Stop!
[
Mary Speaker stops, and
Cousin Fanny continues:]
Don't take them off. I don't want you to take them off. What do you want to take them off for? Are they too good for me to see? Are they too grand for me to look at? Ain't I as good as any one you'd find if you went out? Heh?
Mary Speaker
Cousin Fanny, I didn't mean that. I meant——
Cousin Fanny [Interrupting.]
I know what you meant! Don't tell me what you meant, Mary. You meant to slip out and leave me here alone, both of you. It's lucky I caught you in time. It's lucky I have money! It's lucky I don't have to put up with the treatment most old folks get. I'd starve, if I were poor! I'd die of hunger and neglect!
[She begins to cry, and
Mary Speaker says:]
Mary Speaker No, no, no,
Cousin Fanny!
[
Mary Speaker soothes her, in pantomime, and pets her, trying to take her hands away from her face,
Cousin Fanny resisting, like a spoiled and spiteful child.
John Speaker, behind
Cousin Fanny and his wife, walks up and down, with his eyes on them, running his hand nervously and excitedly through his hair. While this pantomime goes on, John and Mary Thinker are watching and saying :]