Confessional: And Other American Plays |
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afraid answer anyhow BALDWIN JOHN BALDWIN Smiling BALDWIN Yes beautiful stories BELDEN Nodding BETTY Taking CARRUTHERS SHELTON chair CHARITY WORKER Cheever CHILD Oh CHILD THE FATHER comes course CURTAIN FALLS dollars a week Donald door DOROTHY SHELTON elope enjoyed EVIE eyes Fanny's First Play FATHER Laughing FATHER THE CHILD FATHER Yes fooling girl glance goes going Good-night governor Gresham want hand hundred thousand Interrupting Jerry JOHN BALDWIN knew listen live long play look MAID maker of plays marry Marshall MARTHA Your father mean minutes MOTHER never one-act play pause punished RALPH BELDEN RALPH Oh Robert Santa Claus SCENE Shaking his head SHELTON CARRUTHERS SHELTON DOROTHY SHELTON Nodding SHERIFF Shrugs his shoulders spake Rhadamanthos stocking stop tell There's thought Thunderstruck to-day to-morrow Todd told TOM BETTY true truth turns wife WILLIE Willie's window woman word wrong Y-yes you-you
Popular passages
Page 136 - s right ; I was a good woman then. But am I a good woman now.' [He hesitates.] Answer me! Tell me! Shelton : [After a pause.] I don't know, Dorothy. Dorothy: [Desperately.'] Billy, neither do I! [There is a pause.] No girl was ever brought up as I was. We were good, so good! All the people I met were so good ! I don't believe any of them ever had a normal impulse. They were saints, Billy, saints! Then I met you — you remember? Shelton: Yes. Dorothy: I thought you were the worst man I had ever seen....
Page 142 - s what it amounts to. Shelton: Well, then, what I want to know is, whydid n't it go through? Dorothy: What do you mean? Shelton: If the me in you made you run off with Cheever, what brought you back? Dorothy: [After a pause.] Nothing brought me back. Shelton: No? Dorothy: Cheever sent me back. [There is a long pause. ~\ We had arranged to meet at the station. I met him. We were to send our trunks ahead to Chicago. Mine left yesterday. I was ready to go through with it to the bitter end, but he—...
Page 127 - ... didn't have to worry. And now? I'm living on the brink of a volcano! I'm full of all kinds of impulses to do good things: things I don't want to do. I never know what's going to happen next, and Jerry, I don't like it! It's not fair to me. I'm like a man who has swallowed a stick of dynamite: he's expecting it to blow up any minute, but if it ever does blow up, there won't be enough of him left to be surprised at it. (CARRUTHERS, considerably beyond his depth, makes no reply.) A man should be...
Page 134 - DOROTHY (staggered). What? SHELTON (insistently). You were on the point of running away. You had planned everything carefully : people don't do such things on the spur of the moment. What stopped you ? DOROTHY (gasping at the shock). Don't you love me? SHELTON (not answering the question).
Page 138 - ... Shelton : I did it. Dorothy: So did I— for the first time in my life! I married you ! Shelton.- [Offended.] Thank you, Dorothy. Dorothy : Oh, I 've had no regrets. It was n't good for me, but I 've enjoyed it. I 've enjoyed it too much. Shelton: What do you mean ? Dorothy : Billy, do you know, you 've had a great influence on me? [He cannot answer. ] Do you imagine a woman can live with you for two years, as I have lived with you, and remain a perfectly good woman? Shelton: [Floundering.] Is...
Page 17 - Young man and old man, I've worked with him or for him the best part of my life. I'm loyal to him — I've always been loyal to him — but when JOhn Gresham ceases to be an honest man, John Gresham and I part company ! MARTHA. [Weeping softly.] Robert! Robert! BALDWIN. I've got only a few years to live, but I'll live those as I've lived the rest of my life. I'll go to my grave clean ! [He rises presently, goes to the window, and looks out.] The rain's stopped, hasn't it? EVIE. [Following him and...
Page 21 - I've never had that much money to spend in my life, JOhn, but if I had I couldn't imagine a finer way to spend it. JOHN. [Slowly.] Yes. I suppose so. MARTHA. [After a pause.] Will the depositors lose much, Robert? BALDWIN. [Emphatically.] The depositors will not lose a cent. EVIE. [Surprised.] But the papers said BALDWIN. [Interrupting.] They had to print something : they guessed. / know. / tell you. MARTHA. But you never said so before.
Page 144 - SHELTON (nodding his approval). Yes. Looks well on you. (There is a knock at the door) Come in. THE BUTLER (entering with a letter on a salver). Messenger just brought a note, sir. DOROTHY. Oh ! SHELTON (glances at her. After an instant's hesitation, she nods her permission. He takes it, slowly opens the envelope, and reads the contents. The Butler waits. Shelton notices him) Well, why are you waiting ? THE BUTLER. Is there an answer, sir ? SHELTON. An answer? No. [The Butler goes. In the ensuing...
Page 121 - CARRUTHERS. I wonder ? SHELTON (examining a time-table'). Their train pulls out at eight. CARRUTHERS (with a trace of animation). I thought you said they were leaving this afternoon. SHELTON. Eh ? CARRUTHERS. The six o'clock train, you said first. SHELTON. Oh, yes. But she had to do some shopping. You can't get any decent clothes in Chicago, you know. (He chuckles slowly) I suppose she wanted the satisfaction of charging a final bill to me, eh, Jerry ? CARRUTHERS (nodding sympathetically). It's cost...
Page 141 - ... Billy Shelton, as far as the eye can reach, and here and there, tossed by the waves, a little wreckage, such pathetic wreckage, that used to be something better! Billy, to-day I am what you have made me. SHELTON ( Thunderstruck) Which is to say that it was / who eloped with Cheever ! DOROTHY That's what it amounts to. SHELTON Well then, what I want to know is, why didn't it go through? DOROTHY What do you mean? SHELTON If the me in you made you run off with Cheever, what brought you back?