And this, you think, is love.
ROLLO
Think? You might at least be merciful.
[With more effort]
Do you believe me when I tell you that I love you?
MRS. HOOVER
[Laughing easily]
I don’t believe you know anything about me — or much about yourself.
ROLLO
[Wiping his forehead]
And you say this to me?
MRS. HOOVER
Yes; and I wish you would tell me — in the name of whatever you may choose to select — just what you think of us poor creatures who have so much hair on the tops of our silly heads and so little sense underneath it. Do you suppose we are all blind — that we never see anything at all? Do you suppose that your eyes could look just as they do now if you really deceived yourself in regard to all this exalted affection of yours? Love? Love of heaven?
[She laughs at him]
You ought to get down on your knees this minute and say your prayers.
ROLLO
[Choking]
Louise!
MRS. HOOVER
[Moving about nervously]
Oh, I wish I had never come to this place! Some people are born to be unhappy, I believe, and for just nothing else. That may sound selfish to you, and I don’t care much if it does.
ROLLO
[Feebly]
You speak as if you had had some great sorrow.
MRS. HOOVER
No, but I’ve been most horribly bored. If I had had a great sorrow, it might have done me good.
[With mild irony]
Have you ever had a great sorrow?
ROLLO
[Tragically]
Knowing what you know, you ask me if I have ever had a great sorrow.
MRS. HOOVER
[Touching his arm]
Why, you poor big bad boy, you are trembling all over.
ROLLO
[As before]
You may call it whatever you like, but it will kill me if you do not save me from it.
MRS. HOOVER
[Drily]
I beg your pardon, but it will do nothing of the kind.
[Looking into his face]
Your eyes are not the first that I have ever seen, and your voice is not the first that I have ever heard.
ROLLO
[Stares at her, hesitates, and seizes her tightly in his arms]
Do you know where you are?
[She nods indifferently]
You are in my arms.... And you smile.
[He kisses her]
MRS. HOOVER
[Finding a way to her face with her handkerchief]
Yes, and if you don’t let me go at once, I shall have to laugh. I know I shall.
ROLLO
[Letting her go slowly]
What are you trying to do to me?
MRS. HOOVER
[With emphasis]
If you won’t think me too familiar, I’ll ask you the same question.
[Demurely]
Now you axe angry with me, and you are thinking things about me.
ROLLO
The vital thing for me now is not what I think, but what I know.... Do you know what I know?
MRS. HOOVER
[Shaking her head]
No.
ROLLO
Then I shall have to tell you. Don’t speak to me until I have asked you the question that I have tried to ask ever since I have understood what has happened to me...
Louise!
MRS. HOOVER
[Nods slowly]
Yes.
ROLLO
[Seizing her wrists]
Will you go with me?
MRS. HOOVER
[Trying not to laugh]
Go where?
ROLLO
[Still holding her]
To any other place than this.... North, south, east, or west.... What have you now to say of love and sorrow? Do you think I know what they are like?
MRS. HOOVER
[Slowly]
No.
ROLLO
[As before]
For God’s sake, then, do you yourself know what love is like?
MRS. HOOVER
I wonder if I do.
ROLLO
[Drawing her more closely to him]
Louise!
[He looks into her eyes for some time, and releases her only an instant before LARRY enters with DR. BEN BAKER. ROLLO is embarrassed and uncomfortable, but MRS. HOOVER does not appear to be disturbed. DR. BEN is thick set and heavy, with a rough brown beard that gives him a somewhat ferocious appearance, and he wears a large fur overcoat. He speaks in a loud, low pitched voice, with a growling accompaniment if he is irritated or displeased. His eyes are bright and piercing, and his manner suggests a man who is thoroughly genuine and rather impatient of too much tact and diplomacy. — He looks at ROLLO, grins, and then looks at MRS. HOOVER]
MRS. HOOVER
Why, Doctor Ben, how well you are looking.
DR. BEN
[Unbuttoning his coat]
I have to be well. And I suppose you know that you’re looking pretty fine yourself these days.
MRS. HOOVER
Oh, go away. I’ve heard all that before. Don’t you ever try to flatter a woman, for you’ll only scare her to death.
DR. BEN
So be it, if you say so. But what’s all this about Rollo’s having a bad head? Has he been drinking? What’s the matter with you, Rollo?
ROLLO
[Putting his hand to his head]
Merely a touch of eye-strain, I fancy. But I must go hack to my work. Really, I must. Good afternoon.
MRS. HOOVER
[As he walks away]
Good afternoon.
[She smiles to herself and takes her wraps from the chair]
DR. BEN
[Smiling]
But what’s all this, Mrs. Hoover? Are you going too?
