Ten months later. The set has only two essentials—a wide, curtained, glass door L., and an ordinary, heavy wooden door down R. The first gives entrance to the music room, which is indicated rather completely when the door is open. The second, by way of a hall and a flight of stairs, leads to the main entrance of the house. For the rest, the library is a shallow room, very much like any other library in the home of any other rich and well educated man. It is a little richer and more luxurious than most, perhaps, with—here and there—priceless things from palaces in Venice or art collections in Rome. The obsession of business is suggested by various utilities, transient and otherwise—a row of law books, a small file, and a pile of papers upon the substantial library table.
At Rise: It is a Saturday evening in November, 1919. The Goodkinds have been entertaining informally at dinner, and, having finished the chief business of the occasion, the company is now diverting itself in the music room. This room is brilliantly illuminated; one sees the shadow of a man leaning against the glass door. Dilly Gilliam, at the piano, is playing one of the syncopations popular at the time. After a moment, a servant, with a card tray, enters R., crosses and exits L. An instant later, Goodkind, in evening clothes, enters L. He has a card in his hand. The Servant re-enters, re-crosses, and re-exits, stopping, en route, to switch on the lights. Goodkind looks at the pile on the table, and turns the topmost paper face down. Benfield, also in evening clothes, enters L.
Benfield
What the h——
Goodkind
Shut the door.
[Benfield does so. As he returns, Goodkind gives him the card]
Benfield
[Reading]
"Labor conciliators."