Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 299

LIZZIE. That's nothing. The point is that he is seeking to make a match with her. He has practically proposed to her.

HINDES [_astonished_]. Practically proposed? To f.a.n.n.y?

LIZZIE. Yes, and when f.a.n.n.y comes back you just see to it that you wish her a right friendly congratulation, and that you make no--[_Stops suddenly._] Hm! I came near saying something silly.--Oh, I'm so happy, and I'd just have the whole world happy with me. Do you hear? You must help her celebrate, do you hear? And now, good night to you, for I must run along to the Ginsbergs'.

[_Turns to the door at the left singing: "Joy, thou G.o.ddess, fair, immortal...."_]

HINDES [_calling after her_]. But--the devil. Miss Ehrlich!

LIZZIE [_at the door_]. I haven't a single moment to spare for the devil.

[_She disappears._]

HINDES [_grunts angrily, throws his crutch to the ground, places his books and his packages on a chair, and mumbles_]. What mockery is this!

[_Takes out a letter from his inside pocket and reads it over several times. Grunts again. Rests his head heavily upon his hands, and looks vacantly forward, as if deeply puzzled._]

f.a.n.n.y [_enters, embarra.s.sed_]. Good evening, Hindes!

HINDES [_mumbles, without changing his position_]. Good evening!

f.a.n.n.y [_looks at him in embarra.s.sment, and begins to busy herself with the cloaks on the forms._]

HINDES [_still in the same position. He taps his foot nervously. He soon ceases this, and speaks without looking at f.a.n.n.y_]. Miss Segal, will you permit me to see Berman's letter?

f.a.n.n.y [_with a nervous laugh_]. That's a bit indiscreet--not at all like a cavalier.

HINDES [_same position and same tone_]. Will you permit me to see Berman's letter?

f.a.n.n.y [_with a laugh of embarra.s.sment, throws him the letter, which she has been holding in her sleeve_]. Read it, if that's how you feel.

HINDES [_bends slowly down, gets the letter, commences to read it, and then to grumble_]. H'm! So! [_He lets the letter fall to his knee, and stares vacantly before him. He shakes his foot nervously and mumbles as if to himself._] To be such an idiot!

f.a.n.n.y [_regards him with astonishment_].

HINDES [_somewhat more softly_]. To be such an idiot!

f.a.n.n.y [_laughing, still embarra.s.sed_]. Who?

HINDES. Not I.

[_Picks up his crutch, the books and the parcels, arises, and gives the letter to f.a.n.n.y._]

f.a.n.n.y [_beseechingly_]. Hindes, don't take it so badly. You make me very sad.

HINDES. I'm going to my room, so you won't see me.

f.a.n.n.y [_as before_]. Don't speak to me like that, Hindes. Be my good friend, as you always were. [_In a lower tone, embarra.s.sed._] And be good to Berman. For you know, between us, between you and me, there could never have been anything more than friendship.

HINDES. There is no need of your telling me that. I know what I know and have no fault to find with you.

f.a.n.n.y. Then why are you so upset, and why do you reproach yourself?

HINDES. Because....

f.a.n.n.y. Because what?

HINDES [_after an inner struggle, stormily_]. Because I am in a rage! To think of a chap writing such a veiled, ambiguous, absolutely botched sentence, and cooking up such a mess!

f.a.n.n.y. What do you mean by all this?

HINDES. You know, Miss Segal, what my feelings are toward you, and you know that I wish you all happiness. I a.s.sure you that I would bury deep within me all my grief and all my longing, and would rejoice with a full heart--if things were as you understood them from Berman's letter.

f.a.n.n.y. As I understood them from Berman's letter?

HINDES. --And what rouses my anger and makes me hesitate is that it should have had to happen to you and that I must be the surgeon to cut the cataract from your eye.

f.a.n.n.y [_astounded_]. Drop your rhetorical figures. End your work. Cut away, since you've begun the cutting.

HINDES [_without looking at her, deeply stirred_]. Berman did not mean you.

f.a.n.n.y. Not me?

HINDES. Not you, but your sister.

f.a.n.n.y [_with an outcry_]. Oh!--

HINDES. He writes me that his first meeting with her was as if the splendor of G.o.d had suddenly shone down upon him,--that gradually he was inflamed by a fiery pa.s.sion, and that he hopes his love is returned, that....

f.a.n.n.y [_falls upon a chair, her face turned toward the table. She breaks into moaning_]. She has taken from me everything!

[_In deepest despair, with cries from her innermost being, she tears at her hair._]

HINDES [_drops his books and packages to the floor. Limps over to f.a.n.n.y, and removes her hands from her head_]. You have good reason to weep, but not to harm yourself.

f.a.n.n.y [_hysterically_]. She has taken from me everything! My ambition to study, my youth, my fondest hopes, and now....

HINDES. And now?--Nothing. As you see, Berman never loved you. If it hadn't been for that unfortunate, ambiguous, absolutely botched, simply idiotic sentence....

f.a.n.n.y [_softly_]. Hindes, I feel that I no longer care to live.

HINDES. Folly!

f.a.n.n.y. I feel as if my heart had been torn in two. My soul is empty, desolate ... as if an abyss had opened before me.... What have I now in life for? I can live no longer!

HINDES. Folly! Nonsense!

f.a.n.n.y. I have already lived my life....