Act 2 — Scene iii
Reading edition
The same. Evening, a week later. Stage flooded with moonlight, house lighted. At the piano, just inside the window, Lulu and Cornish are finishing a song together, Lulu accompanying.
How sweet the happy evening’s close,
’Tis the hour of sweet repose—
Good-night.
The summer wind has sunk to rest,
The moon serenely bright
Unfolds her calm and gentle ray,
Softly now she seems to say,
Good-night.
[As they sing, Di slips into the house, unseen.]
Cornish
Why, Miss Lulu, you’re quite a musician.
Lulu
Oh, no. I’ve never played in front of anybody⸺
[They come to the porch.]
I don’t know what Ina and Dwight would say if they heard me.
Cornish
What a pretty dress that is, Miss Lulu!
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Lulu
I made this from one of Ina’s old ones since she’s been gone. I don’t know what Ina and Dwight are going to say about this dress, made like this, when they get home.
Cornish
When are they coming back?
Lulu
Any time now. They’ve been gone most a week. Do you know I never had but one compliment before that wasn’t for my cooking.
Cornish
You haven’t!
Lulu
He told me I done up my hair nice. That was after I took notice how the ladies in Savannah, Georgia, done up theirs.
Cornish
I guess you can do most anything you set your hand to, Miss Lulu: Look after Miss Di and sing and play and cook⸺
Lulu
Yes, cook. But I can’t earn anything. I’d like to earn something.
Cornish
You would! Why, you have it fine here, I thought.
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Lulu
Oh, fine, yes. Dwight gives me what I have. And I do their work.
Cornish
I see. I never thought of that….
[Pause.]
Lulu
You’re wondering why I didn’t stay with him!
Cornish
Oh, no.
Lulu
Yes you are! The whole town’s wondering. They’re all talking about me.
Cornish
Well, Miss Lulu, you know it don’t make any difference to your friends what people say.
Lulu
But they don’t know the truth. You see, he had another wife.
Cornish
Lord sakes!
Lulu
Dwight thinks it isn’t true. He thinks—he didn’t have another wife…. You see, Dwight thinks he didn’t want me.
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Cornish
But—your husband—I mean, why doesn’t he write to Mr. Deacon and tell him the truth⸺
Lulu
He has written. The letter’s in there on the piano.
Cornish
What’d he say?
Lulu
Dwight doesn’t like me to touch his mail. I’ll have to wait till he comes back.
Cornish
Lord sakes! … You—you—you’re too nice a girl to get a deal like this. Darned if you aren’t.
Lulu
Oh, no.
Cornish
Yes you are, too! And there ain’t a thing I can do.
Lulu
It’s a good deal to have somebody to talk to….
Cornish
Sure it is.
Lulu
… Cora Waters. Cora Waters, of San Diego, California. And she never heard of me.
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Cornish
No. She never did, did she? Ain’t life the darn⸺
[Enter Mrs. Bett.]
Mrs. Bett
I got Monona into bed. And it’s no fool of a job neither.
Lulu
Did you, mother? Come and sit down.
Mrs. Bett
Yes. She went to bed with a full set of doll dishes…. Ain’t it nice with the folks all gone? … I don’t hear any more playin’ and singin’. It sounded real good.
Lulu
We sung all I knew how to play, mama.
Mrs. Bett
I use’ to play on the melodeon.
Cornish
Well, well, well.
Mrs. Bett
That was when I was first married. We had a little log house in a clearing in York State. I was seventeen—and he was nineteen. While he was chopping I use’ to sit on a log with my sewing. Jenny was born in that house. I was alone at the 112time. I was alone with her when she died, too. She was sixteen—little bits of hands she had⸺
[Yawns. Rises, wanders toward door.]
Can’t we have some more playin’ and singin’?
Lulu
After a little while, mama—dear.
Mrs. Bett
It went kind of nice—that last tune you sung.
[Hums the air. Enters house.]
Cornish
I must be going along too, Miss Lulu.