MRS. HOOVER
[Giving her wraps to LARRY]
Of course I am. You can’t expect me to stay and hear you make fun of Rollo.
[Turning to right]
Oh, is that you, Rachel?
[RACHEL enters from the child’s room]
RACHEL
[Drily]
Yes, are you going?
MRS. HOOVER
At last. And you must remember not to wear yourself out. Good-bye, Mr. Larry, and Doctor Ben, and see that she doesn’t wear herself out.
[She goes out and LARRY closes the door after her]
RACHEL
[With a sigh of relief]
O Ben, I’m so glad you have come.
DR. BEN
[Laying medicine case on the table]
Is the boy all right? Let me get out of this linen duster and I’ll have a look at him.
[He lays his fur overcoat over a chair]
LARRY
We’ll all have a look at him.
[He lays his hat and stick on the table and follows Dr. Ben to the left]
RACHEL
[Stopping him as Dr. Ben disappears]
Larry!... Will you promise me to be very good to the child — always?
LARRY
[Shaking her affectionately]
Of course I’ll be good to him. Why do you say that again?
[He laughs, lets her go, and goes into the child’s room, closing the door behind him]
[RACHEL, left alone, looks for some time at the closed door. Then she goes furtively to the table, looks quickly around, seizes the medicine case, opens it, and takes out a vial. She looks at it as if frightened and then goes quickly to the book case in the right hand corner of the room, stands up in a chair and hides the vial behind an old leather covered book on the top shelf. She comes down again, closes the glass door, and begins to move slowly towards the child’s room. When she is about six feet from the door she stops, holds out both arms, and says, “LARRY!” — in a despairing voice that can just be heard. She is standing thus w
hen Alma enters softly from the right]
ALMA
[Coming in wonderment to the centre of the room]
Rachel!
[Rachel turns about quickly, gives Alma a terrified look, and says nothing]
ALMA
[In amazement]
What in the world is the matter with you, Rachel?
RACHEL
[Putting her finger to her lips]
Hush!
ALMA
[Taking a step nearer]
But, Rachel!... What is it? What has happened?
RACHEL
[Choking]
Nothing.... I asked you to be quiet because I
wanted to hear what Doctor Ben was saying.
ALMA
[Not convinced]
But there is no danger now, Rachel. Everybody in this house knows that.
[Hesitating]
And you — you know it yourself.
RACHEL
[Strangely]
Do you think so?
ALMA
[Troubled]
I don’t know what to think.
RACHEL
[After a pause, her voice shaking Have you ever suspected anything?
[Moving slowly to the right, towards ALMA]
You needn’t be afraid to answer me.... No, you needn’t be afraid — now.
ALMA
[Slowly]
Do you mean — about the child?
RACHEL
[Looking back over her shoulder]
Yes.
ALMA
About — Larry’s child?
RACHEL
[Choking]
Yes.
ALMA
You poor Rachel!
RACHEL
[Sitting down wearily]
No, Alma; that isn’t what I need. I don’t need pity.
I don’t want it.... Do you see how much I trust you?
ALMA
Of course you trust me. And I know what it is you want.
[RACHEL looks up at her]
Larry is what you want. Yes, you want Larry, and Larry’s child wants his father.
RACHEL
[With suppressed anguish, after a pause]
Doesn’t Larry belong to me? Haven’t I a right to him?
[A pause. Both women look towards the child’s room]
ALMA
Tell me, Rachel.
[Pause]
Does Rollo know that Larry’s child is in that room?
[Rachel holds Alma’s hand]
[Does Rollo know that he is not the child’s father?
RACHEL
[Calmly]
If he did, I don’t know what he would do to me. Before Larry came back, I shouldn’t have cared very much what Rollo did to me.
[Her voice breaks]
I suppose I was mad when I married Rollo. And you had better think so too. Don’t try to say anything — for you don’t know. You don’t know.
[She leans forward and covers her face with her hands]
ALMA
You poor Rachel!
RACHEL
[Sitting up and brushing her eyes quickly]
No, don’t say that again. I don’t want pity. I don’t want anything that I can ever have again. Listen to me, Alma, and try to understand what I say; and whatever you do, don’t blame Larry. It wasn’t his fault that I loved him so much. He didn’t even know it — perhaps. He was young, and I was young, and there was nothing else in all the world for me but Larry. Did you ever hear of women saying they would cut their hands off for men they loved? Well, I would have done that — and I would do it still.
[Pause]
Why does God make life so hard, I wonder, for those who mean to do no harm? I did great harm to Rollo when I
married him — you don’t have to tell me that — but I was mad when I did that. He Wanted me, and I married him, for I was mad. I knew just enough to be afraid —
and he wanted me — and I was mad — mad!... And Larry had gone away — and none of us knew where he was.... Yes, Alma, I was mad!... And I was alone.... I had no father or mother — and I was alone — alone!... I was mad!...
