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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f57f44 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text +*.htm text +*.html text +*.png binary +*.jpg binary +*.svg text +*.pdf binary +*.bmp binary +*.zip binary +*.midi binary +*.mp3 binary diff --git a/79218-0.txt b/79218-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0879989 --- /dev/null +++ b/79218-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1835 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79218 *** + + + + + STEWART KIDD MODERN PLAYS + Edited by Frank Shay + + + EYES THAT CANNOT SEE + + + + + EYES THAT CANNOT SEE + + A PLAY IN ONE ACT + + By + ALBERT GNUDTZMANN + + Translated from the Danish by Arvid Paulson + + [Illustration] + + CINCINNATI + STEWART KIDD COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY + STEWART KIDD COMPANY + + [Illustration] + + _All rights reserved_ + +EYES THAT CANNOT SEE is fully protected by copyright and no performance +may be given without the consent of the translator, Mr. Arvid Paulson, +who may be addressed in care of the publishers. + + Printed in the United States of America + THE CAXTON PRESS + + + + + TO + + THE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND + + RICHARD MANSFIELD 2ND, + + WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY, + I DEDICATE THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THIS PLAY. + + --A. P. + + + + + DRAMATIS PERSONÆ + + + HAMMELEV, _a public school teacher_ + MRS. HAMMELEV, _his wife_ + ANTON, _their son_ + LOUISE THORSEN + KIRSTEN + +The action of the play takes place in the living quarters of the +Hammelevs in a Danish country school. + +Produced at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen for the first time on the +tenth of September, 1903. + + + + +THE STAGE + + +A living-room at the Hammelevs’, with low ceiling and antique +furniture. In the background two windows, through which is seen a +garden. Between the windows an old-fashioned linen closet. By the +windows, on the right, a platform with a sewing-table. A bird-cage +with a canary bird stands on the window-sill; white curtains; a number +of flower pots. Doors on each side of the stage. To the right a big +chiffonier. Nearer the footlights a smoking-table, above which, on the +wall, hangs a pipe-rack with pipes. On the left a sofa; in front of +it stands a table with a rocking-chair and a couple of other chairs. +Above the sofa hangs a mirror; on each side of the mirror portraits +of Luther and Melanchthon; underneath these, photographs of members +of the family. The room has the stamp of cozy homeliness--sunshine +outside--the sun rays pour into the room in broad streams through the +windows. + + + + +EYES THAT CANNOT SEE + + +SCENE I + + (_Mrs. Hammelev and Kirsten. They are drinking coffee at the centre + table, which is covered with a small tablecloth_.) + +KIRSTEN + +Yes, Lavst’s promised. The carriage will be there, I’m sure. It’s all +been arranged. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Thank you very much, Kirsten. And remember now, it is the 8.20 train. + +KIRSTEN + +Oh, yes, yes-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_eagerly_) + +And the carriage should be at the station in plenty of time. I should +say eight o’clock at the latest. So it must leave here at seven. + +KIRSTEN + +Oh, it don’t take no more than a half hour to get there. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +I am always so afraid that something may happen. And if we should come +late! You must remember, Kirsten, that he is quite helpless. And in a +railroad station, especially, in the midst of people who think only of +themselves. + +KIRSTEN + +Yes--I wonder sometimes how he can travel like that, all alone, +without gettin’ into trouble, the poor boy! How helpless a man is +without a pair of eyes to see with! + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Everything is in God’s power, Kirsten. And then you must know that by +this time he has become accustomed to helping himself. It is now seven +years since the misfortune came upon him. + +KIRSTEN + +Heavens! Is it really? Yes, time flies--indeed it does! I remember very +well the time when you and Mr. Hammelev took him to the doctor, and you +was told that poor Anton was goin’ to lose his eyesight. Both me and +Furst felt awful sorry over it. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_painfully touched_) + +Yes, Kirsten, but-- + +KIRSTEN (_without interruption_) + +It was an awful and terrible thing to think of! Such a nice-lookin’ boy +as he was! He had that curly hair of his that suited him so fine--and +them beautiful eyes of his--oh, what beautiful eyes he had, anyhow! +Poor Anton! Yes, we used to always call him “poor little Anton”, ’cause +he wasn’t very strong. But he was a pretty big lad at that time. Wasn’t +he just goin’ to graduate? Let’s see--he graduated from high school +when-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Twice--two years in succession he failed, and he used to be the first +one in his class, and then--(_Pauses_.) But, God be praised, he has +amounted to something in spite of all. He has turned out to be a very +clever boy--although he took up a different profession than we had +wanted him to. + +KIRSTEN + +Yes, both Mr. Hammelev and you wanted him to study to be a minister, +didn’t you? And what’s a musician! And _you_ was a minister’s daughter! + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Musician! But, Kirsten, my son is not an ordinary musician. He is an +artist--yes--you know what that means, don’t you, Kirsten? He plays in +big halls where people gather just to hear music. Have I never read to +you what has been said of him in the newspapers? + +KIRSTEN + +Yes, thanks, and I must say it was a real pleasure and comfort for me +to hear, ’specially when it’s a person you have no right to expect too +much from; that Fate has struck like him and who must bend to the will +of our Lord, as long as it’s got to be. But it’s awful sad to think +that His choice should fall on poor Anton. I always thought, when I saw +him, that he was made to live in sunshine and light all the time. And +to think that he should have to wander in darkness!--as it is written +in the Bible. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_half to herself_) + +Yes, Kirsten, there was a time when I thought as you do. Many a night I +have lain awake, struggling with God for my child. I wouldn’t let him +go until He blessed me. And when I saw that Anton’s sight, with every +day that passed, grew dimmer and dimmer, there was a moment when I +turned against Him, and in my foolishness wanted Him to account for His +acts. At times I almost thought it would be best if He would take the +child back to Him. + +KIRSTEN (_with sincerity_) + +Perhaps it would have been best. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +No, Kirsten, it wouldn’t. And I shall never forgive myself that I once +in a dark moment let Anton understand that I did think so. Now it has +dawned upon me that God nevertheless has heard my prayers. He has given +my son new light; but He has lighted it in the depth of his soul. +_There_ grow flowers and sparkle springs as pure as neither you nor I +have imagination to dream of, Kirsten. (_Noise outside of voices of +children, mingled with the clatter of their wooden shoes._) I suppose +school is over. + +KIRSTEN (_rising from her chair_) + +Good heavens! Is it that late? Oh, I got to be goin’! + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Oh, no. Stay a while, Kirsten. Mr. Hammelev will be in soon. We’ll have +another cup of coffee. + + +SCENE II + + (_Hammelev enters from the left. An elderly man with a kindly, + somewhat tired expression on his face_.) + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Kirsten is here, pa! + +HAMMELEV + +So I see, mother, I see. (_Goes to Kirsten and shakes hands with her_.) +How do you do, Kirsten? I hear that your husband will drive to the +station for us to-night. I want to thank you for your kindness. + +KIRSTEN + +Oh, that’s nothin’ to thank us for, Mr. Hammelev. It ain’t the season +of the year when we use our horses much. + +HAMMELEV + +No, oh no--now that you’ve got the hay in, I guess you don’t. But it +isn’t the first time we have had reason to thank you and your husband. +Since we haven’t any horse and carriage, we ought to be thankful that +we have such kind and helpful neighbors. (_Goes to the pipe-rack, takes +down a pipe, and fills it with tobacco_.) Well, Kirsten, I suppose you +know what a great day it was in school to-day? + +KIRSTEN + +Oh, yes, I can imagine, Mr. Hammelev. It is in a way a day of +rejoicin’--we can’t say nothin’ else. The Lord has dealt severe with +you, so we are glad when He helps you along a little and makes it +easier for you. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_who has been serving the coffee, interrupting_) + +You’ll take a cup of coffee, too, won’t you, pa? + +HAMMELEV (_who has lighted his pipe_) + +Yes, thanks; we can always drink a little coffee. (_Sits, smokes, +and drinks his coffee_.) Yes, you see the cross we have to bear, +Kirsten--we ought never to complain of that. (_Good-naturedly_.) +At your house you don’t complain, anyhow, I don’t think. Do you, +Kirsten?--You haven’t anything to complain of. + +KIRSTEN (_knocks under the table, from superstition_) + +I’d better knock on wood before it’s too late. + +HAMMELEV + +Yes, do that, Kirsten. Well, I won’t say that we have anything to +complain of over here, either. We get our daily bread. And now this +great joy when our son comes home. We haven’t seen him for four years. + +KIRSTEN + +Is it as long as that? + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_to herself_) + +Four long years! + +HAMMELEV + +Yes, it has always been worst for mother, of course. You see, I have +the school and the church singing to think of. But she has to sit alone +here in this room day after day. Then, of course, her thoughts go far, +far off--we all know how it is. I often say to mother: “Mother, I have +a hundred little children to take care of every day.” That means a +hundred little hearts and a hundred little brains that I must keep +watch over. And so I say to mother, it seems to me as if she ought to +be able to keep track of at least herself. But it is easy enough to +find fault. Sorrow is a weed that it is not so easy to pull up by the +roots. + +KIRSTEN + +Yes, if I’d had such a misfortune to think of, I don’t know what I’d +have done. + +HAMMELEV + +But now mother will get her reward for all she has gone through, poor +mother. To-night he’ll be here in this room, he whom she is always +thinking of. She hasn’t even slept during the last half-dozen nights. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_smiling_) + +Now you are exaggerating again, pa! + +HAMMELEV + +Well, well--you haven’t had very much sleep. A little with one eye +is about all, if we should sum it up. And there has been such a +house-cleaning and scrubbing and frying and baking, as if the vicar +himself was expected. The boy’s room is fixed for him; it is just as it +was when he was at home last, excepting, of course, that everything is +newly washed and cleaned and polished. + +KIRSTEN + +But when he ain’t able to see it-- + +HAMMELEV + +No, he can’t see it. But the blind instinctively feel what we others +see. They can, for instance, enjoy a beautiful landscape. The color +rays work on their skin, you understand, Kirsten. It is just as if they +were taking a sort of bath in all the beauty. And then, of course, they +have the sense of smell. Well, now--and there are twelve new shirts and +twelve pairs of socks for him on his bed. Those he can get a great deal +of pleasure from. Would you like to see them, Kirsten? + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_somewhat impatiently_) + +Oh, that’s nothing-- + +HAMMELEV + +Yes, Kirsten, just to make mother feel ashamed, I’ll show you how +diligent she has been. She knows how to do these things. She has a +linen closet that would make many a woman envious. + +KIRSTEN + +Yes, we sure have to have clothes on our body. + +HAMMELEV + +Yes, Kirsten; but you and your husband no doubt have more than we. Come +along now; I’ll show you what mother has made for our boy. + +KIRSTEN (_puts away her coffee-cup, rises, shakes hands with both_) + +Yes, all right. Well--thank you ever so much for the coffee. + +(_All three go out, right. At the same moment are seen, through +the windows in the background, Anton Hammelev and Louise Thorsen, +approaching by the roadway outside_.) + + +SCENE III + + (_Anton Hammelev and Louise Thorsen enter from the left. Anton is a + young man in his twenties. He has the appearance of an artist--face + smooth-shaven and hair rather long. In spite of his blindness he + moves about in the room without any apparent difficulty. Louise is + in her thirties--a weary and somewhat faded and passée woman. It is + apparent that she is trying to improve her appearance with the use of + powder and paint. She is quite well dressed. She gives the impression + of being of an amiable though timid disposition, and she has a sad + look in her eyes_.) + +ANTON (_merrily_) + +You never thought, Louise, that _I_ should ever lead _you_. Did you +notice how well I knew the way? And I know where every piece of +furniture stands in this room. (_Points_.) There stands mother’s +sewing-table--and there are father’s pipes. Am I not right? You may ask +me about every little thing if you wish. I can tell you where every +picture hangs on the wall. Do you want to try? + +LOUISE (_pleadingly_) + +No, Anton, not now. + +ANTON + +Why not? You haven’t lost your courage, have you? + +LOUISE + +We shouldn’t have done this, I think. If you had come alone, you could +have explained to your parents much better. + +ANTON (_somewhat impatiently_) + +If I could ever get you to understand why I have arranged it as I have! +What do you think my parents are, anyhow? Do you think they’ll assault +me? Assault a defenseless woman--eh? + +LOUISE + +No, of course not. But--I don’t know--when I look about in this room +it seems to me as if I had entered it to steal something that doesn’t +belong to me. + +ANTON + +Oh, is it that way? Listen now, Louise. Who do you suppose knows the +old folks best--you or I? + +LOUISE + +Why--you, of course, but-- + +ANTON + +Well, then let it be so. Now, don’t you think it would be best to +let me do as I think fit? (_More quietly_.) I’ll tell you, Louise, +my parents have hitherto not been used to see anything but a child +in me! “Poor little Anton,” they always used to call me, even after +I had gone through the conservatory. Four years ago, when last I was +at home, father couldn’t get it into his head that I, like other +men, had to shave and get my hair cut. And I was at that time a big +chap--nineteen years old. (_In a temper_.) Good God! Am I then but a +child! A helpless, unfortunate, poor being, and can I never grow to be +like other human beings! + +LOUISE + +You who know so much--you are not as badly off as that! And you know +it, too, Anton. + +ANTON + +Yes, God help me, Louise! When one is lacking in one of the senses one +is a child, an incomplete specimen, three-fourths of a man or hardly +that. But let that be as it may! The fact remains that neither father +nor mother in their wildest moments of imagination would think that I +might become engaged. And I don’t think it would be of any use for me +to begin to explain how the whole thing has happened. Even if I should +describe you as an angel of God, they would say I was the most foolish +being in the world. Just for that very reason they ought to have the +chance of seeing for themselves. + +LOUISE + +If only we hadn’t met, Anton! It would have been so much better for you. + +ANTON + +What nonsense! When once they see you! That’s why I wanted you to come +with me and surprise them. + +LOUISE + +Oh, God! I only wish I was twenty miles from here. I don’t even know +what to say to them. + +ANTON + +You don’t need to say anything at all. I’ll talk for you; you’ll see. +I’ll say: “Look here, father and mother, this is Louise. She is the +woman to whom I owe everything. If it hadn’t been for her I wouldn’t +be a human being with a cheery outlook on life--I wouldn’t care to +live. I myself have never seen her, but I know so well how she looks. +She is fair as the day, and she has a dimple in either cheek--they +are just like a couple of little rills where the sunbeams play +hide-and-seek. She has also a little bent-up nose--quite a resolute +little nose--that always points in the right direction, just like a +compass needle. But what is most beautiful about her are her eyes; they +are so deep, and yet so clear; one feels so sure there is something +beyond their depth--but one can’t see it. And the other little things +about her--can’t you see for yourself how fine and nice and good she +is?” + +LOUISE (_pained_) + +Oh, Anton, but I don’t look like that! + +ANTON + +Yes, that is how you do look. I know it. (_Takes hold of both her +hands_.) And yet I can’t show them your warm, faithful heart; they’ll +have to learn to know that little by little. + +LOUISE + +If you would only not make so much of me, Anton! If one of us has +anything to be grateful for, it is I. And you know I haven’t hidden +anything from you. + +ANTON (_drops her hands; seriously_) + +You had nothing to hide, Louise. I know you have had a hard time. +But pure metal can’t be spoiled, and you have come out of it all +unstained--with your beautiful eyes and your good heart. Perhaps you +have cried a great deal. Perhaps others can see the traces in your +face--if so, it is an advantage to me to be blind. (_Listens_.) But +listen! I can hear the old folks upstairs. I think, perhaps it would +be best, if you went out for a second; you need only go outside till I +call you. You see--I think I ought to be alone with them the very first +moments. + +LOUISE (_close to him; entreating him_) + +Anton--don’t you want me to leave you now? Shan’t I-- + +ANTON (_impatiently_) + +You must do as I say. Be a sensible girl--don’t be hysterical. Now go, +please. + +LOUISE (_going out to the left_) + +I’ll do as you wish me to. But if you regret it, remember I told you +you shouldn’t do it. + +(_Anton stands for a moment listening to the steps of his parents +overhead. Then he hides himself behind the door to the right, which +opens at the same moment_.) + + +SCENE IV + + (_Kirsten, Mrs. Hammelev, and Hammelev enter from the right_.) + +KIRSTEN + +Yes, Lavst will be there in plenty of time to-night, I promise. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Thank you, Kirsten. You understand, we are a little nervous. But what +is-- + +ANTON (_coming forward with open arms_) + +Mother! + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_overwhelmed; sobbing_) + +Anton! (_She throws herself on his bosom and kisses him passionately._) +Oh, Anton, Anton-- + +HAMMELEV (_who, in his excitement, has taken the pipe from his mouth_) + +But, Anton, dear--we didn’t expect you until to-night! + +ANTON + +Yes, but “poor little Anton” had a notion to surprise you. So we +took--so I took an earlier train. (_He feels with one hand in the air, +while holding his mother tightly pressed to his bosom with the other._) +How do you do, father! + +HAMMELEV (_pressing his hand_) + +How are you, dear boy? + +KIRSTEN + +Well, I guess I ought to say how do you do, too. I am Kirsten, Lavst’s +wife. + +ANTON (_lets go his mother’s hand and presses Kirsten’s hand in a +faltering manner_) + +How do you do, Kirsten. I suppose everything is the same with you as +ever? + +KIRSTEN + +Yes, thank the Lord! + +HAMMELEV + +But how did you ever get out here, Anton? Didn’t anybody come with you? + +ANTON (_somewhat embarrassed_) + +No--well--yes, you see I know the way. And--yes, I’ll tell you-- + +KIRSTEN + +Well, I don’t want to disturb you no longer, and there’s no need of no +carriage goin’ to the station to-night, I guess. + +HAMMELEV + +No, I don’t think so, Kirsten. But thank you just the same for your +willingness. Good-bye! And give my regards to your husband! + +KIRSTEN + +Good-bye! (_Shakes hands and goes out to the right_.) + +ANTON + +Why don’t you say something, mother? Was it too much of a surprise? + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_moves her hand to her heart; smiles_) + +Yes, it was a bit sudden--but now.... Oh, Anton--when you are here, you +know--don’t you know.... And how well and happy you look! + +KIRSTEN (_puts her head inside the door_) + +Excuse me. I just wanted to tell you there is a strange lady standin’ +outside here. + +HAMMELEV (_slightly annoyed_) + +A strange lady! What does she want, I wonder? Tell her to come in! + +KIRSTEN (_calls_) + +Yes, you can come in, if you want to. (_She goes out_.) + + +SCENE V + + (_Louise comes from the left and remains standing right, inside the + door_.) + +HAMMELEV (_goes towards her_) + +You wish to speak with me? + +LOUISE (_falteringly, embarrassed_) + +Yes--but I thought--perhaps I--ought not to-- + +ANTON + +Why, of course you should. (_He feels his way to her, takes her by +the hand, and leads her out into the room; the parents seem to be +shocked_.) I wanted to tell you first, but as it now has happened +differently than I had thought--here is the woman who has helped me to +find the way out here to-day. And she has done more than that: she has +led me through the darkest moments of my life. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_who, in a glance, has taken in Louise; in a voice of +anxiety_) + +Anton--what does this mean? + +ANTON + +It means, father and mother, that in the last two years she and I have +been one. And we will never separate from each other. + +HAMMELEV (_with strained kindliness_) + +So--so you are engaged, poor little Anton? You haven’t written and told +us anything about it. + +ANTON + +I didn’t want you to worry over me--to know that I--helpless as I +was--had bound myself to another human being. I wanted you to _see_ +her first. (_Moved_.) For I knew that in the same moment that you saw +her, you’d understand it is for our mutual happiness. Isn’t that true +when she has chosen to love me? As fine and beautiful as she is! You +must understand how much she thinks of me. But you needn’t fear for her +sake, I feel sure. I can make her happy; and for her it is happiness to +be able to give of her full, rich heart--to give to one who longs with +all his soul for sun and light--as I do. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +I think, if we should speak of the richness of heart, that few have as +much to give away as you have, Anton. + +ANTON + +No, no! don’t compare me with her. Remember--for her the whole world +lies open; she need but stretch out her arms. But I--I have nothing to +give up, nothing to offer. And there is nobody who asks anything from +me, anyhow. Nature has now once for all--it seems to me--given me the +right to be a bit selfish.... + +HAMMELEV + +We had thought that-- + +ANTON + +Yes, father, I might have known that this would come as a great +surprise to you. And I know that before long you will love Louise as +much as I myself do. + +HAMMELEV + +Louise--so that’s her name--your.... And her last name, if I may ask? + +LOUISE + +Thorsen. + +HAMMELEV + +Louise Thorsen--oh, yes.... (_Heartily_.) Well, well, my dear +Anton--and you also, my dear--Louise Thorsen, I suppose I ought to wish +you all sorts of health and happiness. + +(_Approaches Anton with extended hand_.) + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_goes between them_) + +Hammelev--I think you first ought to let us speak with the young lady. +(_With an emotion that she can hardly conceal_.) May I only say this: +Anton knows that I, too, wish him happiness--that nobody could wish him +more happiness than I--but it is not more than right that I learn to +know her a little better before I-- + +ANTON (_quietly_) + +Of course you may, mother. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +You must understand me rightly, Anton. Father and I have been waiting +for months for the happy day when you would come home. We spoke of +it when we sat here the other evening--we thought of when you would +step inside the door--we thought of how it would be with all of us +together, the three of us. Now the whole thing will have to be changed. +I can’t quite reconcile myself to it at once. Therefore, I want to have +a chance to learn to know her first--she, whom you have chosen for +yourself. + +ANTON + +Yes, mother, since you look at it that way--I think myself it is the +best way. For I know very well that when you have talked with her ten +minutes you’ll love her as if you had known her for many years. Father +and I will take a walk in the garden in the meantime. + +HAMMELEV + +Anton ought to go up to his room, too. But you ought to show him that +yourself, mother. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_nervously_) + +Do as you like. I-- + +ANTON (_merrily_) + +Let’s go out in the garden. I am longing to find out how much the big +pear tree has grown that I planted out there myself when I still had my +sight. But I tell you this, mother: you mustn’t make Louise regret that +she cares for me, poor mole. For if I lose her, I’ll never find my way +any more in life. (_Hammelev and Anton go out_.) + + +SCENE VI + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Now we’ll have a talk, we two--it is necessary. You may take off your +things--the large hat--the coat. (_Louise takes her coat and hat off +and puts them away. She is dressed in a plain, simple dress_.) Yes--I +like you so much better without those things on. Now sit down here +at the table--right here in front of me. (_They both of them sit +down_.) What I am going to tell you now may hurt you. But I trust you +understand that nobody could love Anton any more than his mother. +Therefore I want to speak openly to you. + +LOUISE (_bows down her head_) + +I suppose you want me to call it off with him. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +I had meant to ask you whether you yourself think that you are the kind +of wife he ought to have. I don’t know you, of course. But I know him, +and I know that he deserves to have a good woman and a woman who is +pure. Can you stand before the face of God and say that you are that? +You need not answer me. It is God who awaits your answer. + +LOUISE (_slowly_) + +I know very well I haven’t always been what I should have been. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_mildly_) + +None of us have. But you must let your own conscience decide whether +you can stand with raised head as my son’s bride. If you can not, I beg +of you to give him up. Yes, in such a case you _must_. Could you expect +me to ask anything else of you? + +LOUISE (_rocking back and forth in great agony_) + +I have been so fond of Anton. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Yes, poor girl! You mustn’t think I am so hard-hearted that I don’t +feel sorry for you. But life puts its mark on each one of us. And you +have received yours. I saw it on you at once. + +LOUISE + +I have often regretted that I gave Anton my promise. I am sorry for his +sake. I have often thought that perhaps it would dawn on him some day +that I wasn’t fit for him. And I promised myself solemnly--if such a +day should come--he should be free from me at once. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Perhaps--if you had enough strength left. But what about all the years +you had taken away from him in the meantime? + +LOUISE + +I felt that way because he cared for me and wanted to have me near him. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +But you have no right to think anything like that. We have no right to +masquerade, to pretend we are what we are not. And you must remember +that my son can’t form an opinion for himself of human beings in the +same way that we can. + +LOUISE (_bravely_) + +You mustn’t think, Mrs. Hammelev, that I have hidden anything from +Anton. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Hidden! To leave things untold is the same as to hide. + +LOUISE + +I have told him everything that I have been--that I was once-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_sharply_) + +A fallen woman! + +LOUISE (_bending herself down in silence, as if being struck_) + +That is a word which is not used by oneself about oneself. (_With +strong emotion_.) Yet on the very first day we met I told him I should +bring shame and sorrow to him. I told him I had done things that I +couldn’t even tell him about, and that I wasn’t worthy of walking by +his side in the street. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +You did tell him that? + +LOUISE + +As true as there is a God! I have told him everything. Oh, but he--he +only smiled. He understood so well, he said, that I had gone through so +many things. But when a woman had the strength to rise again, it tended +to prove that she had the real stuff in her--that’s what he said. Then +it seemed to him also as if it, in a way, was a sort of counter-balance +to his being such a wretched human being. In a way, you understand. For +we each had our own misfortune to bear. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_passionately_) + +Don’t you dare to compare his misfortune with yours! God knows my poor +boy can not be blamed for what has befallen him. Whereas you have +been a bad and weak woman. You have brought your sin and shame upon +yourself, and you can not wash yourself clean of it now. I am not +judging you--don’t think that! But how could you come out here with +him? How could you think that we, his parents, could look on quietly +and see him throw himself away on a--a woman who--who was unworthy of +him? + +LOUISE + +Oh, God! I didn’t think so. I didn’t think so. I begged him again and +again to go alone. But he wouldn’t listen to me; he wasn’t satisfied +until I promised to go with him. And he kept on saying: “When they only +see how much you are to me, they will have to like you as much as I +do.” And then--then--I don’t know--then there were moments when I hoped +myself it would be as he hoped it would. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +You ought to have known that, in spite of telling him about your life, +you are still deceiving him; that everybody else can see with their +eyes what he can’t! You also have a bad conscience. It is for that +reason you have tried to fix yourself up. But can’t you understand that +you are thus holding up my poor little boy as a target for fun-making +and mockery and pity? + +LOUISE (_struggling with her tears_) + +He told me to fix myself up so that you might like me. I never +thought--(_suddenly taking hold of Mrs. Hammelev’s hand_.) You must +believe me! I did it all with the best of intentions. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +I readily believe that. But if you really loved Anton, I do not +understand why you couldn’t see that you would drag him down with you. +But there must be an end to this now. You must give him up. + +LOUISE (_in a low voice_) + +Give up! Yes, I suppose I must--I wouldn’t think of standing between +him and his parents. Yes, I’ll--I’ll tell him we must part. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +No. You shan’t do that. You need but leave quietly. I’ll speak myself +to my son. + +LOUISE + +You speak to him! Yes--if you could only get him to listen. But I know +him. He’ll want me back, anyway. Do you know that I left him once? +No--how could you know that!-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +You were--you were going to--leave him! + +LOUISE + +I wanted to give him back his liberty, as you want me to give it to him +now. I explained my reasons for doing it in a letter to him--I have +learned the alphabet of the blind. Then I moved to some relatives of +mine that I had never spoken to him of. The next day he had found out +where I was and came to me. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Yes, I realize that you have understood how to make him attached to +you. It will be a blow to him--yes, I don’t reproach you. + +LOUISE + +Reproach me! + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +I tell you, I don’t blame you. And if I could give you a helping hand, +so that both you and my son could become happy and contented, I would +do so. But it wouldn’t be right for me to think of anything else but my +son’s future. Remember that I am so much older than you are and have +had so many more years’ experience of life. And I have learned that one +cannot build a house on sand or dirt. + +LOUISE (_rising_) + +Anton’s future shan’t be built on such a foundation. It is better for +us--it is better for him to have the sorrow of losing me now. And this +time it shall be for ever. There are places where he won’t be able to +find me. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Are you going upstairs to talk to him now? + +LOUISE (_nods_) + +Yes, that is one of the conditions I want to make. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +You must believe me--I am doing this with the best of intentions. It is +only because I love Anton so much. + +LOUISE (_with a sorrowful nod_) + +I know. When one loves some one-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_takes Louise’s hand_) + +But one thing you must promise me. You must be sensible. You mustn’t do +anything rash or foolish. Think of Anton. His life is dark enough as it +is. + +LOUISE + +I have already taken into consideration everything. Almost as long as I +have known Anton have I had on my mind to do what I am going to do now. +I shall go--far away--that’s all. And then neither you nor Anton will +have to see me any more. (_She goes out to the right. Mrs. Hammelev +walks about the room restlessly for a moment; then she seats herself at +the table in deep thought_.) + + +SCENE VII + +(_Hammelev enters from the right_.) + +HAMMELEV + +Well, I showed Anton up to the room, mother. I thought he’d long to +see--to come up there. If you had only seen how he went around and felt +everything! “Oh, God!” he exclaimed, “there hangs the little rack.” And +he felt all the books. “There is my ‘Ivanhoe’--and there is Dickens’ +‘Oliver Twist’; and there ‘The Last of the Mohicans’!” He felt all of +them by their backs. But the shirts and the socks--you could have saved +yourself the trouble of making them, Mother. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Why? + +HAMMELEV + +A person can never get enough of such things, of course, in a way. But +he is well looked after in this respect. She, his sweetheart, has sewn +and fixed and looked after everything for him. She works, by the way, +in a dressmaking establishment. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_with an expression of surprise_) She works--she works +at a dressmaker’s! + +HAMMELEV + +Yes--in one of those large department stores in Copenhagen. She is in +charge of the dressmaking department. She makes good money, too, he +says. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_as before_) + +Good for her! + +HAMMELEV + +And a good thing for him, too. How would they have got along otherwise? + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +I should hope Anton does not have to receive anything from anybody. + +HAMMELEV + +But he had to do so once. Do you know who kept him alive? When he took +lessons from that professor, you know. We thought he was living with +that friend of his he wrote about. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Wasn’t he? + +HAMMELEV + +Well, yes--yes, he was, in a way. But his friend most of the time wears +skirts, and her name is Louise Thorsen. And it was she who took care of +him the best way she could. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_passionately_) + +And stole his youth. For if they shared things with each other, it +must have meant that they lived together. + +HAMMELEV + +Yes--and what is there to be said? She is a woman and he a man. And, +besides, he is an artist. So we ought not to judge, I think. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +But we must be allowed to have our opinions. We have only this one +child. And he is in need of parental love more than other children. + +HAMMELEV + +Yes, mother dear, but I think it has been a great fortune for him to +have found her. What can _we_ do for him, we two old cronies? We shall +soon have enough to do straightening out our own affairs until we +meet up there with the great Doctor who opens all eyes. And when we +have gone, who would he then have to cling to? No--a young woman like +her is what a man like him needs. And the old doctor said that--thank +God--should he get children, there was no danger that his affliction +would be hereditary. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +But there are greater afflictions that _can_ be inherited. + +HAMMELEV + +Yes, I can see that you are not very pleased with the whole thing. +Before she took off her coat it seemed to me, too, as if she looked a +bit too “cityfied.” But I think she really is a good girl. + + +SCENE VIII + +(_Anton and Louise come from the right_.) + +ANTON (_half outside_) + +No, Louise, you can’t go away like this. If I can’t make you stay, +mother must try to. (_He pulls her, in spite of her opposition, into +the room_.) Have you ever heard anything like it? Louise wants to go +back to the city to-night. + +LOUISE + +Yes, I must, Anton. I didn’t have the courage to tell you before. But +now--I feel that I know your parents--and.... + +ANTON + +Know--know--one can’t learn to know anybody in an hour. Anyhow, it’s +strange that your employer wants you to return at once. And just on +this occasion! Before, you have always been able to get off whenever +you wanted to be with me. + +LOUISE + +I have asked to be free too often, dear Anton. Now, you see, they must +have grown tired of it in the store. I want to tell you right now that +hereafter I am afraid we shall not be able to be together as often as +before. + +ANTON + +Well, then we must get married. To think that you should be the slave +of the yardstick! Now I’ll dictate a letter for you. I’ll say that you +cannot be back until the day after to-morrow at the earliest. + +LOUISE + +No, it won’t do, Anton--you must not ask me to do it. + +ANTON + +But help me, then, father and mother. Can you look on quietly and +silently while your daughter-in-law, who has hardly put her foot inside +your door, wants to disappear again? + +HAMMELEV + +No, we want, of course, to-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +I think you had best let Louise go, Anton. You mustn’t let her take the +risk of losing her position. + +ANTON + +And you say that, mother! But don’t you know how I had looked forward +to this day--when you would see her--and learn to love her and-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +You must be sensible, Anton. It might influence your future if she-- + +ANTON + +The future! Always the future, always to-morrow and again to-morrow, +and please wait like a good child! But God have mercy, I am of course, +unreasonable. Go, Louise, go! Hurry, that you will not be late for the +train! + +LOUISE (_sadly_) + +Are you angry with me now, Anton? + +ANTON (_softly_) + +With you--no! I am a bit angry, I suppose. But not with you. I want to +tell you this, however, that I will let you go only on one condition: +that you soon take a long vacation. And then we’ll come out here again, +both of us. Will you promise me that, Louise? + +LOUISE (_softly patting his hand_) + +There shall soon be happiness for both of us, Anton. + +ANTON + +Y-e-s--I couldn’t be angry with you now. So go upstairs to my room. At +the very top of my traveling bag you’ll find a little package. Bring it +down to me. There is something in it for you. It was my intention not +to give it to you until to-night. But as long as you can’t wait-- + +LOUISE + +You shouldn’t spend your money on buying presents for me. + +ANTON + +What! I don’t lose anything by it. I don’t ruin myself by it, do I? + +LOUISE + +But I would rather you didn’t give me anything. + +ANTON + +Is it your intention to make me real angry--seriously angry? I can’t +understand what ails you to-day. My parents have seen an engaged +couple before. Or do you think, perhaps, that they, in their peasant +simplicity, may take offense? + +LOUISE + +No, but-- + +ANTON + +Well, if you want to leave at once, then go. And take all the time +you want while you are upstairs. Five minutes, if you like. There is +something I want to speak to mother about in the meantime. Can you find +your way to the room? + +HAMMELEV + +I’ll show Louise the way. At the same time I’ll show her the room where +she was to have slept, if she had stayed over night. + +ANTON + +Five minutes, Louise. But no longer. We have yet a few hours till you +have to leave for the train. And we will be very greedy of these two +hours--we four. + +LOUISE (_bends over him and kisses him_) + +Anton, dear, you know I have always wished to do what was best for you. +Whatever may happen or whatever I may do, you must always believe in +me. Do you hear, Anton--always! + +(_Louise and Hammelev go out, right_.) + + +SCENE IX + +ANTON + +It was only this I wished to tell you, mother: I know that you have +made Louise feel sad. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_with anxiety_) + +Has she then told you?-- + +ANTON + +She has told me nothing; but don’t you think I know her voice? And +there was a false note vibrating in it. Have you anything against her? +If you have--tell me. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_avoiding the question_) + +Why, I scarcely know her-- + +ANTON + +Then I can only think that you are worried on account of me. It doesn’t +seem to you that I ought to take the responsibility of founding a +family--I who have to stumble along and feel my way like a mole here in +this pitiful world. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +But, my dear boy, how can you say so! + +ANTON + +Oh, yes, _it is that_. What else could it be? But now I want to tell +you one thing. You who have your sight often think of us blind ones +as of feeble-minded beings. We know nothing, we are fit for nothing. +But that is where you are mistaken. We are just like other human +beings: we can think and dream, can love and hate just like others. You +know--sometimes when I stand before an audience, it seems to me as if I +were all alone. There is nobody whose soul or thoughts reach me; nobody +who can disturb me. I am like the fertile soil that is left to take +care of itself; there is an abundance of sunshine saved within me. That +is why I feel life so strongly--like something warm and fruitful within +me. And it is this feeling that gives me faith; that tells me I have a +future awaiting me in spite of all. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Thank God for that, Anton! Thank God for that! + +ANTON + +But perhaps you mean to say that what Louise feels for me is nothing +but pity; that she will cease to care sooner or later. If that is what +you think, I want to tell you something--I want to tell you how we +first learned to know each other. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +No, you need not tell me that, Anton. + +ANTON + +But I want you to listen to me. You remember, no doubt, a few years +ago--I had graduated from the conservatory--had had the best of +teachers--and the time came for me when I had to get something to do. +But nobody wished to have anything to do with a blind musician--who +could not see. So I had to take a position out of town-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +In the café, yes. + +ANTON + +Should we, perhaps, rather say in the barroom. Or in a place still +worse. All around me nothing but rough, vulgar, and drunken talk of +wanton women and beasts of men. And ’midst all this noise and the smell +of liquor I had to sit and play music that was disgusting to me--only +for the alms that they cared to throw to me. For it was for alms that +I played. Right above the place where I sat there was nailed a sign: +“Don’t forget the blind musician!”-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +My poor boy! My poor, poor boy!-- + +ANTON + +It was then that I wrote to you; I had to have a human being to whom I +could open my heart. It was for that reason I didn’t or couldn’t spare +your feelings. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Nobody could be nearer to you than your mother. + +ANTON + +Do you remember how you answered me? That I should hope and trust that +I might come to the place where all eyes are opened and all tears are +dried. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +I had fought with God over you. But I thought He wouldn’t listen to my +prayers--not as I wished Him to do. It was then I began to think there +was only one consolation. + +ANTON (_nodding_) + +Death--yes. What else could there have been? Death is charitable, if +one will only wait for it. But to wait--that was what seemed so hard to +me-- + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +For God’s sake, Anton. + +ANTON + +Don’t take it so to heart, mother; it is over now--long ago. But that +evening, on going home, I searched my way down to the river. Of what +importance in life could a poor blind musician ever be? And the Lord +would not have turned me away if I had come a little too early to Him, +I don’t believe. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +God have mercy! And I could be at rest here at home. Why didn’t I know, +why couldn’t I have thought, that you were so much in need! + +ANTON + +Probably because nothing happened; because nothing was meant to happen. +It is strange to think how often a mere chance can change a whole life. +Chance would have it that evening that I went astray and passed through +streets where I had never been before. I had fumbled around about an +hour’s time when I felt somebody touch my hand, and a woman’s voice +asked whether I had trouble in finding my way. I have become used to +judging people by their voices, and I said to myself at once: “Here is +one who is also in despair and who, like you, is wishing for a river, +too.” And I opened my heart to her. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +And that woman--that--was-- + +ANTON + +That was Louise--yes. And I wasn’t mistaken in her. She had gone +through many things; as much as I had. But she didn’t look for the +river any more. She had got over that. Well, I went home with her to +her little room. She lived in a hall-room. In the daytime she went out +sewing. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +You went home with her--in the middle of the night! + +ANTON (_with a smile_) + +Yes, mother. I am not used to finding much difference between day and +night. To me it is all one color. And she dared not let me go. Who +knows--perhaps I might have found the river, anyhow, then. So she sat +up all night and talked to me about life and its joys. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Life and its joys. And I-- + +ANTON + +Yes, mother--that you have given to me. Well, that was not all she did. +She didn’t only _speak_ to me. She gave me a place to sleep and she +gave me food to eat, so that I shouldn’t have to play any more in the +barroom. For fourteen days she shared every penny of her wages with +me. And in the afternoon, when she came home from her work, we went +out together to look for a position for me. She advertised and put in +applications for me, and--thank God! at last I got a position as an +organist. Then came the stipend and then the rest. And during all my +struggles she remained by my side. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_tenderly_) + +She has been much to you, Anton. + +ANTON + +She has been everything to me, mother, everything. Should anybody take +her away from me, they’ll take my life at the same time. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_frightened, agonized_) + +Anton--Oh, no-- + +ANTON + +Yes, for I would believe God had regretted that He did not let me go +into the river that night, after all. (_He rises and gropes his way_.) +It’s strange--it seems to me as if the room suddenly had become so +different. It is just as if I wasn’t at home here any more. Isn’t that +Louise’s steps I hear above me now? + + +SCENE X + +(_Hammelev comes from the right with a little package_.) + +HAMMELEV + +Louise asked me to give you her regards, and say-- + +ANTON (_full of anxiety_) + +Asked you to--to say--what? + +HAMMELEV (_gives him the package_) + +And she asked me to give you this. + +ANTON (_takes it_) + +Thanks--it is the rings. I have bought rings for both of us. Now I must +give it to her at once. I hadn’t intended to do it otherwise until +to-night. But why doesn’t she come? + +HAMMELEV + +She is gone to the station. + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_screams_) + +To the station? + +HAMMELEV (_somewhat surprised_) + +Yes--she thought it would be better to--she wanted to spare Anton from +saying farewell. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Anton, Anton! She must not go! Oh, God! It is I--it is I who +have--she’ll never come back--no, never. (_She wants to run out_.) + +ANTON (_puts himself intuitively in her way_) + +Let me go, mother. I’ll stop her. She wouldn’t heed your voice, I fear. +(_Goes to the door, but turns on the threshold_.) For I suppose you +want us to come back--don’t you? + +MRS. HAMMELEV (_as if in a trance_) + +Yes--yes--and never again--never again-- + +(_Anton goes out, left. Mrs. Hammelev has sunk down on a chair. It is +as if something had suddenly broken within her, for she bursts into +tears_.) + +HAMMELEV (_goes over to her; he pats her head and hair_) + +There--there, mother dear. You loved him too much. Mothers are the only +ones who can love so much that they can kill with love. (_He goes to +the window and looks out_.) He runs so safely there on the road, as if +he still had his sight. Now he stops and calls her. She turns. