Sweet And Twenty

Páginas: 20 (4885 palabras) Publicado: 9 de mayo de 2012
SWEET-AND-TWENTY

a play in one-act

by Floyd Dell

The following one-act play is reprinted from King Arthur's Socks and Other Village Plays. Floyd Dell. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922. It is now in the public domain and may therefore be performed without royalties.

CHARACTERS

THE YOUNG WOMAN

THE YOUNG MAN

THE AGENT

THE GUARD

[A corner of the cherry orchard on the countryplace of the late Mr. Boggley, now on sale and open for inspection to prospective buyers. The cherry orchard, now in full bloom, is a very pleasant place. There is a green-painted rustic bench beside the path. . . .]

[A young woman, dressed in a light summer frock and carrying a parasol, drifts in from the back. She sees the bench, comes over to it and sits down with an air of petulantweariness.]

[A handsome young man enters from the right. He stops short in surprise on seeing the charming stranger who lolls upon the bench. He takes off his hat.]

HE: Oh, I beg your pardon!

SHE: Oh, you needn't! I've no right to be here, either.

HE: (coming over to her) Now what do you mean by that?

SHE: I thought perhaps you were playing truant, as I am.

HE: Playing truant?

SHE: Iwas looking at the house, you know. And I got tired and ran away.

HE: Well, to tell the truth, so did I. It's dull work, isn't it?

SHE: I've been upstairs and down for two hours. That family portrait gallery finished me. It was so old and gloomy and dead that I felt as if I were dead myself. I just had to do something. I wanted to jab my parasol through the window-pane. I understood justhow the suffragettes felt. But I was afraid of shocking the agent. He is such a meek little man, and he seemed to think so well of me. If I had broken the window I would have shattered his ideals of womanhood, too, I'm afraid. So I just slipped away quietly and came here.

HE: I've only been there half an hour and we--I've only been in the basement. That's why our tours of inspection didn't bringus together sooner. I've been cross-examining the furnace. Do you understand furnaces? (He sits down beside her) I don't.

SHE: Do you like family portraits? I hate 'em!

HE: What! Do the family portraits go with the house?

SHE: No, thank heaven. They've been bequeathed to some museum, I am told. They're valuable historically--early colonial governors and all that sort of stuff. But thereis some one with me who--who takes a deep interest in such things.

HE: (frowning at a sudden memory) Hm. Didn't I see you at that real estate office in New York yesterday?

SHE: Yes. He was with me then.

HE: (compassionately) I--I thought I remembered seeing you with--with him.

SHE: (cheerfully) Isn't he just the sort of man who would be interested in family portraits?

HE: (confused)Well--since you ask me--

SHE: Oh, that's all right. Tubby's a dear, in spite of his funny old ideas. I like him very much.

HE: (gulping the pill) Yes....

SHE: He's so anxious to please me in buying this house. I suppose it's all right to have a house, but I'd like to become acquainted with it gradually. I'd like to feel that there was always some corner left to explore--some mystery savedup for a rainy day. Tubby can't understand that. He drags me everywhere, explaining how we'll keep this and change that--dormer windows here and perhaps a new wing there.... I suppose you've been rebuilding the house, too?

HE: No. Merely decided to turn that sunny south room into a study. It would make a very pleasant place to work. But if you really want the place, I'd hate to take it awayfrom you.

SHE: I was just going to say that if you really wanted it, I'd withdraw. It was Tubby's idea to buy it, you know--not mine. You do want it, don't you?

HE: I can't say that I do. It's so infernally big. But Maria thinks I ought to have it. (Explanatorily)--Maria is--

SHE: (gently) She's--the one who is interested in furnaces. I understand. I saw her with you at the real-estate...
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