■Sv Percy MacKaye snn Book -^-'-^^ CopyrightN"^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. ANTI-MATRIMONY OTHER WORKS BY PERCY MACKAYE The Canterbury Pilgrims. A Comedy Jeanne d' Arc. A Tragedy Sappho and Phaon. A Tragedy Fenris, the Wolf. A Tragedy A Garland to Sylvia. A Dramatic Reverie The Scarecrow. A Tragedy of the Ludicrous Mater. An American Study in Comedy Poems Lincoln : A Centenary Ode The Playhouse and the Play. Essays ^0 HAROLD STEELE MACKAYE THIS PLAY IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY HIS BROTHER ANTI-MATRIMONY A Satirical Come BY PERCY MACKAYE "A tinge of free soul-contemplation. And cosmopolitanisation. An outlook through the cloudy rifts. By narrow prejudice unhemmed, A stamp of high illumination. An Ur-Natur, ivith lore of life: * * The reason is— that Fm unmarried."' Ibsen: Peer Gynt. NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright^ 1910, hy Frederick A. Stokes Company All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian November, 1910 ©GI.D 22112 FOREWORD The acting rights of this play in America are held, for Miss Henrietta Crosman, by Mr. Maurice Camp- bell, under whose management it was first produced on the stage at Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 10, 1910, since when it has been acted, in consecutive perform- ances, through the Western States, opening in New York, at the Garrick Theatre, September 22, 1910. All persons desiring to read in public this or any other play by the author are requested to confer with the author through the publishers. The plays of Ibsen, and of other European masters in the modern drama, about whose works much of the dialogue of "Anti-Matrimony" lightly circles, are — it would seem needless to state here — far removed, by their sincerity and genius, beyond the direct shafts of this playful satire. Since, however, certain printed interpretations of the acted play have quaintly mis- conceived the main object of its allusions, and also im- puted to them a personal instead of a dramatic value, it may be fitting to refer any reader, curious of the writer's personal estimate of "the Masters" and their American "disciples," to his published volume, "The Playhouse and the Play," pages ninety-seven to one hundred one. P. M-K. Cornish, New Hampshire, October, 1910. CHARACTERS REV. ELLIOTT GREY. MILDRED, his wife. MORRIS, his younger brother. MRS. GREY, his mother. ISABELLE, Mildred's younger sister. Time — The Present. Place — The Grey Homestead, in a Suburban Town of Massachusetts. ACT I PROGRAMME OF THE PLAY as first produced in New York at the Garrick Theatre September 22, 1910. CHARLES FROHMAN : MANAGER MAURICE CAMPBELL Presents HENRIETTA CROSMAN in A NTI -MATRIMONY BY PERCY MACKAYE Cast of Characters Rev. Elliott Grey Walter Greene Mildred, his wife Miss Crosman Morris, his younger brother Gordon Johnstone Mrs. Grey, his mother Marian Holcombe IsABELLE, Mildred's younger sister. . . .Grace Carlyle ACT I The Hall — used as a library and living-room — of the Grey homestead, in a suburban town of Massa- chusetts. Through an open door and casement window at back is visible an apple orchard, in full bloom, with a distant vista of an old wooden struc- ture shaded by elms. At the right of centre, a staircase ascends to a landing, which leads to inner rooms, right. A window, at back, lights the land- ing, which is separated from the hall by a slender railing and by curtains between the woodwork. At left and right, down stage, doors. At right, a fireplace, above which hangs a large diagram map. On the mantel shelf, a clock. Beneath the land- ing, a low desk, littered with papers. At left cen- tre, an ample table. Under the casement window, at back, and left, book shelves. Near the newel- post of the stairs, a small table on which are a vase and a phonograph. At right, a settee. The remain- ing furniture is quietly tasteful and old-fashioned, Elliott Grey is sitting at the desk; Morris is stand- ing near the door. The former is dressed in plain, unministerial garb — a quiet, everyday working suit; the latter wears clothes which suggest a pro- nounced exotic taste. 