Lulu
I can’t think why Di doesn’t come. She ought not to be out like this without telling me⸺
[Mrs. Bett appears beside the piano, lifts and examines the letters lying there.]
Cornish
Well, don’t you mind on my account. I’ve enjoyed every minute I’ve been here.
Lulu
Mother! Those are Dwight’s letters—don’t you touch them.
Mrs. Bett
I ain’t hurting them or him neither.
[Disappears, the letters in her hand.]
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Cornish
Good-night, Miss Lulu. If there was anything I could do at any time you’d let me know, wouldn’t you?
Lulu
Oh, thank you.
Cornish
I’ve had an awful nice time, singing, and listening to you talk—well of course—I mean the supper was just fine! And so was the music.
Lulu
Oh, no.
[Mrs. Bett appears at the door with a letter.]
Mrs. Bett
Lulie. I guess you didn’t notice. This one’s from Ninian.
Lulu
Mother⸺
Mrs. Bett
I opened it—why of course I did. It’s from Ninian.
[Holds out unfolded letter and an old newspaper clipping.]
The paper’s awful old—years back, looks like. See. Says “Corie Waters, music hall singer—married last night to Ninian Deacon”—Say, Lulie, that must be her.
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Lulu
Yes, that’s her. That’s her—Cora Waters…. Oh, then he was married to her just like he said!
Cornish
Oh, Miss Lulu! I’m so sorry!
Lulu
No, no. Because he wanted me! He didn’t say that just to get rid of me!
Cornish
Oh, that way…. I see….
Lulu
I’m so thankful it wasn’t that.
Mrs. Bett
Then everything’s all right onct more. Ain’t that nice!
Lulu
I’m so thankful it wasn’t that.
Cornish
Yes, I can understand that. Well, I—I guess I ought to be going now, Miss Lulu…. Why, it is Miss Lulu Bett, isn’t it?
Lulu
[Abstractedly, with the paper.]
Yes—yes—good-night, Mr. Cornish. Good-night.
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Cornish
Good-night, Miss Lulu…. I wonder if you would let me tell you something.
Lulu
Why⸺
Cornish
I guess I don’t amount to much. I’ll never be a lawyer. I’m no good at business and everything I say sounds wrong to me. And yet I do believe I do know enough not to bully a woman—not to make her unhappy, maybe even—I could make her a little happy. Miss Lulu, I hate to see you looking and talking so sad. Do you think we could possibly arrange⸺
Lulu
Oh!
Cornish
I guess maybe you’ve heard something about a little something I’m supposed to inherit. Well, I got it. Of course, it’s only five hundred dollars. We could get that little Warden house and furnish up the parlor with pianos—that is, if you could ever think of marrying me.
Lulu
Don’t say that—don’t say that!
Mrs. Bett
Better take him, Lulie. A girl ought to take any young man that will propose in front of her mother!
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Cornish
Of course if you loved him very much then I’d ought not to be talking this way to you.
Lulu
You see Ninian was the first person who was ever kind to me. Nobody ever wanted me, nobody ever even thought of me. Then he came. It might have been somebody else. It might have been you. But it happened to be Ninian and I do love him.
Cornish
I see. I guess you’ll forgive me for what I said.
Lulu
Of course.
Cornish
Miss Lulu, if that five hundred could be of any use to you, I wish you’d take it.
Lulu
Oh, thank you, thank you, I couldn’t.
Cornish
Well, I guess I’ll be stepping along. If you should want me, I’m always there. I guess you know that.
[Exit.]
Mrs. Bett
Better burn that up. I wouldn’t have it round.
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Lulu
But mother! Mother dear, try to understand. This means that Ninian told the truth. He wasn’t just trying to get rid of me.
Mrs. Bett
Did he want you to stay with him?
Lulu
I don’t know. But I think he did. Anyway, now I know the truth about him.
Mrs. Bett
Well, I wouldn’t want anybody else to know. Here, let me have it and burn it up.
