Plays · OmniClassics

Plays by Susan Glaspell TRIFLES THE OUTSIDE THE VERGE INHERITORS TRIFLES First performed by the Provincetown Players at the Wharf Theatre, Provincetown, Mass., August 8, 1916. GEORGE HENDERSON (County Attorney) HENRY PETERS (Sheriff) LEWIS HALE, A neighboring farmer MRS PETERS MRS HALE SCENE: _The kitchen is the now abandoned farmhouse of_ JOHN WRIGHT, _a gloomy kitchen, and left without having been put in order--unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the bread-box, a dish-towel on the table--other signs of incompleted work. At the rear the outer door opens and the_ SHERIFF _comes in followed by the_ COUNTY ATTORNEY _and_ HALE. _The_ SHERIFF _and_ HALE _are men in middle life, the_ COUNTY ATTORNEY _is a young man; all are much bundled up and go at once to the stove. They are followed by the two women--the_ SHERIFF_'s wife first; she is a slight wiry woman, a thin nervous face_. MRS HALE _is larger and would ordinarily be called more comfortable looking, but she is disturbed now and looks fearfully about as she enters. The women have come in slowly, and stand close together near the door_. COUNTY ATTORNEY: (_rubbing his hands_) This feels good. Come up to the fire, ladies. MRS PETERS: (_after taking a step forward_) I'm not--cold. SHERIFF: (_unbuttoning his overcoat and stepping away from the stove as if to mark the beginning of official business_) Now, Mr Hale, before we move things about, you explain to Mr Henderson just what you saw when you came here yesterday morning. COUNTY ATTORNEY: By the way, has anything been moved? Are things just as you left them yesterday? SHERIFF: (_looking about_) It's just the same. When it dropped below zero last night I thought I'd better send Frank out this morning to make a fire for us--no use getting pneumonia with a big case on, but I told him not to touch anything except the stove--and you know Frank. COUNTY ATTORNEY: Somebody should have been left here yesterday. SHERIFF: Oh--yesterday. When I had to send Frank to Morris Center for that man who went crazy--I want you to know I had my hands full yesterday. I knew you could get back from Omaha by today and as long as I went over everything here myself-- COUNTY ATTORNEY: Well, Mr Hale, tell just what happened when you came here yesterday morning. HALE: Harry and I had started to town with a load of potatoes. We came along the road from my place and as I got here I said, I'm going to see if I can't get John Wright to go in with me on a party telephone.' I spoke to Wright about it once before and he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet--I guess you know about how much he talked himself; but I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, though I said to Harry that I didn't know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John-- COUNTY ATTORNEY: Let's talk about that later, Mr Hale. I do want to talk about that, but tell now just what happened when you got to the house. HALE: I didn't hear or see anything; I knocked at the door, and still it was all quiet inside. I knew they must be up, it was past eight o'clock. So I knocked again, and I thought I heard somebody say, 'Come in.' I wasn't sure, I'm not sure yet, but I opened the door--this door (_indicating the door by which the two women are still standing_) and there in that rocker--(_pointing to it_) sat Mrs Wright. (_They all look at the rocker_.) COUNTY ATTORNEY: What--was she doing? HALE: She was rockin' back and forth. She had her apron in her hand and was kind of--pleating it. COUNTY ATTORNEY: And how did she--look? HALE: Well, she looked queer. COUNTY ATTORNEY: How do you mean--queer? HALE: Well, as if she didn't know what she was going to do next. And kind of done up. COUNTY ATTORNEY: How did she seem to feel about your coming? HALE: Why, I don't think she minded--one way or other. She didn't pay much attention. I said, 'How do, Mrs Wright it's cold, ain't it?' And she said, 'Is it?'--and went on kind of pleating at her apron. Well, I was surprised; she didn't ask me to come up to the stove, or to set down, but just sat there, not even looking at me, so I said, 'I want to see John.' And then she--laughed. I guess you would call it a laugh. I thought of Harry and the team outside, so I said a little sharp: 'Can't I see John?' 'No', she says, kind o' dull like. 'Ain't he home?' says I. 'Yes', says she, 'he's home'. 'Then why can't I see him?' I asked her, out of patience. ''Cause he's dead', says she. _'Dead_?' says I. She just nodded her head, not getting a bit excited, but rockin' back and forth. 'Why--where is he?' says I, not knowing what to say. She just pointed upstairs--like that (_himself pointing to the room above_) I got up, with the idea of going up there. I walked from there to here--then I says, 'Why, what did he die of?' 'He died of a rope round his neck', says she, and just went on pleatin' at her apron. Well, I went out and called Harry. I thought I might--need help. We went upstairs and there he was lyin'-- COUNTY ATTORNEY: I think I'd rather have you go into that upstairs, where you can point it all out. Just go on now with the rest of the story. HALE: Well, my first thought was to get that rope off. It looked ... (_stops, his face twitches_) ... but Harry, he went up to him, and he said, 'No, he's dead all right, and we'd better not touch anything.' So we went back down stairs. She was still sitting that same way. 'Has anybody been notified?' I asked. 'No', says she unconcerned. 'Who did this, Mrs Wright?' said Harry. He said it business-like--and she stopped pleatin' of her apron. 'I don't know', she says. 'You don't _know_?' says Harry. 'No', says she. 