Thirty Pieces of Silver: A Play in Three Acts Read Free

two. Here’s mud in your lovely blue eyes.
    DAVID ( tasting the drink ) To you. What happened?
    JANE Nothing—just silly stuff, and I snapped at her. I treated her like a servant, that’s it. No, it isn’t, either. ( Shakes her head. ) It was just something foolish. Let’s forget it.
    DAVID The whole rigmarole you indulge in with her beats the hell out of me. You can’t make a friend out of a servant.
    JANE I don’t make a friend out of her. I just keep reminding myself that she’s a human being. Or I try to. Oh, let’s forget the whole thing.
    DAVID ( walking over to a chair and dropping into it ) Sure. But it’s only natural, Janey. As an intelligent Southerner, you have an excess of guilt. Some kind of atonement, I guess, or something. I can be a lot more natural with ni——
    JANE Don’t do that!
    DAVID What?
    JANE ( slowly and deliberately ) Don’t use that word. It’s a filthy word.
    DAVID ( shaking his head ) You’re off to-night. All right—if you don’t want me to, I won’t use it. But I don’t have the kind of associations with it that you do. I don’t have to overcome the things you——
    JANE Don’t be such a damn fool!
    DAVID ( pitting his glass down and looking at her curiously. He speaks slowly. ) I should be sore as hell at that.
    JANE But you’re going to be patient and understanding.
    DAVID That’s right. I’m going to be patient and understanding. I came home feeling warm and good for a change. I’m going to stay that way. Those are my small pleasures.
    ( HILDA enters now. )
    Hello, Hilda.
    HILDA Good evening, Mr. Graham.
    DAVID Where’s my beautiful daughter?
    HILDA Having her supper. But she won’t eat.
    DAVID That’s no daughter of mine. Let me try. I’ll be back.
    ( He takes his drink and goes out through the dining-room. HILDA hesitates a moment, then starts to follow DAVID .)
    JANE Wait a minute, Hilda.
    HILDA Yes, Mrs. Graham?
    JANE ( without warmth ) Try calling me Jane, just for once.
    HILDA Yes, Mrs. Graham.
    JANE You’re not going to try, are you? You’re going to ride that little bit of hurt right into the ground, aren’t you?
    HILDA I don’t know what you want from me, Mrs. Graham.
    JANE The trouble is, you do. What’s wrong with me, Hilda?
    ( HILDA stands there, without reacting particularly, without answering. )
    Or what’s right with me—or with David—or with Lorry? Are you as uncomfortable as I am, Hilda? The trouble isn’t that I’m superior to you, but that you can convince me that you’re so superior to me. Why? That’s what I want to know, Hilda. We’re Americans. I want to do what’s right; so does David. What’s wrong with us?
    HILDA I’m sorry, Mrs. Graham.
    JANE ( suddenly angry ) Like hell you are.
    ( The doorbell rings. )
    All right. See who it is, Hilda.
    ( HILDA goes to the door. Offstage , FULLER’S voice asks if MR. DAVID GRAHAM lives here. HILDA brings him in, a middle-sized, youngish man, middle thirties, well-groomed, quietly dressed, unimpressive and not too unusual. In all points of origin, he is vaguely similar to DAVID GRAHAM , yet there is a subtle though consistent difference. It might be said that a trained shrewdness has substituted for intelligence — a somewhat laboured control for whatever spontaneity DAVID GRAHAM exhibits. He wears saddle shoes and carries a soft Panama. )
    FULLER ( to JANE) HOW do you do. My name’s Fuller. Are you Mrs. Graham?
    JANE That’s right.
    FULLER I’d like to see Mr. Graham, if it’s no trouble. If he’s home now?
    JANE Is he expecting you?
    FULLER ( smiling apologetically ) I don’t think so, Mrs. Graham. I’ll explain to him, if he’s home.
    JANE All right. Sit down. I’ll get him. Do you want a drink? Hilda, will you give Mr. Fuller a martini or something?
    FULLER ( He remains standing. ) Thank you,