Works of Edwin Arlington Robinson
Page 68
[Laughing]
That will do, Ben.... Did you find your aconite? ]
DR. BEN
[Growling]
No, I didn’t. I asked Rollo if he had swallowed it for his eye-strain, and he said he hadn’t.
[Grinning]
By the way, how is that eye-strain of his?
ALMA
Better, I should say.
[Looking towards the study]
Rollo and Larry have been shut up in there for the past hour, and I’ve heard Larry laughing three or four times as if he would die.
DR. BEN
[Looking towards the study]
That’s good; you don’t laugh enough in this house. — Well, Alma, don’t be too hard on me, and don’t forget that I’m not the worst fellow in the world — or the most unfortunate.
[She follows him towards the street door]
Anyhow, I’m better off than poor old Stuart, with that imported musical houri of his to keep him guessing.
[ALMA shakes her head]
That’s so — I beg your pardon. All right, and tell Rachel not to worry any more about the boy. In a day or two he’ll be trying to eat everything in sight — including his mother. Good-bye.
[He goes out with considerable noise and ALMA goes to the window at the left of the stove. As she stands looking out, LARRY enters from the study and watches her from the middle of the room. He takes his stick from the table]
LARRY
Hello, Alma! What are you doing? — trying to freeze your nose off?
[They go towards each other. He takes hold of her ears and makes as if to bite her nose]
ALMA
[Smiling]
You don’t mean to let me forget that you are my Brother Larry, do you?
LARRY
[Sill holding her ears]
Not if I can help myself. Did Ben ask you to marry him?
ALMA
Why should he, when he knows that it wouldn’t do any good?
LARRY
What else did he talk about?
ALMA
[Rubbing her ears]
Oh, about you, — and about Stuart, and Stuart’s wife.
He called her an imported musical houri.
LARRY
[Laughing]
Oh, he did... And yet, you know, this same Doctor Ben isn’t the worst fellow in the world.
ALMA
[Drily]
So he has told me, many times.
LARRY
[Grinning]
What else did he tell you?
ALMA
Am I on trial for my life?
[RACHEL enters quietly from the left]
LARRY
Possibly.
[He does not see RACHEL]
ALMA
And Rachel too?
[She looks at RACHEL and tries to laugh]
RACHEL
What are you saying about Rachel?
ALMA
Larry says that we are all on trial for our lives.
RACHEL
[Slowly]
No; Larry is not on trial for his life.
[Despairingly]
Why do you grown-up people talk such nonsense?
LARRY
[To ALMA]
You might repeat some of Dr. Ben’s nonsense to Rachel.
RACHEL
[Sitting down and speaking with laborious determination]
No, Alma, you will do nothing of the sort, for I am not interested in Doctor Ben’s nonsense. You will leave Larry and me together a little while, for I wish to ask his advice about something.
[ALMA gives her a searching look]
Is Rollo in there at work?
LARRY
He’ll have to work — if he’s to have that lecture ready on time.
ALMA
[To LARRY as she moves to right]
Then my trial isn’t coming off just yet.
RACHEL
[Quietly]
There will be plenty of time for that, my dear.
ALMA
[Looks at RACHEL and frowns unhappily]
All right, Rachel. I’ll go.
[She goes out, as if with reluctance, through the lower door on the right]
LARRY
[Cheerfully]
Well, Rachel, how are you?
RACHEL
[4s if afraid]
Oh, Larry, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say.
LARRY
Why — what do you mean?
RACHEL
I mean, Larry, that I can’t — forget.
LARRY
[Tapping his boots and looking at them]
Do you mean that boy and girl love-affair of ours — years ago?
[Without conviction]
Isn’t life too short for that?
RACHEL
[Putting her hands to her eyes]
Don’t Larry! Don’t say that again! It would be cruel.
LARRY
[Getting a chair and, sitting down before her]
I wonder if I understand what you mean?
RACHEL
[Looking at him]
You do, Larry. You must.
LARRY
[Rapidly, but with obvious effort]
Rachel, I can’t bear to see you unhappy like this. I
can’t bear to come back and find you as you are now. It isn’t reasonable. It isn’t right.
RACHEL
[Echoing his first words]
You can’t bear to see me unhappy?... Oh, my God!
[She leans forward and covers her face with her hands. Her body trembles]
LARRY
[Very distinctly]
Rachel, how much do you think we know about what has happened, at one time or another, in the lives of the best and happiest people on earth?