'Weren't you sleepin' in the bed with him?' says Harry. 'Yes', says she, 'but I was on the inside'. 'Somebody slipped a rope round his neck and strangled him and you didn't wake up?' says Harry. 'I didn't wake up', she said after him. We must 'a looked as if we didn't see how that could be, for after a minute she said, 'I sleep sound'. Harry was going to ask her more questions but I said maybe we ought to let her tell her story first to the coroner, or the sheriff, so Harry went fast as he could to Rivers' place, where there's a telephone. COUNTY ATTORNEY: And what did Mrs Wright do when she knew that you had gone for the coroner? HALE: She moved from that chair to this one over here (_pointing to a small chair in the corner_) and just sat there with her hands held together and looking down. I got a feeling that I ought to make some conversation, so I said I had come in to see if John wanted to put in a telephone, and at that she started to laugh, and then she stopped and looked at me--scared, (_the_ COUNTY ATTORNEY, _who has had his notebook out, makes a note_) I dunno, maybe it wasn't scared. I wouldn't like to say it was. Soon Harry got back, and then Dr Lloyd came, and you, Mr Peters, and so I guess that's all I know that you don't. COUNTY ATTORNEY: (_looking around_) I guess we'll go upstairs first--and then out to the barn and around there, (_to the_ SHERIFF) You're convinced that there was nothing important here--nothing that would point to any motive. SHERIFF: Nothing here but kitchen things. (_The_ COUNTY ATTORNEY, _after again looking around the kitchen, opens the door of a cupboard closet. He gets up on a chair and looks on a shelf. Pulls his hand away, sticky_.) COUNTY ATTORNEY: Here's a nice mess. (_The women draw nearer_.) MRS PETERS: (_to the other woman_) Oh, her fruit; it did freeze, (_to the_ LAWYER) She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break. SHERIFF: Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves. COUNTY ATTORNEY: I guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about. HALE: Well, women are used to worrying over trifles. (_The two women move a little closer together_.) COUNTY ATTORNEY: (_with the gallantry of a young politician_) And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies? (_the women do not unbend. He goes to the sink, takes a dipperful of water from the pail and pouring it into a basin, washes his hands. Starts to wipe them on the roller-towel, turns it for a cleaner place_) Dirty towels! (_kicks his foot against the pans under the sink_) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies? MRS HALE: (_stiffly_) There's a great deal of work to be done on a farm. COUNTY ATTORNEY: To be sure. And yet (_with a little bow to her_) I know there are some Dickson county farmhouses which do not have such roller towels. (_He gives it a pull to expose its length again_.) MRS HALE: Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be. COUNTY ATTORNEY: Ah, loyal to your sex, I see. But you and Mrs Wright were neighbors. I suppose you were friends, too. MRS HALE: (_shaking her head_) I've not seen much of her of late years. I've not been in this house--it's more than a year. COUNTY ATTORNEY: And why was that? You didn't like her? MRS HALE: I liked her all well enough. Farmers' wives have their hands full, Mr Henderson. And then-- COUNTY ATTORNEY: Yes--? MRS HALE: (_looking about_) It never seemed a very cheerful place. COUNTY ATTORNEY: No--it's not cheerful. I shouldn't say she had the homemaking instinct. MRS HALE: Well, I don't know as Wright had, either. COUNTY ATTORNEY: You mean that they didn't get on very well? MRS HALE: No, I don't mean anything. But I don't think a place'd be any cheerfuller for John Wright's being in it. COUNTY ATTORNEY: I'd like to talk more of that a little later. I want to get the lay of things upstairs now. (_He goes to the left, where three steps lead to a stair door_.) SHERIFF: I suppose anything Mrs Peters does'll be all right. She was to take in some clothes for her, you know, and a few little things. We left in such a hurry yesterday. COUNTY ATTORNEY: Yes, but I would like to see what you take, Mrs Peters, and keep an eye out for anything that might be of use to us. MRS PETERS: Yes, Mr Henderson. (_The women listen to the men's steps on the stairs, then look about the kitchen_.) MRS HALE: I'd hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticising. (_She arranges the pans under sink which the_ LAWYER _had shoved out of place_.) MRS PETERS: Of course it's no more than their duty. MRS HALE: Duty's all right, but I guess that deputy sheriff that came out to make the fire might have got a little of this on. (_gives the roller towel a pull_) Wish I'd thought of that sooner. Seems mean to talk about her for not having things slicked up when she had to come away in such a hurry. MRS PETERS: (_who has gone to a small table in the left rear corner of the room, and lifted one end of a towel that covers a pan_) She had bread set. (_Stands still_.) MRS HALE: (_eyes fixed on a loaf of bread beside the bread-box, which is on a low shelf at the other side of the room. Moves slowly toward it_) She was going to put this in there, (_picks up loaf, then abruptly drops it. In a manner of returning to familiar things_) It's a shame about her fruit. I wonder if it's all gone. (_gets up on the chair and looks_) I think there's some here that's all right, Mrs Peters. Yes--here; (_holding it toward the window_) this is cherries, too. (_looking again_) I declare I believe that's the only one. (_gets down, bottle in her hand. Goes to the sink and wipes it off on the outside_) She'll feel awful bad after all her hard work in the hot weather. I remember the