HARRIET [to MARGARET]. Won"t you sit down?
MARGARET [takes a chair]. What a beautiful cabinet!*
* What beautiful lamps! (In vaudeville production.)
HARRIET. Do you like it? I"m afraid Charles paid an extravagant price.
MAGGIE [to HETTY]. I don"t believe it.
MARGARET [sitting down. To HARRIET]. I am sure he must have.
HARRIET [sitting down]. How well you are looking, Margaret.
HETTY. Yes, you are not. There are circles under your eyes.
MAGGIE [to HETTY]. I haven"t eaten since breakfast and I"m hungry.
MARGARET [to HARRIET]. How well you are looking, too.
MAGGIE [to HETTY]. You have hard lines about your lips, are you happy?
HETTY [to HARRIET]. Don"t let her know that I"m unhappy.
HARRIET [to MARGARET]. Why shouldn"t I look well? My life is full, happy, complete----
MAGGIE. I wonder.
HETTY [in HARRIET"S ear]. Tell her we have an automobile.
MARGARET [to HARRIET]. My life is complete, too.
MAGGIE. My heart is torn with sorrow; my husband cannot make a living.
He will kill himself if he does not get an order for a painting.
MARGARET [laughs]. You must come and see us in our studio. John has been doing some excellent portraits. He cannot begin to fill his orders.
HETTY [to HARRIET]. Tell her we have an automobile.
HARRIET [to MARGARET]. Do you take lemon in your tea?
MAGGIE. Take cream. It"s more filling.
MARGARET [looking nonchalantly at tea things]. No, cream, if you please.
How cozy!
MAGGIE [glaring at tea things]. Only cakes! I could eat them all!
HARRIET [to MARGARET]. How many lumps?
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Sugar is nourishing.
MARGARET [to HARRIET], Three, please. I used to drink very sweet coffee in Turkey and ever since I"ve----
HETTY. I don"t believe you were ever in Turkey.
MAGGIE. I wasn"t, but it is none of your business.
HARRIET [pouring tea]. Have you been in Turkey, do tell me about it.
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Change the subject.
MARGARET [to HARRIET]. You must go there. You have so much taste in dress you would enjoy seeing their costumes.
MAGGIE. Isn"t she going to pa.s.s the cake?
MARGARET [to HARRIET]. John painted several portraits there.
HETTY [to HARRIET]. Why don"t you stop her bragging and tell her we have an automobile?
HARRIET [offers cake across the table to MARGARET]. Cake?
MAGGIE [stands back of MARGARET, shadowing her as HETTY shadows HARRIET.
MAGGIE reaches claws out for the cake and groans with joy]. At last!
[But her claws do not touch the cake.]
MARGARET [with a graceful, nonchalant hand places cake upon her plate and bites at it slowly and delicately]. Thank you.
HETTY [to HARRIET]. Automobile!
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Follow up the costumes with the suggestion that she would make a good model for John. It isn"t too early to begin getting what you came for.
MARGARET [ignoring MAGGIE]. What delicious cake.
HETTY [excitedly to HARRIET]. There"s your chance for the auto.
HARRIET [nonchalantly to MARGARET]. Yes, it is good cake, isn"t it?
There are always a great many people buying it at Harper"s. I sat in my automobile fifteen minutes this morning waiting for my chauffeur to get it.
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Make her order a portrait.
MARGARET [to HARRIET]. If you stopped at Harper"s you must have noticed the new gowns at Henderson"s. Aren"t the shop windows alluring these days?
HARRIET. Even my chauffeur notices them.
MAGGIE. I know you have an automobile, I heard you the first time.
MARGARET. I notice gowns now with an artist"s eye as John does. The one you have on, my dear, is very paintable.
HETTY. Don"t let her see you"re anxious to be painted.