Lulu
Mama, mama! Aren’t you glad for me that now I can prove Ninian wasn’t just making up a story so I’d go away?
Mrs. Bett
[Clearly and beautifully.]
Oh, Lulu! My little girl! Is that what they said about you? Mother knows it wasn’t like that. Mother knows he loved you…. How still it is here! Where’s Inie?
Lulu
They’ve gone away, you know….
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Mrs. Bett
Well, I guess I’ll step over to Grandma Gates’s a spell. See how her rheumatism is. I’ll be back before long—I’ll be back….
[Exit. For a moment Lulu breaks down and sobs. Rises to lay Dwight’s letter through the window on piano. Slight sound. She listens. Enter Di from house. She is carrying a traveling bag.]
Lulu
Di! Why Di! What does this mean? Where were you going? Why, mama won’t like your carrying her nice new satchel….
Di
Aunt Lulu—the idea. What right have you to interfere with me like this?
Lulu
Di, you must explain to me what this means…. Di, where can you be going with a satchel this time of the night? Di Deacon, are you running away with somebody?
Di
You have no right to ask me questions, Aunt Lulu.
Lulu
Di, you’re going off with Bobby Larkin. Aren’t you? Aren’t you?
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Di
If I am it’s entirely our own affair.
Lulu
Why, Di. If you and Bobby want to be married why not let us get you up a nice wedding here at home⸺
Di
Aunt Lulu, you’re a funny person to be telling me what to do.
Lulu
I love you just as much as if I was married happy, in a home.
Di
Well, you aren’t. And I’m going to do just as I think best. Bobby and I are the ones most concerned in this, Aunt Lulu.
Lulu
But—but getting married is for your whole life!
Di
Yours wasn’t.
Lulu
Di, my dear little girl, you must wait at least till mama and papa get home.
Di
That’s likely. They say I’m not to be married till I’m twenty-one.
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Lulu
Well, but how young that is.
Di
It is to you. It isn’t young to me, remember, Aunt Lulu.
Lulu
But this is wrong—it is wrong!
Di
There’s nothing wrong about getting married if you stay married.
Lulu
Well, then it can’t be wrong to let your mother and father know.
Di
It isn’t. But they’d treat me wrong. Mama’d cry and say I was disgracing her. And papa—first he’d scold me and then he’d joke me about it. He’d joke me about it every day for weeks, every morning at breakfast, every night here on the porch—he’d joke me.
Lulu
Why, Di! Do you feel that way, too?
Di
You don’t know what it is to be laughed at or paid no attention to, everything you say.
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Lulu
Don’t I? Don’t I? Is that why you’re going?
Di
Well, it’s one reason.
Lulu
But Di, do you love Bobby Larkin?
Di
Well…. I could love almost anybody real nice that was nice to me.
Lulu
Di … Di….
Di
It’s true.
[Bobby enters.]
You ought to know that…. You did it. Mama said so.
Lulu
Don’t you think that I don’t know….
Di
Oh, Bobby, she’s trying to stop us! But she can’t do it—I’ve told her so⸺
Bobby
She don’t have to stop us. We’re stopped.
Di
What do you mean?
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Bobby
We’re minors.
Di
Well, gracious—you didn’t have to tell them that.
Bobby
No. They knew I was.
Di
But, silly. Why didn’t you tell them you’re not.
Bobby
But I am.
Di
For pity sakes—don’t you know how to do anything?
Bobby
What would you have me do, I’d like to know?
Di
Why tell them we’re both—whatever it is they want us to be. We look it. We know we’re responsible—that’s all they care for. Well, you are a funny….
Bobby
You wanted me to lie?
Di
Oh! don’t make out you never told a fib.
Bobby
Well, but this—why, Di—about a thing like this….
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Di
I never heard of a lover flatting out like that!
Bobby
Anyhow, there’s nothing to do now. The cat’s out. I’ve told our ages. We’ve got to have our folks in on it.
Di
Is that all you can think of?
