HARRIET [nonchalantly]. Oh, it"s just a little model.
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Don"t seem anxious to get the order.
MARGARET [nonchalantly]. Perhaps it isn"t the gown itself but the way you wear it that pleases the eye. Some people can wear anything with grace.
HETTY. Yes, I"m very graceful.
HARRIET [to MARGARET]. You flatter me, my dear.
MARGARET. On the contrary, Harriet, I have an intense admiration for you. I remember how beautiful you were--as a girl. In fact, I was quite jealous when John was paying you so much attention.
HETTY. She is gloating because I lost him.
HARRIET. Those were childhood days in a country town.
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. She"s trying to make you feel that John was only a country boy.
MARGARET. Most great men have come from the country. There is a fair chance that John will be added to the list.
HETTY. I know it and I am bitterly jealous of you.
HARRIET. Undoubtedly he owes much of his success to you, Margaret, your experience in economy and your ability to endure hardship. Those first few years in Paris must have been a struggle.
MAGGIE. She is sneering at your poverty.
MARGARET. Yes, we did find life difficult at first, not the luxurious start a girl has who marries wealth.
HETTY [to HARRIET]. Deny that you married Charles for his money.
[HARRIET deems it wise to ignore HETTY"S advice.]
MARGARET. But John and I are so congenial in our tastes, that we were impervious to hardship or unhappiness.
HETTY [in anguish]. Do you love each other? Is it really true?
HARRIET [sweetly]. Did you have all the romance of starving for his art?
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. She"s taunting you. Get even with her.
MARGARET. Not for long. Prince Rier soon discovered John"s genius, and introduced him royally to wealthy Parisians who gave him many orders.
HETTY [to MAGGIE]. Are you telling the truth or are you lying?
HARRIET. If he had so many opportunities there, you must have had great inducements to come back to the States.
MAGGIE [to HETTY]. We did, but not the kind you think.
MARGARET. John became the rage among Americans travelling in France, too, and they simply insisted upon his coming here.
HARRIET. Whom is he going to paint here?
MAGGIE [frightened]. What names dare I make up?
MARGARET [calmly]. Just at present Miss Dorothy Ainsworth of Oregon is posing. You may not know the name, but she is the daughter of a wealthy miner who found gold in Alaska.
HARRIET. I dare say there are many Western people we have never heard of.
MARGARET. You must have found social life in New York very interesting, Harriet, after the simplicity of our home town.
HETTY [to MAGGIE]. There"s no need to remind us that our beginnings were the same.
HARRIET. Of course Charles"s family made everything delightful for me.
They are so well connected.
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Flatter her.
MARGARET. I heard it mentioned yesterday that you had made yourself very popular. Some one said you were very clever!
HARRIET [pleased]. Who told you that?
MAGGIE. n.o.body!
MARGARET [pleasantly]. Oh, confidences should be suspected--respected, I mean. They said, too, that you are gaining some reputation as a critic of art.
HARRIET. I make no pretenses.
MARGARET. Are you and Mr. Goodrich interested in the same things, too?
HETTY. No!
HARRIET. Yes, indeed, Charles and I are inseparable.
MAGGIE. I wonder.
HARRIET. Do have another cake.
MAGGIE [in relief]. Oh, yes. [Again her claws extend but do not touch the cake.]
MARGARET [takes cake delicately]. I really shouldn"t--after my big luncheon. John took me to the Ritz and we are invited to the Bedfords"
for dinner--they have such a magnificent house near the drive--I really shouldn"t, but the cakes are so good.
MAGGIE. Starving!
HARRIET [to MARGARET]. More tea?
MAGGIE. Yes!
MARGARET. No, thank you. How wonderfully life has arranged itself for you. Wealth, position, a happy marriage, every opportunity to enjoy all pleasures; beauty, art--how happy you must be.