The Girl with the Green Eyes Part 17

AUSTIN. Now they're _blue_!

JINNY. Hurrah! and I'm going, from now on, to be _so good_, you won't know me.

[_And hugging his arm tight they go out as_--

THE CURTAIN FALLS

ACT III

(_Three weeks later_)

_The Austins' library; a warm, attractive room, with dark woodwork, and the walls hung in crimson brocade; Dutch marqueterie furniture; blue and white china on the mantel and tops of the book shelves; carbon photographs of pictures by Reynolds, Ronney, and Gainsborough on the wall. There is a double window at the back. A door at Right leads to the hall, and another on the Left side of the room leads to JINNY's own room. MRS. TILLMAN sits at a pianola Right, playing "Tell me, Pretty Maiden"; she stops once in a while, showing that she is unaccustomed to the instrument. JINNY enters from Left, singing as her mother plays._

JINNY. Darling mother!

[_She puts her arms about her and kisses her._

[_They come away from the pianola together, to a big arm-chair._

MRS. TILLMAN. I really must get one of those sewing-machine pianos for your father. I believe even he could play it, and it would be lots of amus.e.m.e.nt for us.

JINNY. Jack adores it; I gave it to him for an anniversary present.

MRS. TILLMAN. What anniversary?

[_Sitting in the chair._

JINNY. Day before yesterday. The eleventh Tuesday since our marriage.

Have you been in town all day? I _am_ glad to see you!

[_She sits on the arm of the chair with her arm about her mother._

MRS. TILLMAN. Yes, and I told your father to meet me here and we'd take the six-thirty train from Long Island City.

JINNY. Jack and I are going to the theatre to-night.

MRS. TILLMAN. I thought they were all closed!

JINNY. Oh, no, there are several musical comedies on,--Jack's favorite form of amus.e.m.e.nt,--and I've bought the tickets myself for a sort of birthday party.

MRS. TILLMAN. Is it his birthday?

JINNY. No, that's only my excuse!

MRS. TILLMAN. [_Laughing._] Had we dreamed you and Jack were coming home in June, your father and I wouldn't have gone into the country so early.

JINNY. We've been home two weeks and it hasn't been hot yet.

MRS. TILLMAN. And you're still ideally happy aren't you, darling?

JINNY. Yes--

[_She rises and goes to a table near the centre of the room and looks at the t.i.tles of several books without realizing what they are._

MRS. TILLMAN. Why, Jinny,--what does that mean?

JINNY. Oh, it's all my horrid disposition!

MRS. TILLMAN. Been seeing green?

JINNY. Um! Um! Once in Rome, and on the steamer, and again since we've been back.

MRS. TILLMAN. Nothing serious?

JINNY. [_Hesitatingly, she turns and faces her mother._] No--but the last time Jack was harder to bring around than before, and he looked at me for fully five minutes without a particle of love in his eyes, and they were almost--_dead_ eyes!

MRS. TILLMAN. What was it all about?

JINNY. Ruth Chester, princ.i.p.ally.

MRS. TILLMAN. Why Ruth?

JINNY. Well, the first real scene I made was in Rome in the Vatican. I was jealous of her; I can't explain it all to you--as a matter of fact, it hasn't been all explained to _me_! Something was troubling Ruth that Jack knew, and he said he'd help her.

MRS. TILLMAN. What?

JINNY. That's just it; Jack won't tell me. And the day we sailed from Naples a telegram came, and of course I opened it, and it said, "Trust me, I will do everything you say. Ruth."

MRS. TILLMAN. Why haven't you told me anything of all this before, dear?

JINNY. [_Going back to her mother._] I was ashamed to! Somehow, in the end I always knew I was wrong and had hurt him--hurt him terribly, mother, the man I love better than everything else in the world! Yes, even better than you and father and Geoffrey--all together!

[_In her mother's arms, crying a little._

MRS. TILLMAN. Oh, this curse of jealousy! I was in hopes he was so strong he would help you to overcome it.

JINNY. He does try hard, I can see sometimes; but he hasn't a spark of it in him, and he can't understand it, and I know I'm unreasonable, and before I know it I am saying things I don't know what, and some day he won't forgive them! I'm sure some day he won't!--

[_Breaking down again._

[_She rises and turns away._

MRS. TILLMAN. [_Rising and putting her arms about her._] Come, dear! Now you're getting yourself all unstrung, and that won't do you any good; you've got to fight this battle out, I'm afraid, by yourself, trusting in the deep love of your husband to teach him forbearance. Your father's and my troubles were never very big because we _shared_ the curse, so we knew how to sympathize with each other!

JINNY. What an awful thing it is!