Bobby
What else is there to think of?
Di
Why, let’s go to Bainbridge or Holt and tell them we’re of age and be married there.
Lulu
Di, wherever you go I’ll go with you. I won’t let you out of my sight.
Di
Bobby, why don’t you answer her?
Bobby
But I’m not going to Bainbridge or Holt or any town and lie, to get you or any other girl.
Di
You’re about as much like a man in a story as—as papa is.
[Enter Dwight and Ina.]
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Dwight
What’s this? What’s this about papa?
Ina
Well, what’s all this going on here?
Lulu
Why, Ina!
Di
Oh, mama! I—I didn’t know you were coming so soon. Hello, dear! Hello, papa! Here’s—here’s Bobby….
Dwight
What an unexpected pleasure, Master Bobby.
Bobby
Good-evening, Mrs. Deacon. Good-evening, Mr. Deacon.
Dwight
And Lulu. Is it Lulu? Is this lovely houri our Lulu? Is this Miss Lulu Bett? Or is this Lulu something else by now? You can’t tell what Lulu’ll do when you leave her alone at home. Ina—our festive ball gown!
Lulu
Ina, I made it out of that old muslin of yours, you know. I thought you wouldn’t care⸺
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Ina
Oh, that! I was going to use it for Di but it doesn’t matter. You are welcome to it, Lulu. Little youthful for anything but home wear, isn’t it?
Dwight
It looks like a wedding gown. Why are you wearing a wedding gown—eh, Lulu?
Ina
Di Deacon, what have you got mama’s new bag for?
Di
I haven’t done anything to the bag, mama.
Ina
Well, but what are you doing with it here?
Di
Oh, nothing! Did you—did you have a good time?
Ina
Yes, we did—but I can’t see…. Dwight, look at Di with my new black satchel.
Dwight
What is this, Diana?
Di
Well, I’m—I’m not going to use it for anything.
Ina
I wish somebody would explain what is going on here. Lulu, can’t you explain?
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Dwight
Aha! Now, if Lulu is going to explain that’s something like it. When Lulu begins to explain we get imagination going.
Lulu
Di and I have a little secret. Can’t we have a little secret if we want one?
Dwight
Upon my word, she has a beautiful secret. I don’t know about your secrets, Lulu.
[Enter Mrs. Bett.]
Mrs. Bett
Hello, Inie.
Ina
Oh, mother dear….
Dwight
Well, Mother Bett….
Mrs. Bett
That you, Dwight?
[To Bobby.]
… Don’t you help me. I guess I can help myself yet awhile.
[Climbs the two steps.]
[To Di.]
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Made up your mind to come home, did you?
[Seats herself.]
I got a joke. Grandma Gates says it’s all over town they wouldn’t give Di and Bobby Larkin a license to get married.
[Single note of laughter, thin and high.]
Dwight
What nonsense!
Ina
Is it nonsense? Haven’t I been trying to find out where the new black bag went? Di! Look at mama….
Di
Listen to that, Bobby. Listen!
Ina
That won’t do, Di. You can’t deceive mama, and don’t you try.
Bobby
Mrs. Deacon, I⸺
Dwight
Diana!
Di
Yes, papa.
Dwight
Answer your mother. Answer me. Is there anything in this absurd tale?
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Di
No, papa.
Dwight
Nothing whatever?
Di
No, papa.
Dwight
Can you imagine how such a ridiculous story started?
Di
No, papa.
Dwight
Very well. Now we know where we are. If anybody hears this report repeated, send them to me.
Ina
Well, but that satchel⸺
Dwight
One moment. Lulu will of course verify what the child has said.
Lulu
If you cannot settle this with Di, you cannot settle it with me.
Dwight
A shifty answer. You’re a bird at misrepresenting facts….
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Lulu
Oh!…
Dwight
Lulu, the bird!
Lulu
Lulu, the dove to put up with you.
[Exit.]
Ina
Bobby wanted to say something….