[She rises quickly and seizes ALMA’S arm. She speaks with increased emotion]
But you mustn’t blame Larry, for he didn’t know. If he had known, he wouldn’t have gone away. He fought with Rollo’s father — and that wasn’t his fault either.
He forgot about me, I suppose. He didn’t know how much I needed him. He didn’t know that there was nothing else in all the world for me but Larry. He didn’t know that every night before I went to sleep I thought of nothing but Larry. He didn’t know that every morning when I woke up I thought of nothing but Larry. And then there came a time when I didn’t sleep — and then it was that I seemed to go mad with fear.... And then I married Rollo.
ALMA
[Kissing RACHEL’S forehead]
You poor, dear Rachel!
[ALMA moves away towards the right, stopping to look back as she goes. ROLLO comes out of his study and meets her when she is within a few steps of the other door. They look at each other half suspiciously but say nothing. After ALMA goes out, ROLLO stands looking at RACHEL. He takes a few steps toward her and stops again as LARRY, followed by DR. BEN, comes out of the child’s room. RACHEL sits down again]
DR. BEN
[Taking medicine case from the table]
Well, Rollo, how goes the battle?
[Grinning]
Headache?
ROLLO
[Putting his hand to his head]
Eye-strain.
DR. BEN
The best thing for you to do will be to take it easy for a while.
[Opening case and growling]
Hello! What the devil does this mean? What’s become of my aconite?
LARRY
[Cheerfully]
You may search me.
RACHEL
[Rising and speaking nervously]
I think we have some in the house, Ben, — somewhere —
if you want it.
[Frightened]
Do you want it now?
DR. BEN
[Growling]
No, I don’t want it. I want to know where it is. I must have left it somewhere, and that isn’t my way of doing business, either.
[He scratches his head, and finally takes a vial from the case, pouring from it into a bottle that he has brought with him for the sick-room]
Well, Rachel, you may keep on giving him this stuff, — and try, for the good Lord’s own sake, to keep from fretting your delicate little gizzard over him any longer.
RACHEL
[Eager to get away]
Thank you, Ben. Shall I give him some of it now?
[She goes into the child’s room and closes the door]
DR. BEN
[Rummaging his overcoat as RACHEL goes]
Yes, if you want to. It won’t hurt him.
[Lays down his overcoat on the chair again]
Well, that beats the devil himself.
[Shuts medicine case and puts it in overcoat pocket]
Rollo, I don’t know that it’s any of my business, but I’m going to say something.
[He looks towards door of the child’s room]
Has it ever occurred to you that the women in this house’
aren’t just what they ought to be — in all ways? —
ROLLO
Are there better women in the world?
DR. BEN
[Getting into his fur coat]
Probably not. Oh, no, — their souls are all right. They’ll go to heaven fast enough. The trick is to keep ’em from getting there a little too soon.
ROLLO
[Puzzled]
Do you believe, then, that Rachel is in real danger?
DR. BEN
[Biting a cigar]
Rachel isn’t the only one to be considered.
ROLLO
[Frowning doubtfully]
Do you mean Alma?
&nbs
p; DR. BEN
[About to scratch a match]
Do I smoke in this room?
ROLLO
[Impatiently]
Yes, yes, if you care to.
[Pause]
Do you know, Ben, that I have sometimes asked myself just what is the matter with Alma?
DR. BEN
[Half way to the door]
Well, Rollo, asking yourself is better than not asking anybody, and it may do a whole lot of good.
ROLLO
[Slowly]
Perhaps she needs a change of air.
DR. BEN
[Blowing an upward cloud of smoke]
Yes, that’s what she needs — a change of air.
[He sighs heavily]
And now I’ll take a ride to the edge of the county and have a look at old man McGillicuddy’s foot.
LARRY
Chick McGillicuddy? Is he still alive? When do you expect to get your pay?
DR. BEN
[Putting on his gloves]
Never.
LARRY
[As Dr. Ben is going out]
I say, Ben, you might send McGillicuddy’s bill to me.
DR. BEN
[With a short laugh]
AU right. I’ll do it. — [Exit
[ROLLO sits down at the table and pretends to read a newspaper.
LARRY watches him and smiles]
LARRY
There’s nothing in it, Rollo, and the print isn’t very good.
[ROLLO looks up, scowling]
I was thinking of your eyes.
[ROLLO puts back the paper slowly and looks at LARRY]
ROLLO
Works of Edwin Arlington Robinson Page 66