3 4 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT Well, Morris, and how does it seem after five years? MORRIS How does what seem? ELLIOTT The old place. The city has slowly risen round us like a tide, but it has left this piece of our old homestead like a little island. From where you stand that outlook has hardly changed since we were boys. MORRIS I beg pardon. From where / stand the outlook has utterly changed. ELLIOTT \_With a quick smile. 1 Introspectively, you mean? Well, I still see the same old apple orchard and the cider-mill dam, where we used to fish for suckers. MORRIS [Caustically.^ And the suckers still bite, I suppose! ELLIOTT [Putting an arm over his shoulder. '^ Come, come, dear old Morris ANTI-MATRIMONY 5 MORRIS [^Detaching himself. '\ Please ! Have the decency, Elliott, not to nickname me. My name is Maurice. ELLIOTT \_Laughing.'\ Oh, I forgot. You brought that back from Paris with your imperial. Honestly, though; they're both a bit far-fetched, don't you think.? MORRIS Yes, thank God ! I had to go far for it, but I've brought back an aesthetic sense at least — to this bleak old place. Do you want to know what / see out there in that orchard .? ELLIOTT Tell me. MORRIS In the shade of dead boughs, I see the shadows of dead men: wan, bony forms in black, with square skulls hid deep in Puritan peaked hats. Beneath nine withered cypresses they have twisted nine pulpits of poison ivy, from which they preach to the generations of young girls and boys. And the text of all nine is Hypocrisy. You, Elliott, are the latest of their pro- fession — in the dear old homestead. 6 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT \_Quietly.~\ And you are my brother. MORRIS Very true; that's why I'm here. Because we are brothers, I am here to save you. I have come back from Europe, from the places of art and freedom and modernity, to this home churchyard, to rescue you from the ghosts of our Puritan ancestors ; to mount beside you into that old pulpit of yours next Sun- day, and declare war against all the spectres of con- vention. ELLIOTT So you would preach too ! MORRIS Yes; iconoclasm, schism, revolution. ELLIOTT And what is your text.? MORRIS Anti-Matrimony : there is the beginning of emanci- pation. ELLIOTT Emancipation of what? MORRIS Of the individual — ^the individual soul. ANTI-MATRIMONY 7 ELLIOTT Honestly, don't you think there are more important matters? Look at this chart a moment. Here is a map of our city — our city as it might be — as it will be, if we citizens can learn to care less about our own little souls, and more about the great soul about us — the community. [MoREis turns away with a shrug and lights a cig- arette.'] The city — think what we might make of it! Not a crumbling heap of scrambling individuals, each seek- ing his own salvation at the expense of all, but a strong tower of Man — organic, coherent, self -planned, guarding the salvation of all in the subordinated good of each. Moimis {Humming,'] Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques, Dormez-vous ? Dormez-vous ? MORRIS [Pointing with a pen-holder.] Look: here's the river, fronted by public archi- tecture and the park embankment. Here are com- mons for the children. Here are public tenements for the poor. This is the Hall of Labor. Here is the civic theatre, focus of festival, pageantry and the united arts. Here are the central library, the national 8 ANTI-MATRIMONY academies — of science, painting, sculpture; the pub- lic athletic stadium. These are the Halls of Arbitra- tion and Invention, the municipal house of music, the public studios of the arts and crafts. MORRIS Sonnez les matines, Sonnez les matines : Din-din-don ! ELLIOTT All this, my dear fellow, is no chart of Utopia. It is the published plan of shrewd public leaders : citi- zens who no longer laugh at applying imagination to men's common interests. This now, as a minister and citizen, is my chief work and study, and I am only one worker among a hundred thousand. So you see this "home-churchyard," as you call it, is not wholly haunted by ghosts. What do you say to our planning.? MORRIS [Snapping his -fingersJ] That — for your ideal community ! Freedom is the first thing, and freedom is based in the individual ; but the home undermines the individual, converting him to a tyrant or a slave. Therefore the first act of a free community must be to abolish the home. ANTI-MATRIMONY 9 ELLIOTT Do I understand, because you