Clara. Mama! Mama!
[She goes out after her mother.
[The other three women watch the two leave the room, then turn and look at each other.
Blanche. We'll manage somehow, only I think it would be easier for us to discuss all practical matters by ourselves.
Ruth. And I want you to understand this, girls,—I represent your dear father; half of everything I have is yours, and you must promise me always to come to me for everything.
[Sterling enters suddenly Left.
[He is a man of thirty-eight or forty, a singularly attractive personality; he is handsome and distinguished. His hair is grayer than his years may account for and his manner betrays a nervous system overtaxed and barely under control. At the moment that he enters he is evidently laboring under some especial, and only half-concealed, nervous strain. In spite of his irritability at times with his wife, there is an undercurrent of tenderness which reveals his real love for Blanche.
Sterling. Oh, you're all here! Have I missed old Mason?
Ruth. Yes, but Blanche will tell you what he had to say. I'm going upstairs to try and pacify your mother. We mustn't forget she has a hard time ahead of her.
[She goes out Right with Jessica.