CAST
| DICK STRONG: | A hero. |
| MARY DALLAS: | A country girl. |
| ABNER DALLAS: | Mary’s aged father. |
| JEM DALTON: | A villain. |
SCENE: Sitting room of Abner Dallas’ home.
PLACE: A small country town in New York State.
TIME: The present day.
When the curtain rises, the stage is in complete darkness. Mary enters, goes to centre table and turns up small oil lamp. Immediately the whole stage is lighted with a dazzling brilliance. Mary catches sight of Dalton standing in doorway L.U.E. A sinister smile is on his lips, a riding crop in his hand.
MARY
(shrinking back)
My God—you! What do you want here?
DALTON
(advancing with his hat on and switching his boot with riding crop)
Ha, my pretty one, we shall see—we shall see.
MARY
(in tears)
Oh, how can you, how can you? Was it not enough that you stole my youth, that you made me what I am?
DALTON
So, my proud beauty, your spirit is broken at last! And at last I have you within my power!
MARY
Oh, God, give me strength! If I were a man, I’d kill you! You are of the kind who drag women to the gutter.
DALTON
Now, now, my fine young animal! Remember—’twas you, too, who sinned!
MARY
(sobbing wildly)
Folly, yes—but not sin, no, no—not sin, not sin! It is the weakness of women and the perfidy of men that makes women sin.
DALTON
(sneering)
Sin it was—sin, I repeat it. You—you’re no better now than the women of the streets!
MARY
No, no! Don’t say that, don’t say that! Have pity!
(throwing herself before him)
See! It is a helpless woman who kneels at your feet—
DALTON
(throwing her from him)
Bah!
MARY
(pleading)
Who asks you to give back what is more precious to her than jewels and riches, than life itself—her honor!
DALTON
Enough of that! Now, you, listen to me! Do as I say and I can make a lady of you—you shall be dressed like a queen and move in society, loved, honored and famous. This I offer you if—if you will become my wife.
MARY
Your wife! Not if all the gold of the world were in your hands, and you gave it to me. Your wife—never—never—not even to become a lady! Before I’d be your wife I’d live in rags and be proud of my poverty! There is the door—go!
DALTON
Not so fast, my girl!
MARY
I’ll do what thousands of other heartbroken and despairing women have done—seek for peace in the silence of the grave!
DALTON
(sneeringly)
Well, what will you do?
MARY
Stand back! Let me pass. If you lay your hand on me, I’ll—
DALTON
Ha!
(He advances upon her and makes to seize her in his arms. She struggles, screams. Enter Dick, revolver drawn)
DICK
What’s the meaning of this? Speak!
DALTON
(to Mary, airily)
Who is this young—this young cub?
(aside)
Damnation!
DICK
(advancing)
I’ll show you soon enough, you fighter of women!
DALTON
(in a superior tone, loftily ignoring the insult)
Hm, you Americans are a peculiar lot. But I suppose your manners will improve as your country grows older.
DICK
Oh, I see! So you’re an Englishman, aren’t you? Englishmen never believe how fast we grow in this country. They won’t believe that George Washington ever made them get out of it, either, but he did!
DALTON
Ah, my dear fellow, our country has grown up of its own accord, but you have to get immigrants to help you build up your country—and what are they?
DICK
That’s so: they don’t amount to anything until they come over here and inhale the free and fresh air of liberty. Then they become American citizens and they amount to a great deal. We build up the West and feed the world!
DALTON
Feed the world! Oh, no! Certainly you don’t feed England!
DICK
Oh yes we do! We’ve fed England. We gave you a warm breakfast in 1776, a boiling dinner in 1812—and we’ve got a red-hot supper for you any time you want it!
DALTON
(insolently)
’Pon my word, you amuse me.
DICK
(sarcastically)
You don’t say so!
DALTON
And if it wasn’t for this
(he smiles sneeringly)
lady—
DICK
(stepping quickly to Dalton, raising his hand as if to strike him)
By God, if you were not so old, I’d——
MARY
(wildly)
Dick! Dick!
DICK
(to Dalton, face to face, pointing to door)
Now, then, you worthless skunk—you get straight the hell out of here!
(Dalton looks first at Dick, then at Mary. Then, with a cynical laugh, shrugs his shoulders and exits)
MARY
(throwing herself in Dick’s arms and burying her head on his breast)
Dick——
DICK
(stroking her hair fondly)
Have courage, sweetheart; do not cry. Everything will turn out for the best in the end.
MARY
You have the courage for both of us. Every blow that has fallen, every door that has been shut between me and an honest livelihood, every time that clean hands have been drawn away from mine and respectable faces turned aside as I came near them, I’ve come to you for comfort and love and hope—and have found them.
DICK
My brave little woman! My brave little woman! How you’ve suffered in silence! But brighter days are before us.
MARY
(pensively)
Brighter days. I try to see them through the clouds that stand like a dark wall between us.
DICK
You must not heed such black thoughts, my angel.
MARY
(sadly)
I’ll do my best to fight them off—for your sake, our sake.
DICK
There’s a brave dear! And now, good-bye, dearest, until to-morrow. Remember, when the clouds are thickest, the sun still shines behind them.
(exits)
MARY
(alone)
Oh, my Dick, my all, may God protect you!
(A pause. Then enter Abner, carrying a gun)
MARY
(in alarm)
Father! What are you doing? Where are you going?
ABNER
I’ve heerd all! I’m a-goin’ t’ find the varmint who wronged ye, and when I find him, I’m a-goin’ t’ kill him, kill him—that’s all!
MARY
Stop, dad! You know not what you do!
ABNER
(with a sneer)
You! A fine daughter! A fine one to speak t’ her old father who watched over her sence her poor mother died, who slaved for her with these two hands, who——
MARY
(interrupting)
Oh, father, that is cruel! Nothing that others could do would hurt me like those words from you. I have suffered, father; I would rather starve than——
ABNER
(brusquely)
A fine time now fer repentance!
MARY
(in tears)
Mercy! Mercy! Have mercy!
ABNER
Mercy, eh? Well, I kalkerlate such as you’ll get no mercy from me!
MARY
(wildly)
I was young and innocent; I knew nothing of the world.
ABNER
Go! And never darken these doors again!
(he throws open the door; the storm howls)
Go! Fer you will live under my roof no longer! Thus I blot out my daughter from my life forever, like a crushed wild flower.
MARY
Oh, father, father! You don’t, you won’t, you can’t be so cruel!
(exits)
ABNER
(slams door; stands a moment at knob; then goes slowly to table and picks up Mary’s photograph. He looks at it; his eyes fill with tears)
I’ll set by that winder, and set and set, but she, my little one, ’ll never come back, never come back. Oh, my little girl, my little girl! I’ll put this here lamp in the winder to guide my darlin’ back home t’ me.
(he totters toward the window)
CURTAIN