have chosen to live with Isabelle outside the marriage code, that you ad- vocate a similar course for all men? Momiis Certainly. Marriage is a mere makeshift. ELLIOTT Of course; I grant you that, at once. But so was the tea-kettle in which Watts discovered the steam- engine — a mere makeshift. In the sight of God, what is man himself — ^but a makeshift? Yet it is surpris- ing what a miracle can be educed from a makeshift, if we have the patience to wheedle it and the imagina- tion to construct it. The question is : For a starter, what have we better than a makeshift? [^TJie door, right, is opened a little way. On the sill Mrs. Grey pauses, hesitatingly. 1 MORRIS What have we better? We have the thing itself — the ideal — ^the ultimate consummation ! We have love — passionate, chainless, Olympian love ; yes, free love — free love. Do the words bum you? \_The door is closed quickly. ~\ ELLIOTT Hush! That was mother. 10 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS "Hush" !— The Hypocrite's own lullaby ! ELLIOTT You might be tactful, at least. MORRIS Of course ! "Tip-toe goes the Tactful-Man !" We learned it in our pinafores, with "Trotty goes a lady." ELLIOTT Don't you know that it hurts — it shocks her? MORRIS Of course I know it. I know that it shocked the world when Galileo told it that it turned. Well, there must be one truth-teller in a generation. ELLIOTT My dear Galileo ! the world — as you have said — will go on turning, but let me remind you that it revolves quietly on the same old axis and never treads on the corns of the constellations. Revolution is not neces- sarily Chaos-come-again. MORRIS \_Bows, with a smile.l The prettiest retort I've heard since leaving Paris. Quite worthy of a modem and a European. ANTI-MATRIMONY 11 ELLIOTT [After returning his mock-bow.l Thanks, boy. I guess, though, you and I are still Yankee-stock, with some salt of the old humor to save us. MORRIS No, by the Lord, not I ! Your American humor is the bane of all art and temperament and beauty 1 It hangs over the land like a malaria ; its mosquitoes in- fect you with an itching laughter. No, sir; I've re- covered once. Deliver me from ever catching that contagion again. ELLIOTT {With a laugh.'] I'm afraid, then, you're rashly exposing yourself here. You'll find us a hotbed of Yankee tricks — es- pecially Mildred. MORRIS Nonsense; Mildred is a cosmopolite. To be sure, she married you, a Yankee minister, but that was just tragic fate, and she has kept herself wonderfully un- contaminated. [Exalt edly.'] Mildred is one of the Muses, wandered from her mountain. I have hopes of her climbing up again — to rejoin Isabelle. ELLIOTT Capital! Mildred will make a poet of you, if you give her the chance. 12 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS She might have made one of you, if you hadn't married her. Husbands are banished from Hehcon. ELLIOTT Come now, dear fellow ; this is all very clever and amusing for you and me, but don't forget that it won't do for our little Mammy in there. She is quite innocent of humor, Yankee or transatlantic. She has been looking forward to your return home for years, and when you arrived from the steamer yesterday with Isabelle and little Cynthia, and sprung that amazing news that you had never been married, she was prostrated. She says little, but she loves you, and she is very unhappy. MORRIS Do I want her to be? But there you are ! There's the tyranny of home life, as I told you. Sons must lie to their mothers, brothers must cry "Hush" and advise dissembling ; the whole house must smell mouldy with hypocrisy, so that old family ghosts shall not be offended, and prudish little mothers shall remain blindfold and happy. But what of the truth.? Truth, sir, is my religion. ELLIOTT Behold him! The old family ghost has swapped his peaked hat for an imperial. ANTI-MATRIMONY 13 MORRIS Oh, shucks! ELLIOTT Bully! "Shucks" is the stuff! You used to say "Shucks !" when you'd lost a sucker in the mill-pond. Do say it again. MORRIS Never, while I live! Come, speak out: Do you want me to leave this house, or to live in it happily — truthfully.? ELLIOTT Both. I want you to leave it for a wedding, and live happily in it — as long after as possible. MORRIS That's your proposition; I refuse it. Now, here is mine. You are my brother. Mildred is Isabelle's sister. I ask you and your wife to join me and my mistress in a crusade of emancipation; a crusade against marriage; a campaign of Anti-Matrimony. Will you.? ELLIOTT Shucks, dear boy! You really must learn to say "Shucks" again. MORRIS Well and good. But remember: Since Isabelle and I cannot avoid being relatives, you and the family — take the consequences ! 