MAGGIE. My heart is torn with sorrow; my husband cannot make a living.
He will kill himself if he does not get an order for a painting.
MARGARET [laughs]. You must come and see us in our studio. John has been
doing some excellent portraits. He cannot begin to fill his orders.
HETTY [to HARRIET]. Tell her we have an automobile.
HARRIET [to MARGARET]. Do you take lemon in your tea?
MAGGIE. Take cream. It's more filling.
MARGARET [looking nonchalantly at tea things]. No, cream, if you please.
How cozy!
MAGGIE [glaring at tea things]. Only cakes! I could eat them all!
HARRIET [to MARGARET]. How many lumps?
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Sugar is nourishing.
MARGARET [to HARRIET], Three, please. I used to drink very sweet coffee
in Turkey and ever since I've----
HETTY. I don't believe you were ever in Turkey.
MAGGIE. I wasn't, but it is none of your business.
HARRIET [pouring tea]. Have you been in Turkey, do tell me about it.
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Change the subject.
MARGARET [to HARRIET]. You must go there. You have so much taste in
dress you would enjoy seeing their costumes.
MAGGIE. Isn't she going to pass the cake?
MARGARET [to HARRIET]. John painted several portraits there.
HETTY [to HARRIET]. Why don't you stop her bragging and tell her we have
an automobile?
HARRIET [offers cake across the table to MARGARET]. Cake?
MAGGIE [stands back of MARGARET, shadowing her as HETTY shadows HARRIET.
MAGGIE reaches claws out for the cake and groans with joy]. At last!
[But her claws do not touch the cake.]
MARGARET [with a graceful, nonchalant hand places cake upon her plate
and bites at it slowly and delicately]. Thank you.
HETTY [to HARRIET]. Automobile!
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Follow up the costumes with the suggestion that
she would make a good model for John. It isn't too early to begin
getting what you came for.
MARGARET [ignoring MAGGIE]. What delicious cake.
HETTY [excitedly to HARRIET]. There's your chance for the auto.
HARRIET [nonchalantly to MARGARET]. Yes, it is good cake, isn't it?
There are always a great many people buying it at Harper's. I sat in my
automobile fifteen minutes this morning waiting for my chauffeur to get
it.
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Make her order a portrait.
MARGARET [to HARRIET]. If you stopped at Harper's you must have noticed
the new gowns at Henderson's. Aren't the shop windows alluring these
days?
HARRIET. Even my chauffeur notices them.
MAGGIE. I know you have an automobile, I heard you the first time.
MARGARET. I notice gowns now with an artist's eye as John does. The one
you have on, my dear, is very paintable.
HETTY. Don't let her see you're anxious to be painted.
HARRIET [nonchalantly]. Oh, it's just a little model.
MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Don't seem anxious to get the order.
MARGARET [nonchalantly]. Perhaps it isn't the gown itself but the way
you wear it that pleases the eye. Some people can wear anything with
grace.
HETTY. Yes, I'm very graceful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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