SOPHIE. And now you think I had better go like any messenger boy. You are right. What has a poor working girl to do in a fine house like this, and among fine people like you? Good-night, Mrs. Tilsbury. Good-night Mrs. Brown. Good-night, Mr. Becker. Good-night, Mildred. I shall see you to-morrow.
MILDRED. Don’t go like this, Sophie. Josephine did not mean to hurt your feelings. She was only afraid that you would hurt Mr. Becker’s feelings. Stay and talk to us all.
SOPHIE. No, Mildred, I know when I am de trop. Everybody is not so amiable as you. I will go. Good-night, Mr. Van Tousel; you are a kind man. If you will come to our theatre, the Cosmopolitan Theatre, I will show you your seat right away, no matter how many wait, and I will bring you a glass of water between every act. Oh we have just dear little glasses, now that the law is passed that each person has his own glass, just the sort to remind one of a cocktail. I have borrowed three for my room. What night will you come? To-night is Friday and the leading lady is ill and the theatre is all dark. That is how I could come here, but by Monday she will be all well again. You will come Monday, dear Mr. Van Tousel, you promise, yes? Good-night, dear friends. (Goes out.)
MRS. BROWN. What an extraordinary creature.
MILDRED. (In defence.) She is a Pole and not used to our ways. She has a most brilliant mind and speaks five languages.
MR. BECKER. Five slangs I should call it, if she is as proficient in the other tongues as in the American. (Turns towards Mrs. Brown.) Is this your little dog, Mrs. Brown?
MRS. BROWN. My little pig, you mean. I was saying just now that I can only take him out at night except in an automobile, because it is against the law in New York to keep pigs. Only fancy, they used to run around the streets as scavengers. Then they passed a law forbidding keeping them at all.
MR. VAN TOUSEL Pity they don’t have them for scavengers now. I don’t suppose they would strike and they feel quite at home in the mud in some of the streets.
MR. BECKER. You women never think about anything but how to break laws and yet you want to vote.