Just one then! (_She holds up her lips, and as he kisses her ardently, the dining-room doors back of them open and Jane stands in the doorway, looking at them. She has removed her apron and has made some poor attempt at dressing up. Back of her we see the table bravely spread for the festive birthday party. There is a large turkey and other special dishes, and a round cake on which blaze twenty-two tiny candles. They turn their heads, startled, as Jane looks at them, and Ben tightens his arms defiantly about Nettie_) Let me go! BEN (_holding her and looking past her to Jane_) No! (_Then to Jane_) Why are you looking at me like that? NETTIE Let me go. BEN (_to Jane_) To hell with your dream of grubbing in the dirt. Now I know what I want, and I’m going to get it. NETTIE Let go, dear. (_She draws away_) I’m ashamed about wearin’ your dress, Cousin Jane. I’ll take it right off. JANE You needn’t. I guess I don’t want it any more. (_For the first time her eyes leave Ben’s face. She turns and steps past them to the door at right and calls_) Supper’s ready, Ella! [_Hannah enters at back in dining room with a plate of hot biscuits._ CURTAIN ACT III _Scene: Same as Act One. Parlor at the Jordans’, two months later._ _At rise the characters are grouped exactly as they were at the opening of the play. The white slip covers, however, have been removed from the chairs, and the backing through the window shows partly melted snow drifts. Henry sighs; the clock strikes two. Henry looks at his watch._ _There is a pause. The outside door slams and Ben enters and looks about._ BEN Well--here we all are again. SADIE (_sadly_) Yes. HENRY I ain’t been in this room before since the funeral. SADIE And I ain’t, and the last time before that was when father died. EMMA I sat right here, in the same chair I’m settin’ in now, but to your grandfather’s funeral, right after I married Henry, I was treated like one of the poor relations! I had to stand up. HENRY I remember; it made considerable trouble. ELLA I don’t know as it was ever what I called a cheerful room. HENRY (_severely_) A parlor’s where a person’s supposed to sit and think of God, and you couldn’t expect it to be cheerful! ELLA (_looks about_) Seems like we’d had trouble and disgrace enough in this family without her takin’ all the slip covers off of the chairs and sofa! EMMA It ain’t _right_! SADIE That Boston woman that’s building the house over on Elm Street ain’t so much as goin’ to have a parlor. I stopped her right on the street and asked her what she was plannin’ to do soon as the first of ’em died. EMMA What did she say? SADIE Said she tried not to think about such things. HENRY (_sternly_) We got Atheists enough in this town right now. BEN Well, if Jane’s coming I wish she’d come; this ain’t exactly my idea of pleasant company. ELLA