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Are they coming back? + +HAMMELEV + +Of course they are coming. Now they are speaking to each other. Of +course they are coming. + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Not to me. I have lost Anton for ever. + +HAMMELEV (_doesn’t hear her_) + +So that was the trip to the city. (_Goes to open the door_.) Come right +in, please. (_Anton and Louise enter_.) Well, Louise--I may call you +Louise, may I not? You came to stay, anyhow. + +ANTON (_quietly_) + +Louise will stay--yes. Mother will ask her--won’t you, mother? + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +Yes, my boy. Now I beg her to stay. And, what’s more--that she will +always remain with you. + +ANTON (_feeling his way_) + +Where are you, mother? (_He turns intuitively to Louise and takes hold +of her._) There--what? No, it’s you, Louise, isn’t it? (_He pulls her +close to himself and is entirely taken up with her. Mrs. Hammelev, +who had stretched out her arms toward him, lets them sink with an +expression of grief on her face_.) + +HAMMELEV (_seeing it_) + +Yes, mother dear, now you must be content with me. (_Puts his arms +around her waist_.) + +MRS. HAMMELEV + +He finds me no longer. We drift from each other in the darkness. How +much evil we can do where we wish to do only good! + +HAMMELEV + +It is we who have been blind, mother dear. It is we who cannot see.... + + +CURTAIN + + + + + _Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies_ + + Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays + + Edited by + FRANK SHAY and PIERRE LOVING + + +This volume contains FIFTY REPRESENTATIVE ONE-ACT PLAYS of the MODERN +THEATER, chosen from the dramatic works of contemporary writers all +over the world and is the second volume in the _Stewart Kidd Dramatic +Anthologies_, the first being European Theories of the Drama, by +Barrett H. Clark, which has been so enthusiastically received. + +The editors have scrupulously sifted countless plays and have selected +the best available in English. One-half the plays have never before +been published in book form; thirty-one are no longer available in any +other edition. + +The work satisfies a long-felt want for a handy collection of the +choicest plays produced by the art theaters all over the world. It is +a complete repertory for a little theater, a volume for the study of +the modern drama, a representative collection of the world’s best short +plays. + + +CONTENTS + +AUSTRIA + + Schnitzler (Arthur)--Literature + +BELGIUM + + Maeterlinck (Maurice)--The Intruder + +BOLIVIA + + More (Federico)--Interlude + +DENMARK + + Wied (Gustave)--Autumn Fires + +FRANCE + + Ancey (George)--M. Lamblin + + Porto-Riche (Georges)--Francoise’s Luck + +GERMANY + + Ettinger (Karl)--Altruism + + von Hofmannsthal (Hugo)--Madonna Dianora + + Wedekind (Frank)--The Tenor + +GREAT BRITAIN + + Bennett (Arnold)--A Good Woman + + Calderon (George)--The Little Stone House + + Cannan (Gilbert)--Mary’s Wedding + + Dowson (Ernest)--The Pierrot of the Minute + + Ellis (Mrs. Havelock)--The Subjection of Kezia + + Hankin (St. John)--The Constant Lover + +INDIA + + Mukerji (Dhan Gopal)--The Judgment of Indra + +IRELAND + + Gregory (Lady)--The Workhouse Ward + +HOLLAND + + Speenhoff (J. H.)--Louise + +HUNGARY + + Biro (Lajos)--The Grandmother + +ITALY + + Giacosa (Giuseppe)--The Rights of the Soul + +RUSSIA + + Andreyev (Leonid)--Love of One’s Neighbor + + Tchekoff (Anton)--The Boor + +SPAIN + + Benavente (Jacinto)--His Widow’s Husband + + Quintero (Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez-)--A Sunny Morning + +SWEDEN + + Strindberg (August)--The Creditor + +UNITED STATES + + Beach (Lewis)--Brothers + + Cowan (Sada)--In the Morgue + + Crocker (Bosworth)--The Baby Carriage + + Cronyn (George W.)--A Death in Fever Flat + + Davies (Mary Carolyn)--The Slave with Two Faces + + Day (Frederick L.)--The Slump + + Flanner (Hildegard)--Mansions + + Glaspell (Susan)--Trifles + + Gerstenberg (Alice)--The Pot Boiler + + Helburn (Theresa)--Enter the Hero + + Hudson (Holland)--The Shepherd in the Distance + + Kemp (Harry)--Boccaccio’s Untold Tale + + Langner (Lawrence)--Another Way Out + + MacMillan (Mary)--The Shadowed Star + + Millay (Edna St. Vincent)--Aria da Capo + + Moeller (Philip)--Helena’s Husband + + O’Neill (Eugene)--Ile + + Stevens (Thomas Wood)--The Nursery Maid of Heaven + + Stevens (Wallace)--Three Travelers Watch a Sunrise + + Tompkins (Frank G.)--Sham + + Walker (Stuart)--The Medicine Show + + Wellman (Rita)--For All Time + + Wilde (Percival)--The Finger of God + +YIDDISH + + Asch (Sholom)--Night + + Pinski (David)--Forgotten Souls + + + _Large 8vo, 585 pages. Net, $5.00_ + + + _Send for Complete Dramatic Catalogue_ + + + STEWART KIDD COMPANY + PUBLISHERS, CINCINNATI, U. S. A. + + + + + _Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies_ + + TWENTY CONTEMPORARY ONE-ACT PLAYS + + AMERICAN + + _Edited by_ FRANK SHAY + + +This volume represents a careful and intelligent selection of the best +One-act Plays written by Americans and produced by the Little Theatres +in America during the season of 1921. They are representative of the +best work of writers in this field and show the high level to which the +art theatre has risen in America. + +The editor has brought to his task a love of the theatre and a +knowledge of what is best through long association with the leading +producing groups. + +The volume contains the repertoires of the leading Little Theatres, +together with bibliographies of published plays and books on the +theatre issued since January, 1920. + +Aside from its individual importance, the volume, together with =Fifty +Contemporary One-Act Plays=, will make up the most important collection +of short plays published. + + + _In the Book are_ + _the following Plays_ _by_ _the following Authors_ + + Mirage George M. P. Baird + Napoleon’s Barber Arthur Cæsar + Goat Alley Ernest Howard Culbertson + Sweet and Twenty Floyd Dell + Tickless Time Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook + The Hero of Santa Maria Kenneth Sawyer Goodman and Ben Hecht + All Gummed Up Harry Wagstaff Gribble + Thompson’s Luck Harry Greenwood Grover + Fata Deorum Carl W. Guske + Pearl of Dawn Holland Hudson + Finders-Keepers George Kelly + Solomon’s Song Harry Kemp + Matinata Lawrence Langner + The Conflict Clarice Vallette McCauley + Two Slatterns and a King Edna St. Vincent Millay + Thursday Evening Christopher Morley + The Dreamy Kid Eugene O’Neill + Forbidden Fruit George J. Smith + Jezebel Dorothy Stockbridge + Sir David Wears a Crown Stuart Walker + + _12mo. Silk Cloth $3.75_ + _¾ Turkey Morocco $10.00_ + + + _Send for Complete Dramatic Catalogue_ + STEWART KIDD COMPANY + PUBLISHERS, CINCINNATI, U. S. A. + + + + +Transcriber’s Note: + +- Text that was in bold is enclosed by equals signs (=bold=). + +- Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). + +- Text that was in small caps is in all caps (SMALL CAPS). + +- Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. + +- Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. + +- Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following +changes: + + Page 8: “of Luther and Melanchton” to “of Luther and Melanchthon” + Page 45: “MRS. HAMMERLEV (tenderly)” to “MRS. HAMMELEV (tenderly)” +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79218 *** diff --git a/79218-h/79218-h.htm b/79218-h/79218-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0af5f85 --- /dev/null +++ b/79218-h/79218-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2626 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Eyes That Cannot See | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + margin-left: 1em; +} + +p.charname { margin-left: 0; } + +p.noindent { margin-left: 0; } + +p.indent { text-indent: 1em; } + +.x-ebookmaker p:not([class]) { + margin-left: 1em + } + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 0.25em; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center; margin-left: 0; } + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.gesperrt +{ + letter-spacing: 0.2em; + margin-right: -0.2em; +} + +em.gesperrt +{ + font-style: normal; +} + +figcaption {font-weight: bold;} +figcaption p {margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: .2em; text-align: inherit;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Poetry */ +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ +/* .poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} */ +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} + +.larger { + font-size: larger; + } + +.smaller { + font-size: smaller; + } + +.adheader1 { font-size: 2em; text-align: center; margin-left: 0; } + +.adheader2 { font-size: 1.5em; text-align: center; margin-left: 0; } + +.float-right { float: right; text-indent: 0; padding-left: 1em; position: relative; right: 150px; } +.float-left { float: left; text-indent: 0; padding-right: 1em; position: relative; left: 260px; } +.x-ebookmaker .float-right { float: right; } +.x-ebookmaker .float-left { float: left; } +.height { height: 4em; text-indent: 0; } +.height p { text-align: left; } + +.illowp45 { + width: 45% + } +.x-ebookmaker .illowp45 { + width: 100% + } + + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowp15 {width: 15%;} + +.signature { margin-left: 725px; } + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +ins { + text-decoration: none + } + +.tnote { + border: dashed 1px; + font-size: smaller; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + padding-bottom: 0.5em; + padding-top: 0.5em; + padding-left: 0.5em; + padding-right: 0.5em + } + +.x-ebookmaker .tnote { + margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 + } +p .tnote { + text-indent: 0 + } + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79218 ***</div> + + +<figure class="figcenter illowp45" style="max-width:100.0em;" id="cover"> +<img alt="" class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" id="img_images_cover.jpg"> +</figure> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<p class="adheader2">STEWART KIDD MODERN PLAYS</p> +<p class="center">Edited by Frank Shay</p> + +<h1>EYES THAT CANNOT SEE +</h1> +<br><br> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a><a id="Page_3"></a>[Pg 3]</span></p> + +<p class="center larger"><span class="smcap">Eyes That Cannot See</span></p> + +<p class="center">A PLAY IN ONE ACT</p> + +<br><br> +<p class="center">By</p> +<p class="center">ALBERT GNUDTZMANN</p> +<br><br> +<p class="center">Translated from the Danish by Arvid Paulson</p> +<br><br> +<figure class="figcenter illowp15" id="i_title" style="max-width: 33.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_title.jpg" alt=""> +</figure> +<br><br> +<p class="center">CINCINNATI</p> +<p class="center larger">STEWART KIDD COMPANY</p> +<p class="center">PUBLISHERS</p> + +<br><br> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span></p> + +<p class="center smaller">COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY</p> +<p class="center">STEWART KIDD COMPANY</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp15" id="i_publisher" style="max-width: 23.6875em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_publisher.jpg" alt=""> +</figure> + +<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved</i></p> + +<p class="center smaller">EYES THAT CANNOT SEE is fully protected by copyright +and no performance may be given without the consent of the translator, +Mr. Arvid Paulson, who may be addressed in care of the +publishers.</p> +<br><br> +<p class="center smaller">Printed in the United States of America</p> +<p class="center smaller"><span class="smcap">The Caxton Press</span></p> +<br><br> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> + +<p class="center">TO</p> + +<p class="center">THE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="larger">RICHARD MANSFIELD</span> <span class="allsmcap">2ND</span>,</p> + +<p class="center">WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY,</p> +<p class="center">I DEDICATE THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THIS PLAY.</p> + +<p class="signature"> + —A. P. +</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a><a id="Page_7"></a>[Pg 7]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="DRAMATIS_PERSONAE"> + DRAMATIS PERSONÆ + </h2> +</div> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Hammelev</span>, <i>a public school teacher</i><br></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Hammelev</span>, <i>his wife</i><br></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Anton</span>, <i>their son</i><br></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Louise Thorsen</span><br></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Kirsten</span></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="indent">The action of the play takes place in the living +quarters of the Hammelevs in a Danish country school.</p> + +<p class="indent">Produced at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen for +the first time on the tenth of September, 1903.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_STAGE"> + THE STAGE + </h2> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">A living-room at the Hammelevs’, with low ceiling +and antique furniture. In the background +two windows, through which is seen a garden. +Between the windows an old-fashioned linen +closet. By the windows, on the right, a platform +with a sewing-table. A bird-cage with a +canary bird stands on the window-sill; white +curtains; a number of flower pots. Doors on +each side of the stage. To the right a big chiffonier. +Nearer the footlights a smoking-table, +above which, on the wall, hangs a pipe-rack with +pipes. On the left a sofa; in front of it stands a +table with a rocking-chair and a couple of other +chairs. Above the sofa hangs a mirror; on each +side of the mirror portraits of Luther and <ins title="Original has 'Melanchton'" id="Melanchthon">Melanchthon</ins>; +underneath these, photographs of +members of the family. The room has the stamp +of cozy homeliness—sunshine outside—the sun +rays pour into the room in broad streams +through the windows.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="EYES_THAT_CANNOT_SEE"> + EYES THAT CANNOT SEE + </h2> +</div> +<br><br> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene I</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(<i>Mrs. Hammelev and Kirsten. They are drinking +coffee at the centre table, which is covered with a +small tablecloth</i>.)</p> +</div> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Yes, Lavst’s promised. The carriage will be +there, I’m sure. It’s all been arranged.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Thank you very much, Kirsten. And remember +now, it is the 8.20 train.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Oh, yes, yes—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>eagerly</i>)</p> + +<p>And the carriage should be at the station in +plenty of time. I should say eight o’clock at +the latest. So it must leave here at seven.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Oh, it don’t take no more than a half hour to +get there.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>I am always so afraid that something may +happen. And if we should come late! You +must remember, Kirsten, that he is quite helpless. +And in a railroad station, especially, in +the midst of people who think only of themselves.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Yes—I wonder sometimes how he can travel +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>like that, all alone, without gettin’ into trouble, +the poor boy! How helpless a man is without +a pair of eyes to see with!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Everything is in God’s power, Kirsten. And +then you must know that by this time he has become +accustomed to helping himself. It is now +seven years since the misfortune came upon him.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Heavens! Is it really? Yes, time flies—indeed +it does! I remember very well the time when +you and Mr. Hammelev took him to the +doctor, and you was told that poor Anton was +goin’ to lose his eyesight. Both me and Furst +felt awful sorry over it.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>painfully touched</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes, Kirsten, but—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span> (<i>without interruption</i>)</p> + +<p>It was an awful and terrible thing to think of! +Such a nice-lookin’ boy as he was! He had +that curly hair of his that suited him so fine—and +them beautiful eyes of his—oh, what beautiful +eyes he had, anyhow! Poor Anton! Yes, +we used to always call him “poor little Anton”, +’cause he wasn’t very strong. But he was a +pretty big lad at that time. Wasn’t he just +goin’ to graduate? Let’s see—he graduated +from high school when—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Twice—two years in succession he failed, and +he used to be the first one in his class, and +then—(<i>Pauses</i>.) But, God be praised, he has +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>amounted to something in spite of all. He +has turned out to be a very clever boy—although +he took up a different profession than we had +wanted him to.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Yes, both Mr. Hammelev and you wanted him +to study to be a minister, didn’t you? And +what’s a musician! And <i>you</i> was a minister’s +daughter!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Musician! But, Kirsten, my son is not an +ordinary musician. He is an artist—yes—you +know what that means, don’t you, Kirsten? +He plays in big halls where people gather just +to hear music. Have I never read to you +what has been said of him in the newspapers?