Works of Edwin Arlington Robinson
Page 69
Thank you for calling me an alligator.
LARRY
I never called a lady an alligator in my life. Are you happy?
MRS. HOOVER
[Laughing at him]
No.
LARRY
Still, you have a good husband?
MRS. HOOVER
An excellent husband — for somebody.
LARRY
And a comfortable home?
MRS. HOOVER
The roof doesn’t leak.
LARRY
Stuart is kind to you, isn’t he?
MRS. HOOVER
Oh, yes; but he would like me a little better if I were in Manchuria — or somewhere.
LARRY
[With quick persistence]
Then why don’t you go to Manchuria — or somewhere?
MRS. HOOVER
[Promptly]
I would if I could.
[Feeling her way]
But I didn’t think you would do this, Mr. Larry.
LARRY
Do what?
MRS. HOOVER
Remind me of my — I was going to say my poverty. But perhaps I had better say my circumstances.
[With a quick laugh]
They are circumstances, aren’t they, until they begin to show through?
LARRY
[Smiling]
But you don’t answer my question. Why don’t you go to some place where you can be happy?
MRS. HOOVER
How can anyone be happy without money?
LARRY
[Thoughtfully]
Stuart hasn’t much now, I suppose.
MRS. HOOVER
[Rather drily]
No, and Stuart doesn’t seem to know how to make it.
LARRY
I don’t believe Stuart will ever know how to make it.
MRS. HOOVER
You are encouraging, at any rate.
LARRY
[More earnestly]
That depends upon your way of looking at things.
MRS. HOOVER
[Glancing up at him]
At what things?
LARRY
[Laughing]
O, I don’t know, exactly. Food, fans, hats, opera....
I’m told that you are rather strong for opera.
MRS. HOOVER
[With suppressed interest]
But I can’t have it here in Tadmor — unless I dream it.
LARRY
And I thought you liked money.
MRS. HOOVER
[Drily]
I have to dream that too.
LARRY
[Smiling]
Can you get it in that way?
MRS. HOOVER
[With a shrug]
Not often.
LARRY
[Casually]
Why don’t you borrow some?
MRS. HOOVER
[Venturing How dreadfully much you want me to go away! Why don’t you tell me so?
LARRY
I beg your pardon, but you told me yourself that you wanted to go away.
MRS. HOOVER
[Her eyes snapping]
And you feel absolutely sure that Stuart and Alma would live happily ever after?
LARRY
Happiness is a relative term. I have heard it defined as the absence of extreme want and of acute physical pain.
MRS. HOOVER
[With a thin laugh]
I wouldn’t give two cents for that kind of happiness.
LARRY
Well, I hope that will never be necessary. But if you care so much for music, and the city, and all that sort of thing, I don’t for the life of me understand why you don’t have it.
[Smiling]
You needn’t look at my boots, for they are merely an eccentricity of a childish mind.
MRS. HOOVER
[With excited wonder]
And the rest of you? Are you all a disguise?
LARRY
I hope not — quite.
MRS. HOOVER
Has Stuart known this all along?
LARRY
Since I came back. Stuart and Doctor Ben.
MRS. HOOVER
[With, flashing eyes]
I’m awfully glad to know that you aren’t really poor.
LARRY
[Smiling]
So is Rollo.
MRS. HOOVER
[Demurely, after a pause]
You make it very difficult for me to say anything.
LARRY
Then I’ll try to make it easy.
[He sits down at the table and writes a check, which he gives to her in a matter-of-fact way]
There. Now if you were to receive a manuscript like that on the first day of each month, even in case of my death, how long would you be inclined to remain a prisoner here in Tadmor? Of course you could pay it back at your own convenience.
MRS. HOOVER
[Getting up and fidgeting]
But this doesn’t seem possible!
LARRY
[Smiling]
It wouldn’t have been at one time.
MRS. HOOVER
But when am I to pay it back?
LARRY
I told you at your own convenience. When you get ready. When you sing Brünnhilde and Isolde.
MRS. HOOVER
Please don’t laugh at me.
LARRY
Then sing something else: “There is a fountain filled with blood.” I don’t care what you sing.
MRS. HOOVER
[With a shrug]
Don’t be horrid.
LARRY
I’m not going to be. Where do you wish most to go?
MRS. HOOVER
[Slowly]
The people I know best — or did know best — are in New York now.