RACHEL
[She sits up again, touches her eyes quickly with her handkerchief and gives a sigh of despair]
Why do you say people, when you mean women?
LARRY
All right, then. I’ll say women.
[He stands up and looks down at her thoughtfully]
So it is your memory of me that has been standing between you and Rollo all these years....
RACHEL
[More calmly]
You heard what I said.... I said that I can’t forget.
And you speak to me of boys and girls.... Oh, I wish I were....
LARRY
[Quickly]
Oh, no, you don’t wish you were dead. I won’t let you.
And now I want to ask you something.
RACHEL
[Looking at him sorrowfully, her lip trembling]
Very well, Larry. I came to tell you something — but I
can listen.
LARRY
Are you sure, Rachel, that you have always been as good to Rollo as you might have been? Have you been — well, have you always been quite fair to him?
RACHEL
[Painfully]
What do you think you mean by saying that?...
I wish I were dead!
LARRY
Do you feel better now that you have said it?
RACHEL
[As if struck]
Larry, you never spoke to me like that in all your life before.
LARRY
I’m sorry, Rachel. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.
RACHEL
[Hopelessly]
You didn’t mean to hurt my feelings!... What are you men made of?
LARRY
[Shaking his head and smiling faintly]
Poor material, as a rule. About the best that some of us can do is to weave a silver cord that will keep the golden bowl from going to smash. You don’t want the golden bowl to go to smash, do you?
RACHEL
Can you talk to me like this — after going away from me — ten years ago?
LARRY
[Tapping his boots]
Rachel, when I ran away from home, I was just about half crazy. My moth
er had been dead for more than a year, and after that infernal row with Rollo’s father....That man was a born devil, I tell you. He killed my mother with his damned temper, and you know that as well as I do.
RACHEL
[Looking up at him]
Yes, Larry, I’m afraid you are right. But if you had known how much I needed you then, Larry, you would never have gone away. You couldn’t have gone. But you didn’t know, and you couldn’t know. And all you know about me now is that I have changed. I know that I have changed, Larry. God knows I know it. I know that no one likes me any more — except Alma — and her love is more than half pity. Pity is bad enough, Larry, but it isn’t so bad as your trying all the time to make me laugh. Forgive me for saying this, but you must understand sometime, or I shall die.
[With a sad smile]
When you see me now, Larry, I suppose it’s hard for you to believe that I was ever the same Rachel you used to know, and used to like. Do you find that hard, Larry?...
Tell me.
LARRY
Come, come, Rachel. You know I can’t stand this.
I won’t have it. Do you think I have no feelings?
RACHEL
No, Larry, I don’t think that. I know you too well for that. I know you don’t mean much by most of what you say to me, but there are some things you must never say again. You must never talk again of what has passed between us as if it were dead, and out of our lives, and a thing to be forgotten.
[With a sobbing cry]
Forgotten!...
[Her voice breaks, and she speaks with greater, difficulty and with increasing emotion during the rest of the scene]
LARRY
Do you still need me, Rachel?
[RACHEL leans forward in her chair, her body shakes with grief]
Do you still need me, Rachel?
RACHEL
[Trying to control herself]
It’s too late now — for you to ask me that. You cannot help me now.
LARRY
But you were going to tell me something.
RACHEL
[With difficulty]
Yes — yes.... I was going to tell you something....
LARRY
[With an assumption of his old assurance]
My dear Rachel, you are not going to be too sure of what I can’t do. Just remember that and...
VOICE OF THE CHILD
Uncle Larry!
LARRY
[Insisting Will you remember that?
RACHEL
[Looking straight ahead]
Yes, Larry. I’ll remember.
[Looking up at him]
Now go away. Please go away! Your — the child wants you.... Go! Go! Go!
LARRY
[Moving to the left]
I know it. He wants me to fiddle to him. You’ll remember what I said?
RACHEL
[Faintly]
Yes, Larry.
[She watches him as he goes into the child’s room, leaving the door ajar. Presently the sound of lively music is heard through the door. RACHEL listens in a state of unhappy abstraction as ROLLO enters from his study. His face is more cheerful than it has been before and there is a clumsy but well-meaning kindness in his words and in his manner]
ROLLO
[Coming near to RACHEL]
Well, Rachel, Larry is making more music for us.
RACHEL
[Without moving]
Yes.
ROLLO
He seems to be playing with more expression than usual.
RACHEL
[Staccato]
Yes, I was thinking of that.
