that morning I know you were happy. Do you remember what you said when I kissed you goodbye at the head of the stairs? My God, if I only hadn't gone...if I hadn't left you for a moment! I could have kept you if I'd stayed right there!

21.

Ellen

(Very quickly, for she knows it too.) No, you couldn't. You mustn't think so.

Archer

But it was such a little time...not more than an hour and a half; All I did was get our tickets and go to the bank. I was back at your house by twelve, and Anastasia just stood there and said you weren't at home. She said you'd gone out. She wouldn't even have let me come in and wait for you, if I hadn't made her! I did wait. I waited until half-past five. Then I went to Mrs. Mingott's and you weren't there. Oh, I know there's an explanation! There must be! I've been saying so to myself all week, over and over again. "As soon as I see her...as soon as I see her, it will be all right!" (Again seizing her hands.)

Ellen

(Tortured.) I can't...I can't...

Archer

But why wouldn't you see me? Why wouldn't you answer my letters? I wrote. I telegraphed. I came to the house. No one would open the door. I waited outside for hours...days! Ellen, what happened? What could have happened that morning after I left you? (Shaking her.)

Ellen

(Dully.) I changed my mind.

Archer

(Incredulous.) What...?

Ellen

Archer

22.

Ellen

(Interrupting.) No, no! It wasn't my husband! Newland, how dare you say these things to me? It's I who don't understand! It's I who can't believe it! I should have thought that you, more than any man in the world, would have...oh, how can you talk like this? How can you feel like this, when all the time you know...you know just as well as I do why I can't go on!

Archer

Ellen

(Staring at him.) You don't...

Archer

No. What is it? What is it?

Ellen

(Thinking hard and quickly.) Nothing. Don't let's discuss it any more. When did you see May?

Archer

(Bewildered.) May? I didn't see May.

Ellen

(Slowly.) You didn't...see May?

Archer

Why, no. I haven't seen her all this week. Why should I?

Ellen

But she wrote you?

Archer

She sent me a note to the club, with your horrible message, if that's what you mean. She said you were going to Europe with your husband... going immediately.

Ellen

That was all she said?

Archer

Yes.

23.

Ellen

(Rallying to meet the situation.) Well, it was true. I am. But
I hoped you'd see her. I hoped she'd... tell you...

Archer

(With irony.) Suppose you tell me.

Ellen

It's very simple. I thought things over quietly and...well, it
seemed best.

Archer

(After a brief pause.) When did you see May?

Ellen

May? Why, I haven't...

(As if remembering.)

Oh, yes. When she came down from Albany.

Archer

That morning?

Ellen

Newland, it wasn't May. We'd faced that, hadn't we? I'd put her
out of my mind. No, it wasn't May.

(Making a desperate resolution.)

It was I.

Archer

You...?

Ellen

Yes. It didn't mean enough to me. I thought it did, but it didn't.
It was all a mistake.

(As he stares at her.)

Newland, don't take it so hard! It's better...oh, so much better for
you, my dear. Some day you'll understand.

Archer

But that night! Ellen, that night...!

Ellen

That night I couldn't help it. Oh, I didn't deceive you. I believed
it myself. I thought it would last!

24.

Archer

(More and more amazed.)

Thought it would last!

Ellen

Doesn't one always?

Archer

Always...?

Ellen

At least that's been my experience. It's part of the lure. But later, of course...well, it passes. One doesn't regret. One can't regret anything so lovely...all the lovelier, perhaps, because it couldn't last and because one thought, for an exquisite moment, that it might.

Archer

(Horrified.)

Ellen!

Ellen

It's so easy, so sweet to love...and be loved. But next day, when one thinks it over...and the flowers are faded and the fire is dead... it isn't at all the same thing, is it? I thought being a man, you'd understand.

Archer

(Grimly.)

I don't.

Ellen

(Almost gayly.)

Then I'm not like you. I take these things more

easily. Oh, I told you I was frivolous! I told you I was light-minded. I said I'd hurt you. I was perfectly fair, Newland. I gave you plenty of warning!

Archer

(Desperately.)

I didn't believe it. I don't believe it now! I

don't care what you say! You love me, Ellen! You love me just as much as you did that night and that morning!

(Taking her in his arms.)

There! Now I have you where you belong! You love me! You love me and you can't deny it!

Ellen

(Steadily.)

Yes, I can. I do.

25.

Archer

I won't believe it! I can feel your heart beating, I can feel you shaking...just as you did that night!

Ellen

I don't love you.

Archer

No!

Ellen

I don't love you any more.

Archer

Stop it!

Ellen

It's true. Do you think I could lie in your arms and look into your eyes and say it, if it weren't?

Archer

Ellen!

Ellen

(Sadly.) It's gone, Newland...all gone! My poor dear boy, I'm so sorry for you. I'm so terribly sorry.

(For a moment he stares at her. Then, with a groan, he releases her and drops down on the nearest chair, his elbows on his knees, his face buried in his hands.)

I...I hoped I wouldn't have to put it into words. But there didn't seem to be any other way.

(She pauses, then lays a hand on his bowed shoulder.)

Newland, don't. Don't feel so badly! I'm not worth it. No woman's worth it. After all, love isn't everything.

Archer

(Smothered.) No, I suppose not. But I thought...for a little while...that it was.

(She makes an irrepressible gesture to caress him, but checks it in time.)

Ellen

Will you forgive me?

26.

(He is silent.)

Please forgive me.

Archer

(At last, lifting his head.) My dear, there's no question of forgiveness. If anybody's to blame, it's myself. I've been a fool. I guess I've made it pretty hard for you...right from the beginning. I didn't realize it at the time. I'm afraid we...we feel things differently.

Ellen

(Closing her eyes.) I know. It's all my fault. But you'll soon forget me.