Bobby
No, Mrs. Deacon. I have nothing—more to say. I’ll—I’ll go now.
Dwight
Good-night, Robert.
[Ina and Dwight transfer bags and wraps to the house.]
Bobby
Good-night, Mr. Deacon. Good-by, Di.
[Di follows Bobby. Right.]
Di
Bobby, come back, you hate a lie—but what else could I do?
Bobby
What else could you do? I’d rather they never let us see each other again than to lose you in the way I’ve lost you now.
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Di
Bobby!
Bobby
It’s true. We mustn’t talk about it.
Di
Bobby! I’ll go back and tell them all.
Bobby
You can’t go back. Not out of a thing like that. Good-by, Di.
[Exit.]
[Enter Dwight and Ina.]
Di
If you have any fear that I may elope with Bobby Larkin, let it rest. I shall never marry him if he asks me fifty times a day.
Ina
Really, darling?
Di
Really and truly, and he knows it, too.
Dwight
A-ha! The lovelorn maiden all forlorn makes up her mind not to be so lorn as she thought she was. How does it seem not to be in love with him, Di—eh?
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Di
Papa, if you make fun of me any more I’ll—I’ll let the first train of cars I can find run over me….
[Sobs as she runs to house.]
Mrs. Bett
Wait, darling! Tell grandma! Did Bobby have another wife too?
[Exeunt Mrs. Bett and Di.]
Ina
Di, I’d be ashamed, when papa’s so good to you. Oh, my! what parents have to put up with….
Dwight
Bear and forbear, pettie—bear and forbear…. By the way, Lulu, haven’t I some mail somewhere about?
Lulu
Yes, there’s a letter there. I’ll get it for you.
[She reaches through the window.]
Dwight
A-ha! An epistle from my dear brother Ninian.
Ina
Oh, from Ninian, Dwight?
Dwight
From Ninian—the husband of Miss Lulu Bett…. You opened the letter?… Your sister has been opening my mail.
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Ina
But, Dwight, if it’s from Ninian⸺
Dwight
It is my mail.
Ina
Well, what does he say?
Dwight
I shall read the letter in my own time. My present concern is this disregard for my wishes. What excuse have you to offer?
Lulu
None.
Ina
Dwight, she knows what’s in it and we don’t. Hurry up.
Dwight
She is an ungrateful woman.
[Opens the letter, with the clipping.]
Ina
[Over his shoulder.]
Ah!… Dwight, then he was….
Dwight
M—m—m—m. So after having been absent with my brother for a month you find that you were not married to him.
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Lulu
You see, Dwight, he told the truth. He did have another wife. He didn’t just leave me.
Dwight
But this seems to me to make you considerably worse off than if he had.
Lulu
Oh, no! No! If he hadn’t—hadn’t liked me, he wouldn’t have told me about her. You see that, don’t you?
Dwight
That your apology?… Look here, Lulu! This is a bad business. The less you say about it the better for all our sakes. You see that, don’t you?
Lulu
See that? Why, no. I wanted you to write to him so I could tell the truth. You said I mustn’t tell the truth till I had the proofs.
Dwight
Tell whom?
Lulu
Tell everybody. I want them to know.
Dwight
Then you care nothing for our feelings in this matter?
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Lulu
Your feelings?
Dwight
How this will reflect on us—it’s nothing to you that we have a brother who’s a bigamist?
Lulu
But it’s me—it’s me.
Dwight
You! You’re completely out of it. You’ve nothing more to say about it whatever. Just let it be as it is … drop it. That’s all I suggest.
Lulu
I want people to know the truth.
Dwight
But it’s nobody’s business but our business … for all our sakes let us drop this matter…. Now I tell you, Lulu—here are three of us. Our interests are the same in this thing—only Ninian is our relative and he’s nothing to you now. Is he?
Lulu
Why⸺
Dwight
Let’s have a vote. Your snap judgment is to tell this disgraceful fact broadcast. Mine is, least said soonest mended. What do you say, Ina?
