Works of Edwin Arlington Robinson
Page 71
Well?
ROLLO
[Slowly]
Do you know what is the matter with Rachel?
DR. BEN
[After a pause]
No.
[Looking up]
Rollo, I may as well tell you that Rachel is not a subject for my kind of care. I wish I could do something, but I can’t.
[Giving him a searching look]
You see, Rollo, when you began this evening, I thought you were going to talk about the Blue Lady, as Larry calls her.
ROLLO
[Unhappily]
Well, I was.
[With effort]
Do you believe, Ben, that — well, we’ll say anything that I
have done — has been enough to make Rachel the wretched and unapproachable woman that she is?
DR. BEN
[With irony]
Rachel is a very serious person, Rollo, — and the old order has a way of not changing much when she’s mixed up with it.
ROLLO
[With effort]
Has it ever changed?
DR. BEN
[Getting up]
You might have a talk with Larry about that. He has more settled views than I have, — and he’s done more travelling.
ROLLO
Yes — yes, — you avoid the subject, I see.
DR. BEN
[Taking his coat from a chair]
You had better have a talk with Larry, Rollo, and then tell him to have a talk with Rachel.
[Getting into his coat before ROLLO can assist him]
Now that Larry plays the part of a financier, he may be able to brighten her up a little. You aren’t going to tell me anything, I see.
[He moves towards the vestibule door]
ROLLO
Plays the part?
[Almost faltering]
You don’t mean to tell me that Larry is no better off than he appears to be?
DR. BEN
[With a dry laugh]
You needn’t worry about that.
[LARRY enters from the vestibule. He is well dressed in ordinary business clothes and wears a fur trimmed overcoat. He carries the same yellow stick as before. ROLLO looks at him with satisfaction]
DR. BEN
[Buttoning his coal]
How are you, Larry?
[Grinning]
Do you want a ride this evening?
LARRY
[Hanging his coat in the vestibule]
Thank you, Ben, but this place will do very well for a while.
[He taps his leg with his stick and looks at ROLLO]
How are you, Rollo?
DR. BEN
Where are your boots?
LARRY
They are still in existence.
[He comes nearer to the table]
DR. BEN
[Grinning to himself]
Well, good night.
LARRY
[Amused]
Where are you going, Ben?
DR. BEN
[At the vestibule door, with dry emphasis]
I’m going to make out McGillicuddy’s bill.
LARRY
[Laughing]
Good for you.
[DR. BEN looks at LARRY, then at ROLLO, grins again to himself, and goes out. ROLLO comes nearer to LARRY]
ROLLO
Larry, I realize that I have done you a great injustice.
LARRY
No matter about that now. Besides, it was more than half my fault, anyhow.
ROLLO
[Suavely]
But you must not think for a moment that I fail to appreciate your own good fortune, or that I fail to regret my unpardonable lack of courtesy in the past.
LARRY
[Laughing]
Now to the devil with your apologies and with your unpardonable lack of courtesy in the past. You and I aren’t going to make faces at each other any longer, I hope;
and we aren’t going to waste any more time in raking over dead ashes.
ROLLO
[Putting his hand to his forehead]
Dead ashes!...
[Putting his hands behind him]
Well, Larry, Ben doesn’t give me much encouragement in regard to Rachel.
LARRY
[Cheerfully]
How much does Ben know about Rachel?
ROLLO
[Shaking his head and sighing]
Not very much — I suppose.
[He takes a few steps, heavily, with his hands behind him]
But there’s one thing, Larry. I don’t believe there’s much in what I told you yesterday about....
[He stops]
LARRY
About Stuart’s wife?
[ALMA enters quietly from the right]
Then you and Ben have had a talk about the Blue —
[He sees ALMA]
the Blue —
[Pretending not to see her, and making grimaces as he speaks]
— the Blue — it may have been the Blue Alsatian Mountains, or the Blue Danube. I rather think it was the Blue Juniata. Old Eben Imbro used to sing that song when he was drunk, and I haven’t heard it since. “Wild roved an Injun girl, Bright Alfarata.” The old boy used to sing it, and he used to shed tears. I couldn’t have been more than four or five years old.
ALMA
[Coming forward]
Are you any older now?
LARRY
[Turning]
I believe, Alma, that you and Rachel could fall together down two flights of stairs and not make noise enough to scare a cat. How are you?