14 ANTI-MATRIMONY lExit Morris out of doors. Elliott starts to folloWy hut pauses, biting the tip of his pen-holder. The door, right, slowly opens again, and there enters a subdued, neat little woman, with smooth brown hair, growing white about the temples. She comes forward hesitatingly, holding the fingers of her left hand i/ii her right, as in habit. This posture she alters occasionally, to stroke pen- sively dowmvard the front of her dress. '\ MRS. GREY Are you alone, Elliott? ELLIOTT [Turning.'] He's in the orchard, Mother. MRS. GREY I have been trying to comprehend, Elliott, why this visitation should have come upon us. For nine generations, your father's family and mine have been pew-holders, or ministers, right here in Massachu- setts. ELLIOTT Perhaps that's why. Mother. MRS. GREY Why— what, Elhott? ELLIOTT Crops need rotating, you know. ANTI-MATRIMONY 15 MRS. GREY Crops? You mistook me. I was speaking of our families, your father's and mine. I have been trying to reconcile it; to make it seem right. ELLIOTT Now, dearest Mammy, no tears. MRS. GREY [Wiping her eyes shyly. ~\ I didn't know that I was — excuse me. Morris was always a peculiar boy. Your father was peculiar, at times — only at times. We used to say often, at break- fast, or walking to church, or — "Morris is peculiar, but a nice boy." He never liked to wear stiff collars, but then, somehow — he looked nice without them. ELLIOTT I guess he always will. MRS. GREY WiWwhat, Elliott? ELLIOTT [Smiling. ~\ Be a nice boy. MRS. GREY Oh, do you think he will! And will he let you marry him to Isabelle right away? They needn't wait for their trunks. 16 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT I was just talking with him about that. MRS. GREY What did he say.^ I overheard him using such — such unusual expressions. ELLIOTT Whatever he may say, Motherkin, we must never forget that Morris is a really nice boy. MRS. GREY What should I do without you, Elliott! You are always so reassuring. And so is Mildred. She is an ideal minister's wife. She is so tactful. And though she is quick and gay, she never hurts anybody's feel- ings. Sometimes I don't understand her jokes, but she is always ready to repeat them to me — slowly. Even when she dances at the church sociables, she dances so tactfully. You and she are so beautifully matched. I do wish that Isabelle ELLIOTT Isabelle is much younger, and so is Morris. MRS. GREY And to think they should have the baby. Poor little darling! Eleven months, and it has never been christened. ANTI-MATRIMONY 17 ELLIOTT Hasn't Mildred told you her plan? MRS. GREY A plan? Has Mildred a plan? But, Elliott, how could it be christened ? Just Cynthia would never do ; and Isabelle's name is Allston. Oh, I can't seem to realize it yet ! ELLIOTT [Putting his arm about her.'] There, there! Let's go and have a peep at her. She shall be Cynthia Grey, of course. MRS. GREY Oh yes, Elliott. You will marry them, won't you — before the neighbors begin to call? [They go into an inner room, left. After a paufie, the door, right, is opened, and Mildred enters. She is dressed in a simple morning- gown, and moves lightly across the room. She lifts a sew- ing-hag from the settee and takes it to the table, where she sits. Behind her follows Isabelle, dressed in a gown of charm, symmetry and dis- tinction. She pauses, with a half-studied, half- artless pose of young-girlishness.] MILDRED I left it on the settee. 