Archer

(Looking up.) I don't want to forget you. I couldn't, if I did. You're the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me. I'll remember, always, everything about you. Just how you looked, just how I felt...just how I adored you.

Ellen

(Near the breaking point.) That's more than I deserve. But I'm glad...you'll think gently of me. You see, in spite of all I've done to you and all I...I haven't done...I want you to be happy. Oh, Newland, I want you to be happy.

(The doors are opened and Mrs. Mingott, closely followed by Mrs. van der Luyden, appears on the threshold.)

Mrs. Mingott

Mrs. van der Luyden

Henry is so informing.

(May and Olenski appear.)

Mrs. Mingott

Come, Ellen. Boris must take you home. Good gracious, child! You're as white as a sheet!

Ellen

(Dully.) I'm rather tired.

(Van der Luyden and Beaufort enter.)

27.

Mrs. Mingott

It's time you were in bed.
Goodnight, Louisa. It was a charming
party.

Olenski

(To Ellen.) Viens, ma mignonne! Les adieux sont toujours difficiles.

(Gracefully bending over the hand of Mrs. van der Luyden.)

Dear lady, what a pleasure to feel that I know my American family so well!

(His benign smile includes the heedless Archer.)

Beaufort

(Who has stepped to Ellen's side.)

Till Europe, then.

Ellen

(Smiling.) Mr. Beaufort and I have a rendezvous in a certain picture gallery. Goodnight, Cousin Louisa. Goodnight, Cousin Henry. We'll meet in Paris, won't we? It's so gay there in the spring.

May

You'll write to us, Ellen?

Ellen

(She kisses May tenderly.)

Where's Newland?

(He steps forward.)

Good luck to you!

All the luck in the world.

(Speechless he clings to her hand.)

Mrs. Mingott

Come, Ellen.

Ellen

(To Newland.) There's not...much to say, is there? But I'll always
remember. God bless you both. Goodbye.

(Olenski slips his arm through hers. With a last look, she turns from Archer.)

N'est-ce pas que notre réunion a été charmante, Boris? Et combien je
suis enchanté que vous ayez pu vous former une idée de notre famille.

Cela jette de la lumière sur bien des choses, et apprendre à connaître
les américains, c'est les aimer...

(The doors shut upon the Count and Countess Olenski.)

30.

Archer

Oh, my dear...my dear!

May

(Happily.) You didn't guess? You never thought...?

Archer

No. I never thought.

May

I'm...terribly happy.

Archer

Of course, dear.

(With a sudden surge of realization.)

May! May, did you tell Ellen?

May

Archer

Mind? Why, no, dear. No.

May

(Clinging to him.) Newland, be nice to me! Please be good to me!

Oh, Newland...be kind!

(She buries her face on his knee.)

He strokes her fair hair.)

Archer

It's all right, dear. I will. Of course I will. Don't...don't worry. It's all right...

(She is clinging to him as the curtain falls.)

33.

Archer

I was too busy.

Newland

All those years in the Senate and then Secretary of State. Poor old Dad! But why didn't you take the French Embassy that time? You know they wanted you.

Archer

I guess I never felt equal to coping with Europe.

Newland

Well, I'd have loved it. I'd have had a garret in the Latin Quarter... just like "La Boheme!" You'd have had a magnificent hotel up near the Etoile and I'd have come over every Sunday for a good square meal.

(Eagerly.)

I say, Dad! Don't sail to-morrow! Stay over and we'll have a regular whirl!

Archer

No. I've got to get back.

Newland

But why, Dad? With May and Louisa married and Harry out West irrigating New Mexico, you'll be terribly alone.

Archer

(With a cheerful twinkle.) I know. I'm going to run my own life at last, without any of you children to boss me.

Newland

But won't you miss mother awfully...down there on Long Island?

Archer

(Gently.) I'd miss her anywhere. I want to get back to that garden of hers. I want to go on growing her roses...and my own string beans. My last ambition is to take first prize for vegetables at the county fair!

Newland

34.

Archer

Yes. Great friends.

Newland

Archer

Yes.

(He turns from the window and walks to the fire.)

Newland

He died, didn't he?

Archer

Thirty years ago.

Newland

(A brief pause.)

Wouldn't you?

(Another pause.)

Archer

Like?

(He seats himself a trifle shakily in the armchair by the fire.)

That's rather hard to say.

Newland

(Taking his stand on the hearth rug.)

Archer

Lovely?

I don't know.

She was...different.

Newland

Ah, that's what it always comes down to! When she comes, she's different...and one never knows why.

Archer

(Smiling.)

35.

Newland

Don't be prehistoric, Dad. Wasn't she really, for you...<u>the woman?</u>

Archer

(Gazing appalled at his amazing son.) <u>The woman...?</u>

Newland

Archer

(Quite solemnly.) I didn't.

Newland

(Archer hears this dictum in silence.)

Though mother said...

(He pauses.)

Archer

(Surprised.) Your mother...?

Newland

Yes. The day before she died. When she sent for me alone...you remember? She said she knew we children were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she'd asked you to, you gave up the thing you wanted most in the world for her sake.

Archer

(Staring at him.) Your mother told you that?

Newland

Yes. So I remembered some things I'd heard...just little things you know...and I decided that the thing you'd wanted most in the world was Madame Olenska. That's why I was so surprised when you thought of sailing from Naples. To go home without seeing her, after thinking about her for forty years...and she of you!

(He shakes his head over the incomprehensible inhibitions of a previous generation.)

Archer

(Simply.)

I've thought of her, Newland. What she's thought, I don't know. It's been more than half a life time. I hope she's kept her memory of me as something...apart. But, even so, it can't be any more than just a little relic in a small, dim chapel...where one hasn't time