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Yes, thanks, and I must say it was a real +pleasure and comfort for me to hear, ’specially +when it’s a person you have no right to expect +too much from; that Fate has struck like him +and who must bend to the will of our Lord, +as long as it’s got to be. But it’s awful sad to +think that His choice should fall on poor Anton. +I always thought, when I saw him, that he +was made to live in sunshine and light all the +time. And to think that he should have to +wander in darkness!—as it is written in the +Bible.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>half to herself</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes, Kirsten, there was a time when I thought +as you do. Many a night I have lain awake, +struggling with God for my child. I wouldn’t +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>let him go until He blessed me. And when I +saw that Anton’s sight, with every day that +passed, grew dimmer and dimmer, there was a +moment when I turned against Him, and in +my foolishness wanted Him to account for His +acts. At times I almost thought it would be +best if He would take the child back to Him.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span> (<i>with sincerity</i>)</p> + +<p>Perhaps it would have been best.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>No, Kirsten, it wouldn’t. And I shall never +forgive myself that I once in a dark moment +let Anton understand that I did think so. +Now it has dawned upon me that God nevertheless +has heard my prayers. He has given +my son new light; but He has lighted it in the +depth of his soul. <i>There</i> grow flowers and +sparkle springs as pure as neither you nor I +have imagination to dream of, Kirsten. (<i>Noise +outside of voices of children, mingled with the +clatter of their wooden shoes.</i>) I suppose school +is over.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span> (<i>rising from her chair</i>)</p> + +<p>Good heavens! Is it that late? Oh, I got to +be goin’!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Oh, no. Stay a while, Kirsten. Mr. Hammelev +will be in soon. We’ll have another cup of +coffee.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p> +<br><br> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene II</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(<i>Hammelev enters from the left. An elderly man +with a kindly, somewhat tired expression on his +face</i>.)</p> +</div> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Kirsten is here, pa!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>So I see, mother, I see. (<i>Goes to Kirsten and +shakes hands with her</i>.) How do you do, Kirsten? +I hear that your husband will drive to the +station for us to-night. I want to thank you +for your kindness.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Oh, that’s nothin’ to thank us for, Mr. Hammelev. +It ain’t the season of the year when +we use our horses much.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>No, oh no—now that you’ve got the hay in, I +guess you don’t. But it isn’t the first time we +have had reason to thank you and your husband. +Since we haven’t any horse and carriage, +we ought to be thankful that we have +such kind and helpful neighbors. (<i>Goes to the +pipe-rack, takes down a pipe, and fills it with +tobacco</i>.) Well, Kirsten, I suppose you know +what a great day it was in school to-day?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Oh, yes, I can imagine, Mr. Hammelev. It is +in a way a day of rejoicin’—we can’t say +nothin’ else. The Lord has dealt severe with +you, so we are glad when He helps you along a +little and makes it easier for you.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>who has been serving the coffee, +interrupting</i>)</p> + +<p>You’ll take a cup of coffee, too, won’t you, pa?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>who has lighted his pipe</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes, thanks; we can always drink a little +coffee. (<i>Sits, smokes, and drinks his coffee</i>.) +Yes, you see the cross we have to bear, Kirsten—we +ought never to complain of that. (<i>Good-naturedly</i>.) +At your house you don’t complain, +anyhow, I don’t think. Do you, Kirsten?—You +haven’t anything to complain of.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span> (<i>knocks under the table, from superstition</i>)</p> + +<p>I’d better knock on wood before it’s too late.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes, do that, Kirsten. Well, I won’t say that +we have anything to complain of over here, +either. We get our daily bread. And now +this great joy when our son comes home. We +haven’t seen him for four years.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Is it as long as that?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>to herself</i>)</p> + +<p>Four long years!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes, it has always been worst for mother, of +course. You see, I have the school and the +church singing to think of. But she has to sit +alone here in this room day after day. Then, +of course, her thoughts go far, far off—we all +know how it is. I often say to mother: “Mother, +I have a hundred little children to take care of +every day.” That means a hundred little +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>hearts and a hundred little brains that I must +keep watch over. And so I say to mother, it +seems to me as if she ought to be able to keep +track of at least herself. But it is easy enough +to find fault. Sorrow is a weed that it is not +so easy to pull up by the roots.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Yes, if I’d had such a misfortune to think of, +I don’t know what I’d have done.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>But now mother will get her reward for all she +has gone through, poor mother. To-night he’ll +be here in this room, he whom she is always +thinking of. She hasn’t even slept during the +last half-dozen nights.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>smiling</i>)</p> + +<p>Now you are exaggerating again, pa!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Well, well—you haven’t had very much sleep. +A little with one eye is about all, if we should +sum it up. And there has been such a house-cleaning +and scrubbing and frying and baking, +as if the vicar himself was expected. The boy’s +room is fixed for him; it is just as it was when +he was at home last, excepting, of course, that +everything is newly washed and cleaned and +polished.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>But when he ain’t able to see it—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>No, he can’t see it. But the blind instinctively +feel what we others see. They can, for instance, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>enjoy a beautiful landscape. The color rays +work on their skin, you understand, Kirsten. +It is just as if they were taking a sort of bath +in all the beauty. And then, of course, they +have the sense of smell. Well, now—and there +are twelve new shirts and twelve pairs of socks +for him on his bed. Those he can get a great +deal of pleasure from. Would you like to see +them, Kirsten?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>somewhat impatiently</i>)</p> + +<p>Oh, that’s nothing—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes, Kirsten, just to make mother feel ashamed, +I’ll show you how diligent she has been. She +knows how to do these things. She has a linen +closet that would make many a woman envious.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Yes, we sure have to have clothes on our body.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes, Kirsten; but you and your husband no +doubt have more than we. Come along now; +I’ll show you what mother has made for our +boy.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span> (<i>puts away her coffee-cup, rises, shakes +hands with both</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes, all right. Well—thank you ever so +much for the coffee.</p> + +<p>(<i>All three go out, right. At the same moment +are seen, through the windows in the background, +Anton Hammelev and Louise Thorsen, approaching +by the roadway outside</i>.)</p> +<br><br> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene III</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(<i>Anton Hammelev and Louise Thorsen enter from +the left. Anton is a young man in his twenties. +He has the appearance of an artist—face smooth-shaven +and hair rather long. In spite of his +blindness he moves about in the room without any +apparent difficulty. Louise is in her thirties—a +weary and somewhat faded and passée woman. +It is apparent that she is trying to improve her +appearance with the use of powder and paint. +She is quite well dressed. She gives the impression +of being of an amiable though timid disposition, +and she has a sad look in her eyes</i>.)</p> +</div> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>merrily</i>)</p> + +<p>You never thought, Louise, that <i>I</i> should ever +lead <i>you</i>. Did you notice how well I knew the +way? And I know where every piece of furniture +stands in this room. (<i>Points</i>.) There +stands mother’s sewing-table—and there are +father’s pipes. Am I not right? You may +ask me about every little thing if you wish. +I can tell you where every picture hangs on +the wall. Do you want to try?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>pleadingly</i>)</p> + +<p>No, Anton, not now.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Why not? You haven’t lost your courage, +have you?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>We shouldn’t have done this, I think. If you +had come alone, you could have explained to +your parents much better.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>somewhat impatiently</i>)</p> + +<p>If I could ever get you to understand why I +have arranged it as I have! What do you +think my parents are, anyhow? Do you think +they’ll assault me? Assault a defenseless +woman—eh?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>No, of course not. But—I don’t know—when +I look about in this room it seems to me as if +I had entered it to steal something that doesn’t +belong to me.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Oh, is it that way? Listen now, Louise. Who +do you suppose knows the old folks best—you +or I?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>Why—you, of course, but—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Well, then let it be so. Now, don’t you think +it would be best to let me do as I think fit? +(<i>More quietly</i>.) I’ll tell you, Louise, my parents +have hitherto not been used to see anything +but a child in me! “Poor little Anton,” they +always used to call me, even after I had gone +through the conservatory. Four years ago, +when last I was at home, father couldn’t get +it into his head that I, like other men, had to +shave and get my hair cut. And I was at that +time a big chap—nineteen years old. (<i>In a +temper</i>.) Good God! Am I then but a child! +A helpless, unfortunate, poor being, and can I +never grow to be like other human beings!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>You who know so much—you are not as badly +off as that! And you know it, too, Anton.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Yes, God help me, Louise! When one is lacking +in one of the senses one is a child, an incomplete +specimen, three-fourths of a man or +hardly that. But let that be as it may! The +fact remains that neither father nor mother +in their wildest moments of imagination would +think that I might become engaged. And I +don’t think it would be of any use for me to +begin to explain how the whole thing has +happened. Even if I should describe you as +an angel of God, they would say I was the +most foolish being in the world. Just for that +very reason they ought to have the chance of +seeing for themselves.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>If only we hadn’t met, Anton! It would have +been so much better for you.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>What nonsense! When once they see you! +That’s why I wanted you to come with me and +surprise them.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>Oh, God! I only wish I was twenty miles from +here. I don’t even know what to say to them.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>You don’t need to say anything at all. I’ll talk +for you; you’ll see. I’ll say: “Look here, father +and mother, this is Louise. She is the woman +to whom I owe everything. If it hadn’t been +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>for her I wouldn’t be a human being with a +cheery outlook on life—I wouldn’t care to live. +I myself have never seen her, but I know so +well how she looks. She is fair as the day, +and she has a dimple in either cheek—they are +just like a couple of little rills where the sunbeams +play hide-and-seek. She has also a little +bent-up nose—quite a resolute little nose—that +always points in the right direction, just +like a compass needle. But what is most beautiful +about her are her eyes; they are so deep, +and yet so clear; one feels so sure there is something +beyond their depth—but one can’t see it. +And the other little things about her—can’t +you see for yourself how fine and nice and good +she is?”</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>pained</i>)</p> + +<p>Oh, Anton, but I don’t look like that!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Yes, that is how you do look. I know it. +(<i>Takes hold of both her hands</i>.) And yet I +can’t show them your warm, faithful heart; +they’ll have to learn to know that little by +little.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>If you would only not make so much of me, +Anton! If one of us has anything to be grateful +for, it is I. And you know I haven’t hidden +anything from you.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>drops her hands; seriously</i>)</p> + +<p>You had nothing to hide, Louise. I know you +have had a hard time. But pure metal can’t +be spoiled, and you have come out of it all +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>unstained—with your beautiful eyes and your +good heart. Perhaps you have cried a great +deal. Perhaps others can see the traces in +your face—if so, it is an advantage to me to +be blind. (<i>Listens</i>.) But listen! I can hear +the old folks upstairs. I think, perhaps it +would be best, if you went out for a second; +you need only go outside till I call you. You +see—I think I ought to be alone with them the +very first moments.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>close to him; entreating him</i>)</p> + +<p>Anton—don’t you want me to leave you now? +Shan’t I—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>impatiently</i>)</p> + +<p>You must do as I say. Be a sensible girl—don’t +be hysterical. Now go, please.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>going out to the left</i>)</p> + +<p>I’ll do as you wish me to. But if you regret it, +remember I told you you shouldn’t do it.</p> + +<p>(<i>Anton stands for a moment listening to the +steps of his parents overhead. Then he hides +himself behind the door to the right, which opens +at the same moment</i>.)</p> + +<br><br> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene IV</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(<i>Kirsten, Mrs. Hammelev, and Hammelev enter +from the right</i>.)</p> +</div> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Yes, Lavst will be there in plenty of time to-night, +I promise.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Thank you, Kirsten. You understand, we are +a little nervous. But what is—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>coming forward with open arms</i>)</p> + +<p>Mother!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>overwhelmed; sobbing</i>)</p> + +<p>Anton! (<i>She throws herself on his bosom and +kisses him passionately.</i>) Oh, Anton, Anton—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>who, in his excitement, has taken the +pipe from his mouth</i>)</p> + +<p>But, Anton, dear—we didn’t expect you until +to-night!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Yes, but “poor little Anton” had a notion to +surprise you. So we took—so I took an earlier +train. (<i>He feels with one hand in the air, while +holding his mother tightly pressed to his bosom +with the other.</i>) How do you do, father!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>pressing his hand</i>)</p> + +<p>How are you, dear boy?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Well, I guess I ought to say how do you do, +too. I am Kirsten, Lavst’s wife.