ROLLO
You look tired, Rachel.
RACHEL
[Twisting her shoulders]
Does anyone ever miss an opportunity to tell me so?
Who is that?
[MRS. HOOVER enters after a quick tap on the vestibule door. She is dressed as in Act I.]
MRS. HOOVER
[Coming into the room]
O, is it you — you two?
[To ROLLO]
HOW are the eyes?
[Looking to the left]
And what in the world is the matter with your funny Mr.
Larry? He fiddles like a reclaimed sinner.
[Pause]
I know that tune.
[She beats time with her hands and comes half dancing towards RACHEL, singing and laughing as she comes]
“Roy’s wife of Aldivalloch,
Roy’s wife of Aldivalloch, —
Wot ye how she cheated me,
As I cam’ o’er the braes o’ Balloch?”
I haven’t heard that tune since the time when I used to ring door bells and run.
[To ROLLO]
Don’t ask me how long ago that was, for I shan’t tell you.
ROLLO
[With unction]
You will rejoice to know, Mrs. Hoover, that Larry and I are on better terms than when you saw us yesterday.
MRS. HOOVER
[Clapping her hands]
Good, good, good!
[To RACHEL, laughing]
Did you do it, Rachel? Good gracious, how sorry you look!
RACHEL
[Rising]
I am sorry — if I look sorry.
[Pause]
You will excuse me if I go away and lie down?
[She moves to the right, but stops when MRS. HOOVER speaks]
MRS. HOOVER
[Laughing]
Of course we will — since you are going anyhow. Did you think you were asking a question?
[She watches RACHEL with a sigh and a smile as she goes out on the right, and then looks quickly at ROLLO]
Where is Alma?
ROLLO
[Solemnly]
I don’t know.
MRS. HOOVER
[Smiling]
Do you care?
ROLLO
You know what I care for.
MRS. HOOVER
Are you going out?
ROLLO
I was going out.
MRS. HOOVER
[Sweetly]
For a walk?
ROLLO
[Solemnly]
Yes.
MRS. HOOVER
[With another sigh]
Well, if you go out, and Rachel goes away to lie down, and Alma remains invisible, I see nothing left for me to do but to go home and play with the cat.
[She looks at ROLLO and laughs]
Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty! — Oh dear, I wish I could curl up and purr for the rest of my life.
[The music ceases and the door of the child’s room opens]
No, I don’t either. Here is Mr. Larry... and I know he’ll take care of me.
LARRY
[Coming out and closing the door]
Do you need my protection?
MRS. HOOVER
[With a shrug]
Not exactly, but I want to be amused. Rollo is too serious, and I was just about going to give up and go home.
LARRY
[Tapping his boots]
I heard your remark to that effect, and that’s why I
came out. And now you might suggest something for me to do — to amuse you.
MRS. HOOVER
Tell me a funny story.
LARRY
[Looking at ROLLO]
I know one.
MRS. HOOVER
Is it proper?
LARRY
Rollo liked it.
MRS. HOOVER
[To ROLLO]
Do you think I ought to hear it?
ROLLO
I don’t believe my opinion will be necessary. I am going for a walk. Good afternoon.
[He goes into the vestibule and closes the door]
MRS. HOOVER
[Amused]
Good afternoon.
[To LARRY]
What in the world has happened to him?
LARRY
[Smiling]
That’s a part
of the story. Won’t you take off your things and sit down?
[She obeys promptly]
MRS. HOOVER
[Sitting down]
Tell it.
LARRY
[With peculiar distinctness]
I’d much rather you would tell me, without reservation, that you don’t mistrust me on account of my boots. You may be surprised to know that they are the property of your beloved husband.
MRS. HOOVER
[Delighted]
Stuart’s boots! Does that coat belong to Stuart too?
LARRY
[Looking down at it]
No, the coat is all my own. Do you like it?
MRS. HOOVER
Very much — on you.
LARRY
[Brushing his sleeve]
Thank you. Being a bachelor, I am always puffed up when the women like my clothes.
MRS. HOOVER
[Amused and puzzled]
Of course you are. But why don’t you get married?
LARRY
[Brushing the other sleeve]
I have thought of that too.
MRS. HOOVER
You would make a delicious husband — for somebody.
LARRY
Do you think so? Well, at the risk of seeming unconventional, I will tell you something that I think.
[She nods]
I think that some men and some women have about as much business being married as alligators would have — being vaccinated.
MRS. HOOVER