18 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE Sewing is such unemancipated work. I should think you would prefer dancing, Mildred. You used to dance well to my fiddhng. MILDRED Old married folks dance to a finer fiddle, my dear Isabelle. [Holding a silk thread m her teethy she pulls it taut with her left hand, while with her right she draws a knitting-needle across it, humming between her lips.l Needles and pins ! Needles and pins ! ISABELLE Just what I've been telhng you ! And yet you look needles and pins and daggers at me because I'm not silty enough to follow your example. MILDRED Daggers at you! — I? ISABELLE Well, anyway, Maurice's mother does — when she looks at me at all. MILDRED Mother Grey ? Why, Mother could sooner swallow daggers than look them. I wouldn't cast Motherkin as the villainess. ANTI-MATRIMONY 19 ISABELLE \^With a compassionate smile. ^ How little you know of human nature, my poor Mildred! MILDRED How could it be otherwise, dear? You forget my horizons are limited. Perhaps, now, if I could realize some of your larger experiences — ISABELLE That's it. But how can you.-^ Here you are im- prisoned in a petty American home, shackled for life to a suburban minister — of all men-creatures! — en- slaved to an inexorable mother-in-law, and com- pelled, by the pin-pricks of torturing respectability, to receive at church sociables ! My poor Mildred ! I feel for you deeply. MILDRED You make me feel for myself. Belle. How your vocabulary has improved! ISABELLE Naturally ; I have improved it by something bet- ter than sewing. Maurice and I are disciples of the world-literature. I suppose you don't know the works of the old Founders. MILDRED The old founders ? You mean of the United States ? 20 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE My dear, the United States lies outside the pale of literature. I refer to the old Masters of our drama and philosophy ! But of course you never read them. MILDRED Oh, not so bad as that. Elliott often reads aloud Bishop Berkeley, and I read to him Shakespeare and ISABELLE Please — please ! My poor sister. Don't tell me you are ignorant of the old Masters — even their names! Haven't 3^ou ever heard of Nietzsche? MILDRED How do you spell it, dear.? ISABELLE Great heavens ! — Or Ibsen ? MILDRED [With wicked assumption of ndivete.~\ To be sure! Wasn't he an arctic-explorer.? ISABELLE Oh, you're beyond salvation! Do you know why Maurice and I decided to return to this unspeak- able country.? MILDRED Seems to me Morris mentioned — some complication about a mortgage, wasn't it.? ANTI-MATRIMONY 21 ISABELLE Mortgage ! O Mildred, how garishly American you are ! Maurice and I left Europe for your sakes. Mau- rice came back to save Elliott, and I to save you. MILDRED Dear Belle, I might have guessed it. It's so like you — both. ISABELLE We might have continued to revel alone in the mountain glories of our emancipation. But no, like Zarathustra, we decided to descend and bear our sun- rise into the valleys of convention, and scatter our stars among the cities of hypocrisy. And so, soon after the baby came, we began to think of Elliott and you. MILDRED I know, dear. I'm so sorry they have the servant problem over there too. ISABELLE You literal-minded wife! Have you lost all im- agination.'' Dear, dear! How can I ever thank Maurice enough for preserving me from this wife- hood ! MILDRED l^Rising.'] Hark, dear! 22 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE What's the matter? MILDRED Isn't that the baby crying? ISABELLE [^With visible anxiety. '\ Do you think so? I'd better see. \^She hurries toward the door left, hut suddenly pauses as she catches a glimpse outside of Morris looking in the door. Her manner instantly changes.'] Nonsense, it's of no importance. MILDRED No importance! But the child — [Mildred, too, catches sight of Morris.] ISABELLE Please change the subject. My dearest Maurice has told me never to belittle my mind with such trifles. MILDRED What model obedience ! ISABELLE It's instinctive. As my Maurice has so eloquently expressed it in one of his most convincing sonnets to me, "Where law lays no compulsion love obeys." ANTI-MATRIMONY 23 MILDRED I congratulate your husband! MORRIS Please . — don't insult your sister. She has no hus- band. ISABEIiLE [^Turning. 1 Why, Maurice! How you surprised me! MILDRED How you surprised us — both. MORRIS l^Snubhing Mildred, speaks to Isabelle.] I am happy, love, to surprise you in thoughts of me. I'll be back in a moment. [Throwmg a kiss, which she returns, he disappears toward the orchard. Isabelle then goes quickly to the door left, listens, opens it a crack, looks in longingly, but closes it again slowly.^ isabelle She's in her crib — ^the darling ! Her grandmother is looking at her. MILDRED Looking daggers .