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>lets go his mother’s hand and presses +Kirsten’s hand in a faltering manner</i>)</p> + +<p>How do you do, Kirsten. I suppose everything +is the same with you as ever?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Yes, thank the Lord!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>But how did you ever get out here, Anton? +Didn’t anybody come with you?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>somewhat embarrassed</i>)</p> + +<p>No—well—yes, you see I know the way. And—yes, +I’ll tell you—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Well, I don’t want to disturb you no longer, +and there’s no need of no carriage goin’ to the +station to-night, I guess.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>No, I don’t think so, Kirsten. But thank you +just the same for your willingness. Good-bye! +And give my regards to your husband!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span></p> + +<p>Good-bye! (<i>Shakes hands and goes out to the +right</i>.)</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Why don’t you say something, mother? Was +it too much of a surprise?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>moves her hand to her heart; +smiles</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes, it was a bit sudden—but now.... Oh, +Anton—when you are here, you know—don’t +you know.... And how well and happy you +look!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span> (<i>puts her head inside the door</i>)</p> + +<p>Excuse me. I just wanted to tell you there is +a strange lady standin’ outside here.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>slightly annoyed</i>)</p> + +<p>A strange lady! What does she want, I wonder? +Tell her to come in!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">KIRSTEN</span> (<i>calls</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes, you can come in, if you want to. (<i>She +goes out</i>.)</p> + +<br><br> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene V</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(<i>Louise comes from the left and remains standing +right, inside the door</i>.)</p> +</div> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>goes towards her</i>)</p> + +<p>You wish to speak with me?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>falteringly, embarrassed</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes—but I thought—perhaps I—ought not +to—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Why, of course you should. (<i>He feels his way +to her, takes her by the hand, and leads her out +into the room; the parents seem to be shocked</i>.) +I wanted to tell you first, but as it now has +happened differently than I had thought—here +is the woman who has helped me to find +the way out here to-day. And she has done +more than that: she has led me through the +darkest moments of my life.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>who, in a glance, has taken in +Louise; in a voice of anxiety</i>)</p> + +<p>Anton—what does this mean?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>It means, father and mother, that in the last +two years she and I have been one. And we +will never separate from each other.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>with strained kindliness</i>)</p> + +<p>So—so you are engaged, poor little Anton? +You haven’t written and told us anything +about it.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>I didn’t want you to worry over me—to know +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>that I—helpless as I was—had bound myself +to another human being. I wanted you to +<i>see</i> her first. (<i>Moved</i>.) For I knew that in +the same moment that you saw her, you’d +understand it is for our mutual happiness. +Isn’t that true when she has chosen to love +me? As fine and beautiful as she is! You must +understand how much she thinks of me. But +you needn’t fear for her sake, I feel sure. I can +make her happy; and for her it is happiness +to be able to give of her full, rich heart—to +give to one who longs with all his soul for sun +and light—as I do.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>I think, if we should speak of the richness of +heart, that few have as much to give away as +you have, Anton.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>No, no! don’t compare me with her. Remember—for +her the whole world lies open; she +need but stretch out her arms. But I—I have +nothing to give up, nothing to offer. And +there is nobody who asks anything from me, +anyhow. Nature has now once for all—it +seems to me—given me the right to be a bit +selfish....</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>We had thought that—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Yes, father, I might have known that this +would come as a great surprise to you. And I +know that before long you will love Louise as +much as I myself do.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Louise—so that’s her name—your.... And +her last name, if I may ask?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>Thorsen.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Louise Thorsen—oh, yes.... (<i>Heartily</i>.) Well, +well, my dear Anton—and you also, my dear—Louise +Thorsen, I suppose I ought to wish +you all sorts of health and happiness.</p> + +<p>(<i>Approaches Anton with extended hand</i>.)</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>goes between them</i>)</p> + +<p>Hammelev—I think you first ought to let us +speak with the young lady. (<i>With an emotion +that she can hardly conceal</i>.) May I only say +this: Anton knows that I, too, wish him +happiness—that nobody could wish him more +happiness than I—but it is not more than right +that I learn to know her a little better before I—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>quietly</i>)</p> + +<p>Of course you may, mother.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>You must understand me rightly, Anton. +Father and I have been waiting for months +for the happy day when you would come home. +We spoke of it when we sat here the other +evening—we thought of when you would step +inside the door—we thought of how it would +be with all of us together, the three of us. +Now the whole thing will have to be changed. +I can’t quite reconcile myself to it at once. +Therefore, I want to have a chance to learn to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>know her first—she, whom you have chosen +for yourself.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Yes, mother, since you look at it that way—I +think myself it is the best way. For I know +very well that when you have talked with her +ten minutes you’ll love her as if you had known +her for many years. Father and I will take a +walk in the garden in the meantime.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Anton ought to go up to his room, too. But +you ought to show him that yourself, mother.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>nervously</i>)</p> + +<p>Do as you like. I—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>merrily</i>)</p> + +<p>Let’s go out in the garden. I am longing to +find out how much the big pear tree has grown +that I planted out there myself when I still +had my sight. But I tell you this, mother: +you mustn’t make Louise regret that she cares +for me, poor mole. For if I lose her, I’ll never +find my way any more in life. (<i>Hammelev and +Anton go out</i>.)</p> + +<br><br> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene VI</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Now we’ll have a talk, we two—it is necessary. +You may take off your things—the large hat—the +coat. (<i>Louise takes her coat and hat off and +puts them away. She is dressed in a plain, +simple dress</i>.) Yes—I like you so much better +without those things on. Now sit down here +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>at the table—right here in front of me. (<i>They +both of them sit down</i>.) What I am going to +tell you now may hurt you. But I trust you +understand that nobody could love Anton any +more than his mother. Therefore I want to +speak openly to you.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>bows down her head</i>)</p> + +<p>I suppose you want me to call it off with him.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>I had meant to ask you whether you yourself +think that you are the kind of wife he ought +to have. I don’t know you, of course. But I +know him, and I know that he deserves to have +a good woman and a woman who is pure. +Can you stand before the face of God and say +that you are that? You need not answer me. +It is God who awaits your answer.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>slowly</i>)</p> + +<p>I know very well I haven’t always been what I +should have been.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>mildly</i>)</p> + +<p>None of us have. But you must let your own +conscience decide whether you can stand with +raised head as my son’s bride. If you can not, +I beg of you to give him up. Yes, in such a +case you <i>must</i>. Could you expect me to ask +anything else of you?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>rocking back and forth in great agony</i>)</p> + +<p>I have been so fond of Anton.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes, poor girl! You mustn’t think I am so +hard-hearted that I don’t feel sorry for you. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>But life puts its mark on each one of us. And +you have received yours. I saw it on you at +once.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>I have often regretted that I gave Anton my +promise. I am sorry for his sake. I have often +thought that perhaps it would dawn on him +some day that I wasn’t fit for him. And I +promised myself solemnly—if such a day should +come—he should be free from me at once.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Perhaps—if you had enough strength left. +But what about all the years you had taken +away from him in the meantime?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>I felt that way because he cared for me and +wanted to have me near him.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>But you have no right to think anything like +that. We have no right to masquerade, to +pretend we are what we are not. And you +must remember that my son can’t form an +opinion for himself of human beings in the +same way that we can.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>bravely</i>)</p> + +<p>You mustn’t think, Mrs. Hammelev, that I +have hidden anything from Anton.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Hidden! To leave things untold is the same +as to hide.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>I have told him everything that I have been—that +I was once—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>sharply</i>)</p> + +<p>A fallen woman!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>bending herself down in silence, as if +being struck</i>)</p> + +<p>That is a word which is not used by oneself +about oneself. (<i>With strong emotion</i>.) Yet on +the very first day we met I told him I should +bring shame and sorrow to him. I told him I +had done things that I couldn’t even tell him +about, and that I wasn’t worthy of walking by +his side in the street.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>You did tell him that?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>As true as there is a God! I have told him +everything. Oh, but he—he only smiled. He +understood so well, he said, that I had gone +through so many things. But when a woman +had the strength to rise again, it tended to +prove that she had the real stuff in her—that’s +what he said. Then it seemed to him also as +if it, in a way, was a sort of counter-balance +to his being such a wretched human being. +In a way, you understand. For we each had +our own misfortune to bear.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>passionately</i>)</p> + +<p>Don’t you dare to compare his misfortune with +yours! God knows my poor boy can not be +blamed for what has befallen him. Whereas +you have been a bad and weak woman. You +have brought your sin and shame upon yourself, +and you can not wash yourself clean of it +now. I am not judging you—don’t think that! +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>But how could you come out here with him? +How could you think that we, his parents, +could look on quietly and see him throw himself +away on a—a woman who—who was +unworthy of him?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>Oh, God! I didn’t think so. I didn’t think so. +I begged him again and again to go alone. +But he wouldn’t listen to me; he wasn’t satisfied +until I promised to go with him. And he +kept on saying: “When they only see how +much you are to me, they will have to like you +as much as I do.” And then—then—I don’t +know—then there were moments when I hoped +myself it would be as he hoped it would.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>You ought to have known that, in spite of +telling him about your life, you are still deceiving +him; that everybody else can see with +their eyes what he can’t! You also have a bad +conscience. It is for that reason you have tried +to fix yourself up. But can’t you understand +that you are thus holding up my poor little +boy as a target for fun-making and mockery +and pity?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>struggling with her tears</i>)</p> + +<p>He told me to fix myself up so that you might +like me. I never thought—(<i>suddenly taking +hold of Mrs. Hammelev’s hand</i>.) You must believe +me! I did it all with the best of intentions.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>I readily believe that. But if you really loved +Anton, I do not understand why you couldn’t +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>see that you would drag him down with you. +But there must be an end to this now. You +must give him up.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>in a low voice</i>)</p> + +<p>Give up! Yes, I suppose I must—I wouldn’t +think of standing between him and his parents. +Yes, I’ll—I’ll tell him we must part.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>No. You shan’t do that. You need but leave +quietly. I’ll speak myself to my son.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>You speak to him! Yes—if you could only get +him to listen. But I know him. He’ll want +me back, anyway. Do you know that I left +him once? No—how could you know that!—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>You were—you were going to—leave him!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>I wanted to give him back his liberty, as you +want me to give it to him now. I explained +my reasons for doing it in a letter to him—I +have learned the alphabet of the blind. Then +I moved to some relatives of mine that I had +never spoken to him of. The next day he had +found out where I was and came to me.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes, I realize that you have understood how +to make him attached to you. It will be a +blow to him—yes, I don’t reproach you.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>Reproach me!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>I tell you, I don’t blame you. And if I could +give you a helping hand, so that both you and +my son could become happy and contented, I +would do so. But it wouldn’t be right for me +to think of anything else but my son’s future. +Remember that I am so much older than you +are and have had so many more years’ experience +of life. And I have learned that one +cannot build a house on sand or dirt.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>rising</i>)</p> + +<p>Anton’s future shan’t be built on such a foundation. +It is better for us—it is better for him to +have the sorrow of losing me now. And this +time it shall be for ever. There are places where +he won’t be able to find me.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Are you going upstairs to talk to him now?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>nods</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes, that is one of the conditions I want to +make.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>You must believe me—I am doing this with +the best of intentions. It is only because I +love Anton so much.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>with a sorrowful nod</i>)</p> + +<p>I know. When one loves some one—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>takes Louise’s hand</i>)</p> + +<p>But one thing you must promise me. You +must be sensible. You mustn’t do anything +rash or foolish. Think of Anton. His life is +dark enough as it is.