MARTHA-[Laughing.]After that nice remark I'll have to forgive you everything, won't I?[LILY JAYSON comes in from the rear. She is a slender, rather pretty girl of twenty-five. The stamp of college student is still very much about her. She rather insists on a superior, intellectual air, is full of nervous, thwarted energy. At the sight of them sitting on the couch together, her eyebrows are raised.]
LILY-[Coming into the room-breezily.]Hello, Martha. Hello, Big.[They both get up with answering 'Hellos.'] I walked right in regardless. Hope I'm not interrupting.
MARTHA-Not at all.
LILY-[Sitting down by the table as MARTHA and BIGELOW resume their seats on the lounge.]I must say it sounded serious. I heard you tell Big you'd forgive him everything, Martha.[Dryly-with a mocking glance at BIGELOW.] You're letting yourself in for a large proposition.
BIGELOW-[Displeased but trying to smile it off.]The past is never past for a dog with a bad name, eh, Lily?[LILY laughs.BIGELOW gets up.] If you want to reward me for my truthfulness, Mrs. Jayson, help me take the kids for an airing in the car. I know it's an imposition but they've grown to expect you.[Glancing at his watch.] By Jove, I'll have to run along. I'll get them and then pick you up here. Is that all right?
MARTHA-Fine.
BIGELOW-I'll run, then. Good-by, Lily.[She nods. BIGELOW goes out rear.]
MARTHA-[Cordially.]Come on over here, Lily.
LILY-[Sits on couch with MARTHA-after a pause-with a smile.] You were forgetting, weren't you?
MARTHA-What?
LILY-That you'd invited all the family over here to tea this afternoon. I'm the advance guard.
MARTHA-[Embarrassed.]So I was! How stupid!
LILY-[With an inquisitive glance at MARTHA'S face but with studied carelessness.]Do you like Bigelow?
MARTHA-Yes, very much. And Curt thinks the world of him.
LILY-Oh, Curt is the last one to be bothered by anyone's morals. Curt and I are the unconventional ones of the family. The trouble with Bigelow, Martha, is that he was too careless to conceal his sins-and that won't go down in this Philistine small town. You have to hide and be a fellow hypocrite or they revenge themselves on you. Bigelow didn't. He flaunted his love-affairs in everyone's face. I used to admire him for it. No one exactly blamed him, in their secret hearts. His wife was a terrible, straitlaced creature. No man could have endured her.[Disgustedly.] After her death he suddenly acquired a bad conscience. He'd never noticed the children before. I'll bet he didn't even know their names. And then, presto, he's about in our midst giving an imitation of a wet hen with a brood of ducks. It's a bore, if you ask me.
MARTHA-[Flushing.]I think it's very fine of him.
LILY-[Shaking her head.]His reform is too sudden. He's joined the hypocrites, I think.
MARTHA-I'm sure he's no hypocrite. When you see him with the children-
LILY-Oh, I know he's a good actor. Lots of women have been in love with him.[Then suddenly.] You won't be furious if I'm very, very frank, will you, Martha?
MARTHA-[Surprised.]No, of course not, Lily.
LILY-Well, I'm the bearer of a message from the Jayson family.
MARTHA-[Astonished.]A message? For me?
LILY-Don't think that I have anything to do with it. I'm only a Victor record of their misgivings. Shall I switch it going? Well, then, father thinks, brother John and wife, sister Esther and husband all think that you are unwisely intimate with this same Bigelow.
MARTHA-[Stunned.]I? Unwisely intimate-?[Suddenly laughing with amusement.] Well, you sure are funny people!
LILY-No, we're not funny. We'd be all right if we were. On the contrary, we're very dull and deadly. Bigelow really has a villainous rep. for philandering. But, of course, you didn't know that.
MARTHA-[Beginning to feel resentful-coldly.]No, I didn't-and I don't care to know it now.
LILY-[Calmly.]I told them you wouldn't relish their silly advice.[In a very confidential, friendly tone.] Oh, I hate their narrow small-town ethics as much as you do, Martha. I sympathize with you, indeed I do. But I have to live with them and so, for comfort's sake, I've had to make compromises. And you're going to live in our midst from now on, aren't you? Well then, you'll have to make compromises, too-if you want any peace.
MARTHA-But-compromises about what?[Forcing a laugh.] I refuse to take it seriously. How anyone could think-it's too absurd.
LILY-What set them going was Big's being around such an awful lot the weeks Curt was in New York, just after you'd settled down here. You must acknowledge he was-very much present then, Martha.
MARTHA-But it was on account of his children. They were always with him.