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Ina
Oh, goodness—if we get mixed up in a scandal like this we’ll never get away from it. Why, I wouldn’t have people know of it for worlds.
Dwight
Exactly. Ina has stated it exactly. Lulu, I think you should be reconciled.
Ina
My poor poor sister! Oh, Dwight! when I think of it—what have I done, what have we done—that I should have a good kind loving husband—be so protected, so loved, when other women…. Darling! You know how sorry I am—we all are⸺
Lulu
Then give me the only thing I’ve got—that’s my pride. My pride that he didn’t want to get rid of me.
Dwight
What about my pride? Do you think I want everybody to know that my brother did a thing like that?
Lulu
You can’t help that.
Dwight
But I want you to help it. I want you to promise me that you won’t shame us like this before all our friends.
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Lulu
You want me to promise what?
Dwight
I want you—I ask you to promise me that you will keep this with us—a family secret.
Lulu
No! No! I won’t do it! I won’t do it! I won’t do it!
Dwight
You refuse to do this small thing for us?
Lulu
Can’t you understand anything? I’ve lived here all my life—on your money. I’ve not been strong enough to work they say—well, but I’ve been strong enough to be a hired girl in your house—and I’ve been glad to pay for my keep…. But there wasn’t a thing about it that I liked. Nothing about being here that I liked…. Well, then I got a little something, same as other folks. I thought I was married and I went off on the train and he bought me things and I saw different towns. And then it was all a mistake. I didn’t have any of it. I came back here and went into your kitchen again—I don’t know why I came back. I suppose it’s because I’m most thirty-four and new things ain’t so easy any more—but what have I got or what’ll I ever have? And 137now you want to put on to me having folks look at me and think he run off and left me and having them all wonder. I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it. I can’t….
Dwight
You’d rather they’d know he fooled you when he had another wife?
Lulu
Yes. Because he wanted me. How do I know—maybe he wanted me only just because he was lonesome, the way I was. I don’t care why. And I won’t have folks think he went and left me.
Dwight
That is wicked vanity.
Lulu
That’s the truth. Well, why can’t they know the truth?
Dwight
And bring disgrace on us all?
Lulu
It’s me—It’s me⸺
Dwight
You—you—you—you’re always thinking of yourself.
Lulu
Who else thinks of me. And who do you think of—who do you think of, Dwight? I’ll tell you that, 138because I know you better than any one else in the world knows you—better even than Ina. And I know that you’d sacrifice Ina, Di, mother, Monona, Ninian—everybody, just to your own idea of who you are. You’re one of the men who can smother a whole family and not even know you’re doing it.
Dwight
You listen to me. It’s Ninian I’m thinking about.
Lulu
Ninian….
Dwight
Yes, yes … Ninian!… Of course if you don’t care what happens to him, it doesn’t matter.
Lulu
What do you mean?
Dwight
If you don’t love him any more….
Lulu
You know I love him. I’ll always love him.
Dwight
That’s likely. A woman doesn’t send the man she loves to prison.
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Lulu
I send him to prison! Why, he’s brought me the only happiness I’ve ever had….
Dwight
But prison is just where he’ll go and you’ll be the one to send him there.
Lulu
Oh! That couldn’t be…. That couldn’t be….
Dwight
Don’t you realize that bigamy is a crime? If you tell this thing he’ll go to prison … nothing can save him.
Lulu
I never thought of that….
Dwight
It’s time you did think. Now will you promise to keep this with us, a family secret?
Lulu
Yes. I promise.
Dwight
You will?…
Lulu
Yes … I will.
Dwight
A … h. You’ll be happy some day to think you’ve done this for us, Lulu.
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Lulu
I s’pose so….
Ina
This makes up for everything. My sweet self-sacrificing sister!
Lulu
Oh, stop that!
Ina
Oh, the pity of it … the pity of it!…
Lulu
Don’t you go around pitying me! I’ll have you know I’m glad the whole thing happened.
CURTAIN
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