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>I have already taken into consideration everything. +Almost as long as I have known Anton +have I had on my mind to do what I am going +to do now. I shall go—far away—that’s all. +And then neither you nor Anton will have to +see me any more. (<i>She goes out to the right. +Mrs. Hammelev walks about the room restlessly +for a moment; then she seats herself at the table +in deep thought</i>.)</p> + +<br><br> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene VII</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>(<i>Hammelev enters from the right</i>.)</p></div> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Well, I showed Anton up to the room, mother. +I thought he’d long to see—to come up there. +If you had only seen how he went around and +felt everything! “Oh, God!” he exclaimed, +“there hangs the little rack.” And he felt all +the books. “There is my ‘Ivanhoe’—and there +is Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’; and there ‘The Last +of the Mohicans’!” He felt all of them by their +backs. But the shirts and the socks—you +could have saved yourself the trouble of making +them, Mother.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Why?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>A person can never get enough of such things, +of course, in a way. But he is well looked after +in this respect. She, his sweetheart, has sewn +and fixed and looked after everything for him. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>She works, by the way, in a dressmaking +establishment.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>with an expression of surprise</i>) +She works—she works at a dressmaker’s!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes—in one of those large department stores +in Copenhagen. She is in charge of the dressmaking +department. She makes good money, +too, he says.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>as before</i>)</p> + +<p>Good for her!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>And a good thing for him, too. How would +they have got along otherwise?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>I should hope Anton does not have to receive +anything from anybody.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>But he had to do so once. Do you know who +kept him alive? When he took lessons from +that professor, you know. We thought he was +living with that friend of his he wrote about.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Wasn’t he?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Well, yes—yes, he was, in a way. But his +friend most of the time wears skirts, and her +name is Louise Thorsen. And it was she who +took care of him the best way she could.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>passionately</i>)</p> + +<p>And stole his youth. For if they shared things +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>with each other, it must have meant that they +lived together.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes—and what is there to be said? She is a +woman and he a man. And, besides, he is an +artist. So we ought not to judge, I think.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>But we must be allowed to have our opinions. +We have only this one child. And he is in need +of parental love more than other children.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes, mother dear, but I think it has been a +great fortune for him to have found her. What +can <i>we</i> do for him, we two old cronies? We +shall soon have enough to do straightening out +our own affairs until we meet up there with +the great Doctor who opens all eyes. And +when we have gone, who would he then have +to cling to? No—a young woman like her is +what a man like him needs. And the old +doctor said that—thank God—should he get +children, there was no danger that his affliction +would be hereditary.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>But there are greater afflictions that <i>can</i> be +inherited.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes, I can see that you are not very pleased +with the whole thing. Before she took off her +coat it seemed to me, too, as if she looked a bit +too “cityfied.” But I think she really is a +good girl.</p> + +<br><br> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene VIII</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>(<i>Anton and Louise come from the right</i>.)</p></div> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>half outside</i>)</p> + +<p>No, Louise, you can’t go away like this. If I +can’t make you stay, mother must try to. +(<i>He pulls her, in spite of her opposition, into the +room</i>.) Have you ever heard anything like it? +Louise wants to go back to the city to-night.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>Yes, I must, Anton. I didn’t have the courage +to tell you before. But now—I feel that I +know your parents—and....</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Know—know—one can’t learn to know anybody +in an hour. Anyhow, it’s strange that +your employer wants you to return at once. +And just on this occasion! Before, you have +always been able to get off whenever you +wanted to be with me.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>I have asked to be free too often, dear Anton. +Now, you see, they must have grown tired of +it in the store. I want to tell you right now +that hereafter I am afraid we shall not be able +to be together as often as before.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Well, then we must get married. To think +that you should be the slave of the yardstick! +Now I’ll dictate a letter for you. I’ll say that +you cannot be back until the day after to-morrow +at the earliest.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>No, it won’t do, Anton—you must not ask me +to do it.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>But help me, then, father and mother. Can +you look on quietly and silently while your +daughter-in-law, who has hardly put her foot +inside your door, wants to disappear again?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>No, we want, of course, to—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>I think you had best let Louise go, Anton. +You mustn’t let her take the risk of losing her +position.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>And you say that, mother! But don’t you +know how I had looked forward to this day—when +you would see her—and learn to love +her and—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>You must be sensible, Anton. It might influence +your future if she—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>The future! Always the future, always to-morrow +and again to-morrow, and please wait +like a good child! But God have mercy, I am +of course, unreasonable. Go, Louise, go! +Hurry, that you will not be late for the train!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>sadly</i>)</p> + +<p>Are you angry with me now, Anton?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>softly</i>)</p> + +<p>With you—no! I am a bit angry, I suppose. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>But not with you. I want to tell you this, +however, that I will let you go only on one +condition: that you soon take a long vacation. +And then we’ll come out here again, both of us. +Will you promise me that, Louise?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>softly patting his hand</i>)</p> + +<p>There shall soon be happiness for both of us, +Anton.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Y-e-s—I couldn’t be angry with you now. So +go upstairs to my room. At the very top of +my traveling bag you’ll find a little package. +Bring it down to me. There is something in +it for you. It was my intention not to give it +to you until to-night. But as long as you +can’t wait—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>You shouldn’t spend your money on buying +presents for me.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>What! I don’t lose anything by it. I don’t +ruin myself by it, do I?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>But I would rather you didn’t give me anything.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Is it your intention to make me real angry—seriously +angry? I can’t understand what ails +you to-day. My parents have seen an engaged +couple before. Or do you think, perhaps, that +they, in their peasant simplicity, may take +offense?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span></p> + +<p>No, but—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Well, if you want to leave at once, then go. +And take all the time you want while you are +upstairs. Five minutes, if you like. There is +something I want to speak to mother about in +the meantime. Can you find your way to the +room?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>I’ll show Louise the way. At the same time +I’ll show her the room where she was to have +slept, if she had stayed over night.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Five minutes, Louise. But no longer. We +have yet a few hours till you have to leave for +the train. And we will be very greedy of +these two hours—we four.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">LOUISE</span> (<i>bends over him and kisses him</i>)</p> + +<p>Anton, dear, you know I have always wished +to do what was best for you. Whatever may +happen or whatever I may do, you must always +believe in me. Do you hear, Anton—always!</p> + +<p>(<i>Louise and Hammelev go out, right</i>.)</p> + +<br><br> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene IX</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>It was only this I wished to tell you, mother: +I know that you have made Louise feel sad.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>with anxiety</i>)</p> + +<p>Has she then told you?—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>She has told me nothing; but don’t you think +I know her voice? And there was a false note +vibrating in it. Have you anything against +her? If you have—tell me.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>avoiding the question</i>)</p> + +<p>Why, I scarcely know her—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Then I can only think that you are worried +on account of me. It doesn’t seem to you +that I ought to take the responsibility of founding +a family—I who have to stumble along and +feel my way like a mole here in this pitiful +world.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>But, my dear boy, how can you say so!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Oh, yes, <i>it is that</i>. What else could it be? But +now I want to tell you one thing. You who +have your sight often think of us blind ones +as of feeble-minded beings. We know nothing, +we are fit for nothing. But that is where you +are mistaken. We are just like other human +beings: we can think and dream, can love and +hate just like others. You know—sometimes +when I stand before an audience, it seems to +me as if I were all alone. There is nobody +whose soul or thoughts reach me; nobody who +can disturb me. I am like the fertile soil that +is left to take care of itself; there is an abundance +of sunshine saved within me. That is why I +feel life so strongly—like something warm and +fruitful within me. And it is this feeling that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>gives me faith; that tells me I have a future +awaiting me in spite of all.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Thank God for that, Anton! Thank God for +that!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>But perhaps you mean to say that what Louise +feels for me is nothing but pity; that she will +cease to care sooner or later. If that is what +you think, I want to tell you something—I want +to tell you how we first learned to know each +other.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>No, you need not tell me that, Anton.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>But I want you to listen to me. You remember, +no doubt, a few years ago—I had graduated +from the conservatory—had had the best of +teachers—and the time came for me when I +had to get something to do. But nobody +wished to have anything to do with a blind +musician—who could not see. So I had to take +a position out of town—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>In the café, yes.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Should we, perhaps, rather say in the barroom. +Or in a place still worse. All around me nothing +but rough, vulgar, and drunken talk of wanton +women and beasts of men. And ’midst all this +noise and the smell of liquor I had to sit and +play music that was disgusting to me—only for +the alms that they cared to throw to me. For +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>it was for alms that I played. Right above +the place where I sat there was nailed a sign: +“Don’t forget the blind musician!”—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>My poor boy! My poor, poor boy!—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>It was then that I wrote to you; I had to have +a human being to whom I could open my +heart. It was for that reason I didn’t or +couldn’t spare your feelings.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Nobody could be nearer to you than your +mother.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Do you remember how you answered me? +That I should hope and trust that I might +come to the place where all eyes are opened and +all tears are dried.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>I had fought with God over you. But I thought +He wouldn’t listen to my prayers—not as I +wished Him to do. It was then I began to think +there was only one consolation.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>nodding</i>)</p> + +<p>Death—yes. What else could there have been? +Death is charitable, if one will only wait for +it. But to wait—that was what seemed so +hard to me—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>For God’s sake, Anton.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Don’t take it so to heart, mother; it is over +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span>now—long ago. But that evening, on going +home, I searched my way down to the river. +Of what importance in life could a poor blind +musician ever be? And the Lord would not +have turned me away if I had come a little too +early to Him, I don’t believe.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>God have mercy! And I could be at rest here +at home. Why didn’t I know, why couldn’t +I have thought, that you were so much in need!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Probably because nothing happened; because +nothing was meant to happen. It is strange to +think how often a mere chance can change a +whole life. Chance would have it that evening +that I went astray and passed through +streets where I had never been before. I had +fumbled around about an hour’s time when I +felt somebody touch my hand, and a woman’s +voice asked whether I had trouble in finding +my way. I have become used to judging people +by their voices, and I said to myself at once: +“Here is one who is also in despair and who, +like you, is wishing for a river, too.” And I +opened my heart to her.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>And that woman—that—was—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>That was Louise—yes. And I wasn’t mistaken +in her. She had gone through many +things; as much as I had. But she didn’t look +for the river any more. She had got over that. +Well, I went home with her to her little room. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>She lived in a hall-room. In the daytime she +went out sewing.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>You went home with her—in the middle of the +night!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>with a smile</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes, mother. I am not used to finding much +difference between day and night. To me it is +all one color. And she dared not let me go. +Who knows—perhaps I might have found the +river, anyhow, then. So she sat up all night +and talked to me about life and its joys.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Life and its joys. And I—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Yes, mother—that you have given to me. +Well, that was not all she did. She didn’t only +<i>speak</i> to me. She gave me a place to sleep and +she gave me food to eat, so that I shouldn’t +have to play any more in the barroom. For +fourteen days she shared every penny of her +wages with me. And in the afternoon, when +she came home from her work, we went out together +to look for a position for me. She advertised +and put in applications for me, and—thank +God! at last I got a position as an organist. +Then came the stipend and then the +rest. And during all my struggles she remained +by my side.