^^ M ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE \^Draws herself up haughtily.'] Mildred, you heard just now how nobly Maurice rescued me from your insult. But you have not yet retracted it. MILDRED My dear, now you're silly. ISABELIiE You referred to him as my husband. MILDRED And I shall advise him to confirm the reference. ISABELLE [Wildly.'] But how dare you ! I never said he was my hus- band. MILDRED I trust you will say so before night. ISABELLE Then how — how could you — when I never said it — how could you ever suppose such a thing! MILDRED I'm not supposing it; I'm just arranging it. ISABELLE \_Gasping.'] Oh, I thought ANTI-MATRIMONY 25 MILDRED It's SO simple, you see, having a minister and jus- tice of the peace right in the family. ISABELLE Elliott, you mean ! I see ; you are plotting to get your jailer to put me in irons too. I hold out my arms to emancipate you, and you would clap hand- cuffs on me. Never! My lover and I are free. I am Maurice's mistress ; I rejoice, I revel, to declare it. MILDRED Belle, don't be shocking. ISABELLE Shocking ! Ha, at last ! I have looked forward to this moment for years. MILDRED Please look back on it, as quickly as possible. ISABELLE I had faith, and my faith has borne fruit. I be- lieved you would call me "shocking." [Mildred hides her face.'] Now I know I am great. Yes, I can say it simply, proudly. [Observing Mildred, who rises and turns away to stifle her laughter.] Oh, turn away from me. Spurn me. Leave me ! You laugh! You deride me, of course. I am your fallen sister, cast off, held up to pitiless mockery, in the rack of convention. Oh, how history repeats itself! ^6 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED [Straightening her face.~\ Never, Isabelle! I defy history to reproduce you. ISABELLE That's because you know nothing of history or hfe or experience. Do not imagine we are created unique — sweet as it would be to think so ! We are all links in a sublime evolution. All the great of our sex have been shocking — from Cleopatra to Candida. MILDRED [Raising her hands, turns away m laughter. ~\ Sisterkin ! Sisterkin ! ISABELLE Yes, even so they were cried out upon ! Has Time forgotten the ignoble persecution of Magda? When she strove to lift up the petty souls of her relatives into the lofty plain of her own individuality — what was her reward? History has recorded! And glori- ous Rebecca — divine Rebecca West ! MILDRED What did she do ? Please tell me. ISABELLE How could you understand? 'She was not the dupe of matrimonial ghosts. She shocked the world and taught her lover to shock it. Together they obeyed the call of their supersouls, and she leaned on her ANTI-MATRIMONY 27 lover's heart as they went forth to the mill-race. l^Melo dramatic ally. 1 O my Mildred, must I also be driven to the dark waters? MILDRED Don't, dear; don't! ISABELLE Yes, they alone who shock the world shall save it. The lives of supermen "await ahke the inevitable hour." MILDRED You have humbled me, Belle. Teach me some more. ISABELLE Ah, my sister; if you could indeed learn from me MILDRED But I AM learning. I'm taking notes. ISABELLE You would learn that I am only the last of a great line of female emancipators. I could tell you of Nora Halsted and Ann Whitefield and Rautendelein — they're all in Maurice's dress-suit case. MILDRED Oh, where is it.? 28 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE Upstairs, in his room, by the washstand. He al- ways keeps them for reference, in his playwriting-. Magda hasn't arrived yet ; she's in my steamer trunk. MILDRED Mayn't I go and fetch some of them down? ISABELLE You? You, a married woman, invade the sanctu- aries of the Masters ! No, / guard the key of the suit-case. MILDRED Do you mean I mayn't even set eyes on them? ISABELLE Not while you continue to Hve in your indelicate bondage with Elliott. MILDRED I suppose, then, I am never to tread those sacred precincts of his harem. ISABELLE His harem! What are you talking about? MILDRED Your rivals — Ann, Rebecca and the rest — whom you keep shut so fast in the sacred suit-case. ANTI-MATRIMONY 29 ISABELI.E How indecorously your married mind interprets us ! I have no rivals, my dear; I can never have any. Those immortal women are all embodied