LARRY
[Tapping his boots]
Well, New York is still on the map.
MRS. HOOVER
[Unable to keep still]
And I can see it all before me at this minute....
Broadway — Fifth Avenue — Central Park —
LARRY
[Smiling]
Don’t forget the Aquarium.
MRS. HOOVER
You are laughing at me.
[Laughing herself]
Well, I don’t care.
LARRY
What do you expect to do when you get to New York?
MRS. HOOVER
Live —
[With less fervor]
and work, of course.
[They stand facing each other, about three feet apart]
LARRY
Sing?
[She nods]
Really?
[She nods twice]
Well, that’s a good thing to do — sometimes. In the meantime, I suppose you would like to change that piece of paper for something of another color. Do you prefer these fellows?
[He gives her some yellow notes and tears up the check]
MRS. HOOVER
[After looking at the notes]
You dear good Mr. Larry. I have a great mind to kiss you.
LARRY
No, you’d better not do that. I’d much rather you’d write a brief letter to Stuart. Will you — at my dictation?
MRS. HOOVER
[Sitting down quickly]
Of course I will.
[Speaking as she writes]
“Dear Stuart.”
[Slowly]
I wonder if I shall ever write that again?
LARRY
[Standing near her]
“You and I have lived together in Hades” — no, say “Hell.” Have you got it?
MRS. HOOVER
[Writing vigorously]
Yes, I’ve got it.
LARRY
“ — for ten years. I know that everything would go from bad to worse if we were to remain as we are, and I know that you will not shed many tears when I tell you that I am out of your life forever.” — Now sign it, if you ple
ase.
MRS. HOOVER
[Soberly, after signing]
But I am not yet out of it.
LARRY
You may be by this time tomorrow. You won’t be taking any great amount of Tadmor millinery along with you, I suppose?
MRS. HOOVER
[Rising]
Do you ever come to New York?
LARRY
I may go there again, sometime. I don’t know whether I shall or not.
MRS. HOOVER
But you must. Shake hands and tell me that you will.
I’ll send you my address.
LARRY
[Smiling]
I should advise you to do that.
MRS. HOOVER
[Holding his hand tightly]
I shall never know how to thank you, Mr. Larry.
[She continues to keep his hand and look at him with alluring eyes.
RACHEL comes in quietly from the right and watches the two as they stand together, her face drawn with anger and unhappiness]
RACHEL
[In a dry voice]
I trust that I am not intruding.
MRS. HOOVER
[Dropping LARRY’S hand]
Why, Rachel! I supposed you were fast asleep and dreaming.
RACHEL
You need never suppose that — at this time of day.
MRS. HOOVER
[Reprovingly]
You talk as you did yesterday.
RACHEL
[Drily]
Is there any reason why I shouldn’t?
MRS. HOOVER
I can think of ten thousand reasons why you shouldn’t be miserable when there is no need of it.
RACHEL
[Wearily, with a touch of venom]
I dare say you are right.
MRS. HOOVER
[Laughing nervously]
Oh, you needn’t believe anything that I say. But if I were a mother, I should be glad instead of sorry to know that my child was out of danger.
[She goes to RACHEL and lays her hand on her arm]
It wasn’t nice of me to say that? I know it wasn’t.
[Laughing]
But you do carry such a dreadfully long face.
[Holding one hand above the other]
It’s as long as that. You talk as if there were nothing in the world but bears and griffins and things — to crunch us alive and eat us up.
LARRY
[Tapping his boots]
But we are going to drive all those bears and griffins and things back over the edge of Rachel’s horizon. And that will have a tendency to make Rachel better natured and possibly to make her laugh.
MRS. HOOVER
[To RACHEL, quickly]
There! It was he who said that. I didn’t say it.
RACHEL
I heard what he said.
MRS. HOOVER
And I hope you will try to believe it.
[Holding out her hand]
You don’t like me very well today, do you, Rachel?
RACHEL
[Taking her hand for a moment]
I don’t think you need worry much about that.
MRS. HOOVER
[Slowly, with a touch of malice]
I’ll try not to.
[Pause]
Well, good-bye, Rachel. Good-bye, Mr. Larry.
[She takes up her wraps. LARRY helps her on with them, and opens the vestibule door. There is an uncomfortable pause]
LARRY
[With a significance that puzzles RACHEL]
Good-bye, Mrs. Hoover.
