Plays
Indians. Father told me how grandfather took it to heart about the
Indians.
FEJEVARY: He felt it as you'd feel it if it were your brother. So he
must give his choicest land to the thing we might become. 'Then maybe I
can lie under the same sod with the red boys and not be ashamed.'
(MADELINE _nods, appreciatively_.)
MADELINE: Yes, that's really--all right.
FEJEVARY: (_irritated by what seems charily stated approval_) 'All
right!' Well, I am not willing to let this man's name pass from our
time. And it seems rather bitter that Silas Morton's granddaughter
should be the one to stand in my way.
MADELINE: Why, Uncle Felix, I'm not standing in your way. Of course I
wouldn't do that. I--(_rather bashfully_) I love the Hill. I was
thinking about it in jail. I got fuddled on direction in there, so I
asked the woman who hung around which way was College Hill. 'Right
through there', she said. A blank wall. I sat and looked through that
wall--long time. (_she looks front, again looking through that blank
wall_) It was all--kind of funny. Then later she came and told me you
were out there, and I thought it was corking of you to come and tell
them they couldn't put that over on College Hill. And I know Bakhshish
will appreciate it too. I wonder where he went?
FEJEVARY: Went? I fancy he won't go much of anywhere to-night.
MADELINE: What do you mean?
FEJEVARY: Why, he's held for this hearing, of course.
MADELINE: You mean--you came and got just me--and left him there?
FEJEVARY: Certainly.
MADELINE: (_rising_) Then I'll have to go and get him!
FEJEVARY: Madeline, don't be so absurd. You don't get people out of jail
by stopping in and calling for them.
MADELINE: But you got me.
FEJEVARY: Because of years of influence. At that, it wasn't simple.
Things of this nature are pretty serious nowadays. It was only your
ignorance got you out.
MADELINE: I do seem ignorant. While you were fixing it up for me, why
didn't you arrange for him too?
FEJEVARY: Because I am not in the business of getting foreign
revolutionists out of jail.
MADELINE: But he didn't do as much as I did.
FEJEVARY: It isn't what he did. It's what he is. We don't want him here.
MADELINE: Well, I guess I'm not for that!
FEJEVARY: May I ask why you have appointed yourself guardian of these
strangers?
MADELINE: Perhaps because they are strangers.
FEJEVARY: Well, they're the wrong kind of strangers.
MADELINE: Is it true that the Hindu who was here last year is to be
deported? Is America going to turn him over to the government he fought?
FEJEVARY: I have an idea they will all be deported. I'm not so sorry
this thing happened. It will get them into the courts--and I don't think
they have money to fight.
MADELINE: (_giving it clean and straight_) Gee, I think that's rotten!
FEJEVARY: Quite likely your inelegance will not affect it one way or the
other.
MADELINE: (_she has taken her seat again, is thinking it out_) I'm
twenty-one next Tuesday. Isn't it on my twenty-first birthday I get that
money Grandfather Morton left me?
FEJEVARY: What are you driving at?
MADELINE: (_simply_) They can have my money.
FEJEVARY: Are you crazy? What _are_ these people to you?
MADELINE: They're people from the other side of the world who came here
believing in us, drawn from the far side of the world by things we say
about ourselves. Well, I'm going to pretend--just for fun--that the
things we say about ourselves are true. So if you'll--arrange so I can
get it, Uncle Felix, as soon as it's mine.
FEJEVARY: And this is what you say to me at the close of my years of
trusteeship! If you could know how I've nursed that little legacy
along--until now it is--(_breaking off in anger_) I shall not permit you
to destroy yourself!
MADELINE: (_quietly_) I don't see how you can keep me from 'destroying
myself'.
FEJEVARY: (_looking at her, seeing that this may be true. In genuine
amazement, and hurt_) Why--but it's incredible. Have I--has my
house--been nothing to you all these years?
MADELINE: I've had my best times at your house. Things wouldn't have
been--very gay for me--without you all--though Horace gets my goat!
FEJEVARY: And does your Aunt Isabel--'get your goat'?
MADELINE: I love auntie. (_rather resentfully_) You know that. What has
that got to do with it?
FEJEVARY: So you are going to use Silas Morton's money to knife his
college.
MADELINE: Oh, Uncle Felix, that's silly.
FEJEVARY: It's a long way from silly. You know a little about what I'm
trying to do--this appropriation that would assure our future. If Silas
Morton's granddaughter casts in her lot with revolutionists, Morton
College will get no help from the state. Do you know enough about what
you are doing to assume this responsibility?
MADELINE: I am not casting 'in my lot with revolutionists'. If it's
true, as you say, that you have to have money in order to get justice--
FEJEVARY: I didn't say it!
MADELINE: Why, you did, Uncle Felix. You said so. And if it's true that
these strangers in our country are going to be abused because they're
poor,--what else could I do with my money and not feel like a skunk?
FEJEVARY: (_trying a different tack, laughing_) Oh, you're a romantic
girl, Madeline--skunk and all. Rather nice, at that. But the thing is
perfectly fantastic, from every standpoint. You speak as if you had
millions. And if you did, it wouldn't matter, not really. You are going
against the spirit of this country; with or without money, that can't be
done. Take a man like Professor Holden. He's radical in his
sympathies--but does he run out and club the police?
MADELINE: (_in a smouldering way_) I thought America was a democracy.
FEJEVARY: We have just fought a great war for democracy.
MADELINE: Well, is that any reason for not having it?