in me. That is why Maurice loves me; that is why I lure onward and upward the soul of Maurice — his ewig weihliche. I'm an incarnation. Can't you understand.? MILDRED I think I'm beginning to, dear. I was just won- dering — suppose he should meet another one. ISABELLE Another what ? MILDRED Another incarnation. ISABELLE But how could he while I live.? Well, here I am! Don't you see.? MILDRED Oh! — why, yes. How stupid of me! But what — what if you should meet another one? ISABELLE That's different, of course; / might. For, you see, I am the incarnation ; not Maurice. I lead him upward, and he follows. Do you follow me? MILDRED Yes, I follow ; he follows — what follows then ? 30 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE Don't be facetious. Put down your sewing. You said you wished to learn. You can't expect to under- stand deep things without concentration. MILDRED Please ; I'll be good. ISABELLE Well, then — to make it clearer — when I lead on- ward and upward, just supposing he shouldn't fol- low MILDRED ^Shutting her eyes.'] Bing ! Poor Morris ! ISABELLE Yes; you see, then, how awful it would be if we were tied together for life by the chains of conven- tion. MILDRED Do you suppose it would be suicide, or simply murder? ISABELLE Oh, of course, we're not supposing. As a matter of fact, I need never dread that Maurice will bring such suffering upon himself, because — well, to speak frankly, because I know the unlimited influence for his own good which I exert over him. ANTI-MATRIMONY 31 MILDRED My little sister, you have matured wonderfully in womanhood. I confess that all you have said sets me thinking. ISABELLE Please, then, dear, apply it to your own slavish and unhappy circumstances. If you love Elliott as I love Maurice, emancipate yourself and him and con- secrate yourselves, like Maurice and me, to the cause of Anti-Matrimony. MILDRED Do you mean I should apply for a divorce? ISABELLE Heaven forbid! Nothing is more bourgeois and American. No; just confess your undying abhor- rence of the marriage state, study the Masters, and make it your mission to shock people, with the utmost consideration and good breeding. [Enter Morris, carrying sprays of apple-hlossom.'] MORRIS My beloved! ISABELLE My adored! How long you have stayed away! MORRIS I have been searching for a token of our love, and I have brought you these. 32 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELI.E \_Taking them.~\ Apple-blossoms ! How perfectly sweet ! MORIIIS And mystical, dear, as they are sweet. I stood be- neath the orchard boughs and watched the pollen- dusted bees singing from flower to flower ; each bough was a little commonwealth of natural lovers. ISABELLE [Sighing.'] A little commonwealth of natural lovers ! MORRIS Each delicate bloom yielded its flushing soul to its ardent wooer. All was harmonious love and lyric rap- ture. Here, I thought, is the Garden of Anti-Matri- mony. I will pluck of these blooms and bring them to my beloved. ISABELLE Your beloved accepts them as a perfect symbol. MORRIS Wear them as your garland of innocence and free love. MILDRED \_Comimg between them from behind, takes the apple- blossoms.'] May I not share in this symbol? ANTI-MATRIMONY SS ISABELLE {^With wide eyes.'\ Mildred, how gross of you! MORRIS [To ISABELLE.] Have you made no headway in converting her to our cause? ISABELLE I'm sure I don't know. When I think that I have succeeded in awakening her soul just a little — she makes some terrible remark like that. MORRIS I think, love, she may not have understood us. [Glancing at Mildred, who has resumed her needle- work with sudden fervor.^ She seems absorbed in her sewing. ISABELLE That's just it. Her instincts are so abjectly mat- rimonial. MORRIS \To Mildred.] May I ask, is that embroidery.'^ MILDRED Do you think it pretty? It's for Cynthia. MORRIS For Cynthia! 