[She looks at him with a strange smile that seems partly regretful and goes out slowly]
RACHEL
[Quickly, as the door closes]
I wish that woman would go to the other end of the world and stay there for the rest of her life.
LARRY
[Cheerfully]
Maybe she will. She was talking just now about going to Manchuria.
RACHEL
[With anger and sorrow]
O Larry, Larry, — what a child you are!
LARRY
[With easy confidence]
There is no doubt about that. And you’re another. All women are children, when it comes to seeing things in the dark — as you do.
RACHEL
[Going wearily towards the table]
You know a great deal about women, don’t you?
LARRY
[Cheerfully]
No, not much. But I can almost always tell them when I see them.
“Flies in the milk I know full well,
I know the pear-tree by the pear;
I know the walnut by the shell,
And women by the clothes they wear.”
That was written by a Frenchman.
RACHEL
[Bitterly]
Larry, you speak as if life were a child’s game.
LARRY
Well, it isn’t — if I do.
RACHEL
[Despairingly]
Are you never to understand what life is? — what it means?
LARRY
Do you know what it means?
RACHEL
Yes.... I know.
LARRY
Then you ought to write a book about it.
RACHEL
Do you mean to drive me mad, Larry? Or, for God’s sake, what do you mean!
LARRY
[Cheerfully]
Rachel, what in heaven’s name do you think you are talking about now? Are you still worrying over that woman, as you call her? If you are, you had better take my advice and cease from doing her the honor of having her on your nerves. She isn’t worth it.
RACHEL
[With difficulty]
Larry! Don’t you know that every word you are saying makes me suffer as I should if you were to strike me with your own hand?... This makes the second time to-day that I have come into this room to tell you something, but I don’t know whether I can do it or not.... I
come back to do it, and I find you holding that woman’s hand — and laughing.
LARRY
If I laughed at her when I had her all to myself, the chances are that I wasn’t very far gone.
RACHEL
No matter about her. She isn’t what I came to talk about. And you ought to know it.
LARRY
[Becoming more serious]
I do. Give me credit for that much, at any rate. Now, Rachel, if you knew what is going on in my mind at this moment, you would never again have any more doubt about me. Do you remember what you said to me a little while ago? You said you needed me — or you might as well have said it.
RACHEL
[Hopelessly]
Do I remember!... O Larry, don’t!
[There is a knock at the street door. LARRY hesitates, looks earnestly at RACHEL, who has turned her back towards him, and opens the door, admitting STUART HOOVER. He looks at RACHEL inquiringly and then at LARRY]
LARRY
Well, Rachel, here is our friend Stuart.
[To STUART]
Rachel looks as if she were afraid of something — but she isn’t.
RACHEL
[Covering a yawn and forcing a faint smile]
You mustn’t mind me, Stuart, I’m always doing something that I ought not to do.
[She goes toward the child’s room, meeting STUART and LARRY about half way between the table and the door. The three stop and are silent for a short time]
STUART
[With a dry laugh]
You can’t be afraid of anything in this house, Rachel, and I’m mighty sure that you aren’t afraid of me.
RACHEL
[With a strange earnestness]
How do either of you know what there is in this house — or in any house? Houses are the strangest things in all the world.
STUART
[As Rachel goes to the door of the child’s room]
Except the people who live in them.
[He frowns as if perplex
ed]
RACHEL
[Turning about, with her hand on the knob]
Yes.
[Slowly]
Or the people who do not live in them.
[She looks at LARRY as she speaks]
LARRY
[With a forced laugh]
Ghosts?
RACHEL
[After a pause]
No.... Not ghosts.
[She goes in and closes the door]
STUART
[After a long sigh]
There goes a vision of happiness for you.
LARRY
[Tapping his boots]
Stuart, the blind man.
STUART
[Unbuttoning his overcoat]
I could have said that myself.
LARRY
[Laughing]
Cheer up — and take off your coat. You are still young, and there’s time for all sorts of things to happen. Maps of the world have been changed in less than an hour, —
and there are twenty-four hours in each day.
STUART
[Throwing his coat over a small chair near the stove]
Aren’t you sorry there are not twenty-five?
LARRY
[Touching him with his stick]
That means a pill for your liver.
STUART
[Sitting down carelessly in the rocking chair]