ALMA
[Smiling]
But we might shed tears — like old Mr. Imbro. I am very well, thank you.
LARRY
Why do you look at me like that? Do you miss my boots?
ALMA
Because you are almost presentable. What has become of Ben?
LARRY
[Taking her by the ears]
The Wild Man of Borneo has just gone along. You may never see him again.
[RACHEL enters from the left and stops]
In which case, you will be sorry that you didn’t marry him when he asked you.
[He lets ALMA go]
RACHEL
[To LARRY, with forced carelessness]
So you have decided to dress like a human being at last, have you? Did you think you were deceiving me?
[Wearily]
Look at that hand.
LARRY
[Looks at his hand and turns it over]
Why — yes; I suppose I did — more or less. May I ask why you have been so still about it?
RACHEL
[Glancing at Rollo]
I don’t know. I may have had a reason.
LARRY
[To ROLLO, after studying RACHEL with amusement]
Well, Rollo, what are you thinking about?
ROLLO
[Solemnly]
I have much to think about. I have felt for some time past that something is going to happen.
LARRY
[Cheerfully]
Well, if it’s going to happen, we’ll have to let it happen.
ALMA
Do you understand these people, Rachel?
RACHEL
I am not sure that I do.
ALMA
Well, I’m sure that I don’t; and if— ‘taping to tell me what they mean. I’m going to bed.
ROLLO
Alma, don’t be so impatient. Nothing is going to happen this evening to disturb you.
ALMA
How do I know that? The house may burn down.
RACHEL
This house will never burn down.
LARRY
[Laughing]
Well, Rachel, you might have shouted the glad tidings a little more joyfully, it seems to me.
[Offering her a chair]
Don’t you think you had better sit down?
RACHEL
[Sitting down]
Are you trying to make
me laugh again?
[She smiles faintly]
LARRY
[Patting her head]
No, but you might look a bit more cheerful, all the same, for I can hear someone at the door. It is probably a homicidal incendiary.
[Turning about, as STUART HOOVER enters]
No, it isn’t. It’s Stuart.
STUART
Good evening.
[To LARRY]
So you have come out at last.
LARRY
I am as you see me. — What’s the matter? You look as if you had won a case.
STUART
[Trying not to smile]
I haven’t, but I have brought some news.
LARRY
Good, or bad?
STUART
[Taking off his overcoat]
My wife has run away.
LARRY
You poor devil.
ALMA
[Astonished]
Why, Stuart! What do you mean?
LARRY
[To ALMA)
He means that his wife has run away.
ROLLO
[Gasping]
But are you sure that you have made no mistake? This is terrible.
LARRY
Of course it is.
RACHEL
[Frowning]
Larry!
ALMA
[Her voice trembling]
But why don’t you let Stuart tell us what he has to say?
ROLLO
[Carefully]
By all means, Stuart. Are there no — particulars?
STUART
[Returning from the vestibule, where he has hung his coat]
Yes, there is one very particular particular, and I have brought it with me.
[Takes a letter from his pocket and gives it to Rollo]
There. Tell me what you think of that.
LARRY
[After watching ROLLO’S expression as he reads]
What’s the matter, Rollo? Is it written in Esperanto?
[ROLLO looks at LARRY severely; LARRY turns to STUART]
Well, Stuart, did she leave any regards?
STUART
[Drily]
No, but she left almost everything else.
[With unconscious innocence]
I found the cat lying on what I should have called her best dress.
LARRY
It looks to me as if you and the cat would have to match nickels for that dress.
ROLLO
[Looking from the letter to STUART]
My dear Stuart, of course there is no need of my assuring you —
STUART
[Quickly]
Oh no, — none whatever.
ROLLO
[Reading again]
This is most astonishing — most astonishing. — Really, you must all excuse me, for I must think this over.
[Impressively]
It may not be too late.
STUART
[Drily]
For what?
[They watch ROLLO as he goes to the study and disappears]
LARRY
[With a sigh and a shrug]
Well, Rollo is going to think it over.
[Taking letter from the table]
May I read this?
STUART
[Suspiciously]
Oh yes, you may read it. And then you may tell us all how you like it.
LARRY
In that case, here goes.
[Reads aloud]
“Dear Stuart: You and I have lived in Hell together for ten years.”
[To STUART, sympathetically]
That’s too long. That’s altogether too long.
