Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 9

EMILY. [_Quietly._] This dry spell is not good for flowers.

OLLIVANT. It's only the cultivated flowers that need care; can't help thinking that when I see the wild ones so hardy in my fields on the hill. [_Turning to_ EMILY _and patting her_.] Is there any of that spray mixture left, Emily, dear?

EMILY. I haven't looked lately.

OLLIVANT. I'll order some to-morrow. [_Taking up his pipe again and looking for the tobacco._] Think it would be a good idea, daughter, if you'd spray those rosebushes every couple of weeks. The bugs are a pest this spring. Where's my tobacco?

EMILY. On the mantel.

OLLIVANT. Wish you would always leave it on the table; you know how I hate to have things changed.

[OLLIVANT _goes to the mantel, filling his pipe, and while his back is turned_, MARY _makes a quick questioning gesture to her mother, who sighs helplessly_. MARY _ponders a moment_.]

MARY. How's Ben been doing these two years, father?

OLLIVANT. Hasn't your brother written you?

MARY. Only once--when I left home; he disapproved, too.

OLLIVANT. Had an older brother's feeling of wanting to take care of you, Mary.

MARY. Yes; I know. How's he doing?

OLLIVANT. He's commencing to get on his feet. Takes time and money for any one to get started these days.

MARY. But he's still in partnership with Bert Taylor, isn't he?

OLLIVANT. Yes. He'd have been somewhere if he'd worked in with me as I did with _my_ father. Things should be handed down. Offered him the chance, tried to make him take it, as your mother knows; but that college chum--nice enough fellow, I've heard--turned his head another way. [_Lighting his pipe and puffing slowly._] It's best to humor a young fellow's ideas if he sticks them out, but I'd like to have had us all here together now. The place is big enough even if he should want to marry. Your mother and I came here, you know, when your grandfather was still alive.

MARY. Then Ben isn't making any money?

OLLIVANT. [_Reluctantly._] Not yet--to speak of.

EMILY. [_Quietly._] But he's promised to pay his father back, Mary.

MARY. I see. [_Thoughtfully._] College and then more help to get started, because he's a man.

OLLIVANT. [_Complacently._] He'll have to support a family some day; I've had to keep that in mind.

MARY. I'd like to have a real talk with him.

OLLIVANT. When did his letter say he'd be coming for a visit, Emily?

EMILY. The fifteenth.

MARY. Not till then? That's too bad.

OLLIVANT. Eh?

MARY. [_After exchanging a quick glance with her mother and gaining courage._] Father, I hope you didn't misunderstand my coming back?

OLLIVANT. Not at all. We all make mistakes--especially when we're young.

Perhaps I was a bit hasty when you left home, but I knew you'd soon see I was right. I didn't think it would take you two years--but perhaps if I'd written you before you'd have come sooner. I told your mother I'd like to make it easy for you to come home.

MARY. Mother suggested that you write me?

OLLIVANT. Well, I suppose you might put it that way. I always felt she thought I was a bit hard on you, but I'm not one to back down easily.

MARY. Don't blame me then, father, if I showed I was your daughter.

OLLIVANT. Let's forget my feeling; but naturally I was set back.

MARY. Because you didn't take my going seriously until I was actually leaving.

OLLIVANT. I couldn't get it into my head then, and I can't now, how any girl would want to leave a home like this, where you have everything.

You don't know how lucky you are--or maybe you have realized it. Look about you and see what other girls have. Is it like this? Trees, flowers, and a lake view that's the best in the county. Why, one can breathe here and even taste the air. Every time I come back from a business trip it makes a new man of me. Ask your mother. Eh, Emily? When I sit out there on the porch in the cool evenings it makes me feel at ease with the world to know that the place is _mine_ and that I've raised a family and can take care of them all. Ben had to go, I suppose--it's the way with sons; but I thought you, at least, would stay here, daughter, in this old house where you were born, where I was born, where all your early a.s.sociations----

MARY. [_Shuddering._] I hate a.s.sociations.

OLLIVANT. [_Eying her._] Well, I'd like to know where you get _that_ from. Not from your mother and me. _We_ like them, don't we, Emily? Why, your mother's hardly ever even left here--but you had to up and get out.

MARY. Yes. That's right, father; I _had_ to.

OLLIVANT. [_He stops smoking and looks at her sharply._] Had to? Who made you?

MARY. [_Reluctantly._] It was something inside me.

OLLIVANT. [_In spite of himself._] Tush--that foolishness.

MARY. [_Quickly._] Don't make it hard for us again.

OLLIVANT. I made it hard, Mary? Because I objected to your leaving your mother here alone?

MARY. I remember; you said I was a foolish, "stage-struck" girl.

OLLIVANT. Well, you're over _that_, aren't you?

MARY. That's just where you are mistaken, father. [_Slowly._] That's why I asked you if you hadn't misunderstood my coming back.

OLLIVANT. [_Suspiciously._] Then why did you come at all?

MARY. I'm human; I wanted to see you and mother, so I came when you generously wrote me. I'm not going to stay and spray the roses.

OLLIVANT. [_He eyes her tensely and controls himself with an effort._]

So you are not going to stay with your mother and me?

MARY. [_Affectionately._] I'll come see you as often as I can and----

OLLIVANT.--and make a hotel of your home? [MARY _is silent_.] Don't you see your mother is getting older and needs somebody to be here?