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. <ins title="Original has 'HAMMERLEV'" id="HAMMELEV">HAMMELEV</ins></span> (<i>tenderly</i>)</p> + +<p>She has been much to you, Anton.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>She has been everything to me, mother, everything. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>Should anybody take her away from +me, they’ll take my life at the same time.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>frightened, agonized</i>)</p> + +<p>Anton—Oh, no—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span></p> + +<p>Yes, for I would believe God had regretted +that He did not let me go into the river that +night, after all. (<i>He rises and gropes his way</i>.) +It’s strange—it seems to me as if the room +suddenly had become so different. It is just +as if I wasn’t at home here any more. Isn’t +that Louise’s steps I hear above me now?</p> + +<br><br> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene X</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>(<i>Hammelev comes from the right with a little package</i>.)</p></div> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Louise asked me to give you her regards, and +say—</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>full of anxiety</i>)</p> + +<p>Asked you to—to say—what?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>gives him the package</i>)</p> + +<p>And she asked me to give you this.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>takes it</i>)</p> + +<p>Thanks—it is the rings. I have bought rings +for both of us. Now I must give it to her at +once. I hadn’t intended to do it otherwise +until to-night. But why doesn’t she come?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>She is gone to the station.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>screams</i>)</p> + +<p>To the station?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>somewhat surprised</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes—she thought it would be better to—she +wanted to spare Anton from saying farewell.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Anton, Anton! She must not go! Oh, God! +It is I—it is I who have—she’ll never come +back—no, never. (<i>She wants to run out</i>.)</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>puts himself intuitively in her way</i>)</p> + +<p>Let me go, mother. I’ll stop her. She wouldn’t +heed your voice, I fear. (<i>Goes to the door, but +turns on the threshold</i>.) For I suppose you +want us to come back—don’t you?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span> (<i>as if in a trance</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes—yes—and never again—never again—</p> + +<p>(<i>Anton goes out, left. Mrs. Hammelev has sunk +down on a chair. It is as if something had +suddenly broken within her, for she bursts into +tears</i>.)</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>goes over to her; he pats her head and +hair</i>)</p> + +<p>There—there, mother dear. You loved him too +much. Mothers are the only ones who can +love so much that they can kill with love. +(<i>He goes to the window and looks out</i>.) He runs +so safely there on the road, as if he still had his +sight. Now he stops and calls her. She turns.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Are they coming back?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Of course they are coming. Now they are +speaking to each other. Of course they are +coming.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Not to me. I have lost Anton for ever.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>doesn’t hear her</i>)</p> + +<p>So that was the trip to the city. (<i>Goes to open +the door</i>.) Come right in, please. (<i>Anton and +Louise enter</i>.) Well, Louise—I may call you +Louise, may I not? You came to stay, anyhow.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>quietly</i>)</p> + +<p>Louise will stay—yes. Mother will ask her—won’t +you, mother?</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>Yes, my boy. Now I beg her to stay. And, +what’s more—that she will always remain with +you.</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">ANTON</span> (<i>feeling his way</i>)</p> + +<p>Where are you, mother? (<i>He turns intuitively +to Louise and takes hold of her.</i>) There—what? +No, it’s you, Louise, isn’t it? (<i>He pulls her +close to himself and is entirely taken up with +her. Mrs. Hammelev, who had stretched out her +arms toward him, lets them sink with an expression +of grief on her face</i>.)</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span> (<i>seeing it</i>)</p> + +<p>Yes, mother dear, now you must be content +with me. (<i>Puts his arms around her waist</i>.)</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">MRS. HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>He finds me no longer. We drift from each +other in the darkness. How much evil we can +do where we wish to do only good!</p> + +<p class="charname"><span class="allsmcap">HAMMELEV</span></p> + +<p>It is we who have been blind, mother dear. +It is we who cannot see....</p> + +<p class="center">CURTAIN</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Stewart_Kidd_Dramatic_Anthologies"> + <i><span class="u">Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies</span></i> + </h2> +</div> + +<p class="adheader1">Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays</p> + +<p class="center"> + Edited by<br> + FRANK SHAY and PIERRE LOVING +</p> + +<p class="indent">This volume contains FIFTY REPRESENTATIVE ONE-ACT PLAYS +of the MODERN THEATER, chosen from the dramatic works of contemporary +writers all over the world and is the second volume in the +<i>Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies</i>, the first being European Theories of the +Drama, by Barrett H. Clark, which has been so enthusiastically received.</p> + +<p class="indent">The editors have scrupulously sifted countless plays and have selected the +best available in English. One-half the plays have never before been published +in book form; thirty-one are no longer available in any other edition.</p> + +<p class="indent">The work satisfies a long-felt want for a handy collection of the choicest +plays produced by the art theaters all over the world. It is a complete repertory +for a little theater, a volume for the study of the modern drama, a representative +collection of the world’s best short plays.</p> + +<br><br> + +<p class="center gesperrt">CONTENTS</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="height"> +<div class="float-left"> +<p>AUSTRIA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Schnitzler (Arthur)—Literature</p> +</div> + +<p>BELGIUM</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Maeterlinck (Maurice)—The Intruder</p> +</div> + +<p>BOLIVIA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>More (Federico)—Interlude</p> +</div> + +<p>DENMARK</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Wied (Gustave)—Autumn Fires</p> +</div> + +<p>FRANCE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Ancey (George)—M. Lamblin</p> + +<p>Porto-Riche (Georges)—Francoise’s Luck</p> +</div> + +<p>GERMANY</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Ettinger (Karl)—Altruism</p> + +<p>von Hofmannsthal (Hugo)—Madonna Dianora</p> + +<p>Wedekind (Frank)—The Tenor</p> +</div> + +<p>GREAT BRITAIN</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Bennett (Arnold)—A Good Woman</p> + +<p>Calderon (George)—The Little Stone House</p> + +<p>Cannan (Gilbert)—Mary’s Wedding</p> + +<p>Dowson (Ernest)—The Pierrot of the Minute</p> + +<p>Ellis (Mrs. Havelock)—The Subjection +of Kezia</p> + +<p>Hankin (St. John)—The Constant Lover</p> +</div> + +<p>INDIA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Mukerji (Dhan Gopal)—The Judgment of +Indra</p> +</div> + +<p>IRELAND</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Gregory (Lady)—The Workhouse Ward</p> +</div> + +<p>HOLLAND</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Speenhoff (J. H.)—Louise</p> +</div> + +<p>HUNGARY</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Biro (Lajos)—The Grandmother</p> +</div> + +<p>ITALY</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Giacosa (Giuseppe)—The Rights of the Soul</p> +</div> + +<p>RUSSIA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Andreyev (Leonid)—Love of One’s Neighbor</p> + +<p>Tchekoff (Anton)—The Boor</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="float-right"> +<p>SPAIN</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Benavente (Jacinto)—His Widow’s Husband</p> + +<p>Quintero (Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez-)—A +Sunny Morning</p> +</div> + +<p>SWEDEN</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Strindberg (August)—The Creditor</p> +</div> + +<p>UNITED STATES</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Beach (Lewis)—Brothers</p> + +<p>Cowan (Sada)—In the Morgue</p> + +<p>Crocker (Bosworth)—The Baby Carriage</p> + +<p>Cronyn (George W.)—A Death in Fever +Flat</p> + +<p>Davies (Mary Carolyn)—The Slave with +Two Faces</p> + +<p>Day (Frederick L.)—The Slump</p> + +<p>Flanner (Hildegard)—Mansions</p> + +<p>Glaspell (Susan)—Trifles</p> + +<p>Gerstenberg (Alice)—The Pot Boiler</p> + +<p>Helburn (Theresa)—Enter the Hero</p> + +<p>Hudson (Holland)—The Shepherd in the +Distance</p> + +<p>Kemp (Harry)—Boccaccio’s Untold Tale</p> + +<p>Langner (Lawrence)—Another Way Out</p> + +<p>MacMillan (Mary)—The Shadowed Star</p> + +<p>Millay (Edna St. Vincent)—Aria da Capo</p> + +<p>Moeller (Philip)—Helena’s Husband</p> + +<p>O’Neill (Eugene)—Ile</p> + +<p>Stevens (Thomas Wood)—The Nursery +Maid of Heaven</p> + +<p>Stevens (Wallace)—Three Travelers Watch +a Sunrise</p> + +<p>Tompkins (Frank G.)—Sham</p> + +<p>Walker (Stuart)—The Medicine Show</p> + +<p>Wellman (Rita)—For All Time</p> + +<p>Wilde (Percival)—The Finger of God</p> +</div> + +<p>YIDDISH</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Asch (Sholom)—Night</p> + +<p>Pinski (David)—Forgotten Souls</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr> + +<p class="center larger"><i>Large 8vo, 585 pages. Net, $5.00</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Send for Complete Dramatic Catalogue</i></p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td class="tdc" colspan="2"><p class="adheader1">STEWART KIDD COMPANY</p></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">PUBLISHERS,</td> +<td class="tdr">CINCINNATI, U. S. A.</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Stewart_Kidd_Dramatic_Anthologies2"> + <i><span class="u">Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies</span></i> + </h2> +</div> + +<p class="adheader2">TWENTY CONTEMPORARY ONE-ACT PLAYS</p> + +<p class="adheader2">AMERICAN</p> + +<p class="center larger"><i>Edited by</i> <span class="smcap">Frank Shay</span></p> + +<p class="indent">This volume represents a careful and intelligent selection of +the best One-act Plays written by Americans and produced +by the Little Theatres in America during the season of 1921. +They are representative of the best work of writers in this field +and show the high level to which the art theatre has risen in +America.</p> + +<p class="indent">The editor has brought to his task a love of the theatre and +a knowledge of what is best through long association with the +leading producing groups.</p> + +<p class="indent">The volume contains the repertoires of the leading Little +Theatres, together with bibliographies of published plays and +books on the theatre issued since January, 1920.</p> + +<p class="indent">Aside from its individual importance, the volume, together +with <b>Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays</b>, will make up the +most important collection of short plays published.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>In the Book are</i></p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tbody> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><i>the following Plays</i></td> +<td class="tdc"><i>by</i></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>the following Authors</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdc" colspan="3"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Mirage</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">George M. P. Baird</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Napoleon’s Barber</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Arthur Cæsar</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Goat Alley</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Ernest Howard Culbertson</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Sweet and Twenty</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Floyd Dell</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Tickless Time</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">The Hero of Santa Maria</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Kenneth Sawyer Goodman and Ben Hecht</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">All Gummed Up</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Harry Wagstaff Gribble</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Thompson’s Luck</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Harry Greenwood Grover</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Fata Deorum</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Carl W. Guske</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Pearl of Dawn</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Holland Hudson</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Finders-Keepers</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">George Kelly</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Solomon’s Song</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Harry Kemp</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Matinata</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Lawrence Langner</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">The Conflict</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Clarice Vallette McCauley</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Two Slatterns and a King</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Edna St. Vincent Millay</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Thursday Evening</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Christopher Morley</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">The Dreamy Kid</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Eugene O’Neill</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Forbidden Fruit</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">George J. Smith</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Jezebel</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Dorothy Stockbridge</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Sir David Wears a Crown</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdr">Stuart Walker</td> +</tr> + +</tbody> +</table> +<br> +<p class="center"><i>12mo. Silk Cloth $3.75</i><br> +<i>¾ Turkey Morocco $10.00</i> +</p> + +<hr> + +<p class="center larger"><i>Send for Complete Dramatic Catalogue</i><br></p> +<table class="autotable"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td class="tdc" colspan="2"><p class="adheader1">STEWART KIDD COMPANY</p></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">PUBLISHERS,</td> +<td class="tdr">CINCINNATI, U. S. A.</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="tnote"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_note"> + Transcriber’s Note + </h2> + +<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p> + +<p>Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.</p> + +<p>Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following changes:</p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tbody> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#Melanchthon">8</a>: “of Luther and Melanchton”</td> +<td class="tdl">to</td> +<td class="tdl">“of Luther and Melanchthon”</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#HAMMELEV">45</a>: “MRS. HAMMERLEV (tenderly)”</td> +<td class="tdl">to</td> +<td class="tdl">“MRS. HAMMELEV (tenderly)”</td> +</tr> + +</tbody></table> + +</div></div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79218 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/79218-h/images/cover.jpg b/79218-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b376d39 --- /dev/null +++ b/79218-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/79218-h/images/i_publisher.jpg b/79218-h/images/i_publisher.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecdba4b --- /dev/null +++ b/79218-h/images/i_publisher.jpg diff --git a/79218-h/images/i_title.jpg b/79218-h/images/i_title.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dba94bd --- /dev/null +++ b/79218-h/images/i_title.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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