[Reads]
“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. — Louise.”
[Pause]
What do you think of that, Rachel?
ALMA
It might be best if we were to let Rollo do the thinking.
[LARRY smiles on her approvingly and nods]
STUART
[Glancing towards the study]
Rollo will have to do some pretty heavy thinking before he brings Louise back to Tadmor. When she tells me that she is out of my life forever, she isn’t asking me to meet her at the station.
[To RACHEL]
You needn’t look at me like that, Rachel; and you needn’t ask me to make a funeral of this business. For I can’t, — that’s all.
[They watch RACHEL as she goes to the child’s room and disappears]
LARRY
[With a sigh and another shrug]
Now Rachel is going to think it over.
STUART
[Looking from the door to LARRY]
Does she expect me to set up a wailing and a gnashing of teeth over this affair? Won’t you try to make her understand my feelings a little? I haven’t been myself for ten years; and I have still to find out how much of me there is left.
LARRY
[Very distinctly]
I fancy that you and Rachel are pretty much alike, so far as that goes. From all that I can gather, she has not been herself for ten years.
[Smiling faintly]
And she doesn’t expect you to wail or to gnash your teeth.
STUART
[Reluctantly]
I know. But I shall never understand Rachel if I live to be two thousand years old.
LARRY
Oh, cheer up. You imagine things.
STUART
l wish I could imagine what she expects me to do.
[Pause]
LARRY
[With less confidence, as he moves towards the child’s room]
Well, Stuart, I’ll try to find out what she has to say for herself. And in the meantime you are to remember that everything in this life has to change, sooner or later,
— one way or the other. It’s hard, sometimes, to get that simple fact into our simple heads.
[He looks at STUART and ALMA as he pauses at the door. He knocks lightly and goes in]
[STUART takes up the letter and pretends to read it. ALMA looks at him furtively over the top of a magazine from across the table]
ALMA
Haven’t you made out that letter yet?
STUART
This letter doesn’t appear to interest you to any great extent.
ALMA
[Smiling]
On the contrary, I call it one of the most interesting letters ever written. And I thought Larry read it very well, — didn’t you?
STUART
[Drily]
Larry’s elocution was entirely satisfactory.
[Frowning]
And I am not going to ask Larry any questions — this evening.
ALMA
[Looking at the magazine]
I shouldn’t, if I were in your place.
[Looking up]
But whether you ask Larry any questions or not, I have a great mind to ask you one.
STUART
I’ll answer it with pleasure — if I know enough.
ALMA
Well then, I have a great mind to ask you how it feels to be — deserted.
STUART
[Impulsively]
Why don’t you ask me how it feels to be.... But I’d better stop. If I say anything at all, I shall say too much.... Alma, you may think whatever you like this evening, and you may say whatever you like, but for God’s sake do me the kindness — if not the justice — to say to yourself that I’m not the fellow that you used to know — or any relation to him. Before long I shall begin to know whether or not I can bring that fellow back to life again; and then perhaps you will tell me to what extent you recognize the talented young idiot who used to lie awake nights, and listen to the rain on the roof, and think of his highly commendable future plans.
[ALMA laughs at him]
Well, what’s the matter with you now?
ALMA
I haven’t heard you say so much as that — all at once —
since the time that you were talking about.
[She becomes suddenly serious]
STUART
[With tactless self-depreciation]
You mean the time when I used to be myself. I don’t suppose I was much to gather roses for, even in those days, but I was at any rate myself. And if I could have foreseen what was coming to me — my failure in the law, and that fool marriage in addition....
ALMA
[Quietly]
I have never looked upon that as a marriage.
STUART
[As before]
The devil only knows what it was. But it’s over now, and it’s gone; and I suppose the best part of my life has gone with it. I suppose that was a part of my education. Some of us require more schooling than others — and we get it.
ALMA
[Looking at the magazine]
Ten years would seem to be rather a long course in that school.
STUART
You said that as if you didn’t hate me.
ALMA
[Frowning]
I shall not like you — if you say that again.
STUART
You might have married.
ALMA
[With a forlorn laugh]
I know it. Let me see.
[Counting her fingers]
One, two, three, four, five, and — funny little Judge Lunt, with his red nose. I might say five and a half, but that would be wicked.... There are some women who can’t say even five — if that’s a thing to be sorry for.