FEJEVARY: I should think you would have a little emotion about the
war--about America--when you consider where your brother is.
MADELINE: Fred had--all kinds of reasons for going to France. He wanted
a trip. (_answering his exclamation_) Why, he _said_ so. Heavens, Fred
didn't make speeches about himself. Wanted to see Paris--poor kid, he
never did see Paris. Wanted to be with a lot of fellows--knock the
Kaiser's block off--end war, get a French girl. It was all mixed up--the
way things are. But Fred was a pretty decent sort. I'll say so. He had
such kind, honest eyes. (_this has somehow said itself; her own eyes
close and what her shut eyes see makes feeling hot_) One thing I do
know! Fred never went over the top and out to back up the argument
you're making now!
FEJEVARY: (_stiffly_) Very well, I will discontinue the argument I'm
making now. I've been trying to save you from--pretty serious things.
The regret of having stood in the way of Morton College--(_his voice
falling_) the horror of having driven your father insane.
MADELINE: _What?_
FEJEVARY: One more thing would do it. Just the other day I was talking
with Professor Holden about your father. His idea of him relates back to
the pioneer life--another price paid for this country. The lives back of
him were too hard. Your great-grandmother Morton--the first white woman
in this region--she dared too much, was too lonely, feared and bore too
much. They did it, for the task gave them a courage for the task. But
it--left a scar.
MADELINE: And father is that--(_can hardly say it_)--scar. (_fighting
the idea_) But Grandfather Morton was not like that.
FEJEVARY: No; he had the vision of the future; he was robust with
feeling for others. (_gently_) But Holden feels your father is
the--dwarfed pioneer child. The way he concentrates on corn--excludes
all else--as if unable to free himself from their old battle with the
earth.
MADELINE: (_almost crying_) I think it's pretty terrible to--wish all
that on poor father.
FEJEVARY: Well, my dear child, it's life has 'wished it on him'. It's
just one other way of paying the price for his country. We needn't get
it for nothing. I feel that all our chivalry should go to your father in
his--heritage of loneliness.
MADELINE: Father couldn't always have been--dwarfed. Mother wouldn't
have cared for him if he had always been--like that.
FEJEVARY: No, if he could have had love to live in. But no endurance for
losing it. Too much had been endured just before life got to him.
MADELINE: Do you know, Uncle Felix--I'm afraid that's true? (_he nods_)
Sometimes when I'm with father I feel those things near--the--the too
much--the too hard,--feel them as you'd feel the cold. And now that it's
different--easier--he can't come into the world that's been earned. Oh,
I wish I could help him!
(_As they sit there together, now for the first time really together,
there is a shrill shout of derision from outside_.)
MADELINE: What's that? (_a whistled call_) Horace! That's Horace's call.
That's for his gang. Are they going to start something now that will get
Atma in jail?
FEJEVARY: More likely he's trying to start something. (_they are both
listening intently_) I don't think our boys will stand much more.
(_A scoffing whoop_. MADELINE _springs to the window; he reaches it
ahead and holds it_.)
FEJEVARY: This window stays closed.
(_She starts to go away, he takes hold of her_.)
MADELINE: You think you can keep me in here?
FEJEVARY: Listen, Madeline--plain, straight truth. If you go out there
and get in trouble a second time, I can't make it right for you.
MADELINE: You needn't!
FEJEVARY: You don't know what it means. These things are not child's
play--not today. You could get twenty years in prison for things you'll
say if you rush out there now. (_she laughs_) You laugh because you're
ignorant. Do you know that in America today there are women in our
prisons for saying no more than you've said here to me!
MADELINE: Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself!
FEJEVARY: I? Ashamed of myself?
MADELINE: Yes! Aren't you an American? (_a whistle_) Isn't that a
policeman's whistle? Are they coming back? Are they hanging around here
to--(_pulling away from her uncle as he turns to look, she jumps up in
the deep sill and throws open the window. Calling down_)
Here--Officer--_You_--Let that boy alone!
FEJEVARY: (_going left, calling sharply_) Holden. Professor
Holden--here--quick!
VOICE: (_coming up from below, outside_) Who says so?
MADELINE: I say so!
VOICE: And who are you talking for?
MADELINE: I am talking for Morton College!
FEJEVARY: (_returning--followed, reluctantly, by_ HOLDEN) Indeed you are
not. Close that window or you'll be expelled from Morton College.
(_Sounds of a growing crowd outside_.)
VOICE: Didn't I see you at the station?
MADELINE: Sure you saw me at the station. And you'll see me there again,
if you come bullying around here. You're not what this place is for!
(_her uncle comes up behind, right, and tries to close the window--she
holds it out_) My grandfather gave this hill to Morton College--a place
where anybody--from any land--can come and say what he believes to be
true! Why, you poor simp--this is America! Beat it from here! Atna!
Don't let him take hold of you like that! He has no right to--Oh, let me
_down_ there!
(_Springs down, would go off right, her uncle spreads out his arms to
block that passage. She turns to go the other way_.)
FEJEVARY: Holden! Bring her to her senses. Stand there. (HOLDEN _has not
moved from the place he entered, left, and so blocks the doorway_) Don't
let her pass.
(_Shouts of derision outside_.)
MADELINE: You think you can keep me in here--with that going on out
there? (_Moves nearer_ HOLDEN, _stands there before him, taut, looking
him straight in the eye. After a moment, slowly, as one compelled, he
steps aside for her to pass. Sound of her running footsteps. The two