34 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED Yes; I'm just finishing it for to-morrow's cere- mony. ISABELLE What ceremony? MILDRED Haven't you heard? Why, the christening. MORRIS AND ISABELLE The christening! MILDRED Yes; Elliott and I thought it would be so nice to have it performed just after the wedding — right in the home circle, you know. MORRIS [To ISABELLE.] What is the meaning of this? ISABELLE I suppose this is a sample of her American humor. MILDRED ^Showing the embroider y.l^ See; it's a baby chasuble. It slips over the short dress, and her head goes through here. The little new moons are for Cynthia, and the pussy-willow buds are for Grey. ANTI-MATRIMONY 35 MORRIS Grey? Not if / know it! "Cynthia" all you please, but "Grey" — never! No child of mine shall be suspected of legitimacy. MILDRED Why, Morris MORRIS No ! My daughter is a waif, a foundling — thank God! MILDRED Isn't she to have any last name? MORRIS That's the state's business; not mine. MILDRED Oh! are you going to hand her over to the state authorities ? MORRIS Why not? They can name her what they please; anything but "Grey." MILDRED [Pensively. 1 I Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut; which do you prefer, Isabelle.'^ Cynthia, Mass..? ISABELLE I never prefer ; I ask Maurice. One doesn't argue with Maurice ; one learns from him. 36 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS Children in arms are a menace to a free republic. They are the natural enemies of individual freedom. Therefore, it is the first function of a civilized state to provide a national defence of nursing-laboratories and to levy a tax on all celibate citizens for their maintenance. MILDRED You mean that the bachelors and old maids should support all the babies? But wouldn't that tend to encourage matrimony? MORRIS No ; for the state should compel all legitimate issue to be reared at home. The servant problem then would do the rest, and the matrimonial race would cease to survive. MILDRED I see. Your state would encourage race-suicide. MORRIS Not in the least. The child-bearing population, you see, would be divided into two classes : Mats and Anti-Mats. But, of course, the Anti-Mats, being ex- empt from both nurses and taxes, would be doubly encouraged to provide the needful population. ISABELLE Now, Mildred, I trust you see the hopelessness of arguing with IMaurice. ANTI-MATRIMONY 37 MILDRED Oh, I do. And so, my dear sister and brother, I propose that we just stop playing this Hvely Httle game of word-tennis and take hold of hands like good children, and go in and give a kiss to our nice old Mammy, and tell her to get ready for the wedding. MORRIS [Beside himself.^ Wedding, again! You and Elliott amaze me. Haven't I told you twenty times we're not married and never will be ! MILDRED Yes, my dear boy ; but fortunately since you ar- rived last night only the family have heard your re- marks. So, since it's only a matter of becoming my brother-in-law MORRIS In-law! Isabelle, to think of having IN-LAW branded on our souls ! MILDRED Come, dears, we must really be practical. Elliott can sign your papers and bless you in a jiffy. Or if you want to wait a little, and meantime call your- selves Mr. and Mrs. MORRIS Call ourselves ! Mildred, I thought better of you. Do you wish us to be guilty of a lie — a living lie of love ? S8 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED I am quite serious. Your mother is getting old. The scandal would break her heart and her health. Please! Won't you be good for your mother's sake.? MORRIS Yes ; I will be good for my mother's sake. I will consider her weakness, and be unmoved by it — for her sake. Mothers have been weak before mine. In war, mothers have begged their sons to desert the cause — for their sakes ; and afterwards they have blessed those sons for refusing to desert — for their sakes. Do you imagine, then, that I will betray my cause in the state — mz/ battle — my [The door, left, opens and Mrs. Grey enters, in alarm J\ MRS. GREY Mildred! Come quickly. I think the baby has swallowed a safety-pin. ISABELLE Oh! {^Agitated, she starts to leave, hut stops, glancing at Morris, who has also started, but checks himself abruptly.'] MILDRED Don't worry, mother. The state will remove it, Ask Morris. ANTI-MATRIMONY 59 MRS. GREY State, my dear! MILDRED What do you say, Isabelle? ISABELLE [Looking toward Morris, hut hy her gestures anx- iously urging Mildred toward the door.^ I am listening to Maurice. I'm sure you are quite competent to deal with these petty concerns of diges- tion. MILDRED [Following Mrs. Grey out.'\ All right, mother. I will assist at the state cere- mony. [Exeunt. Isabelle, after watching the door close, turns slowly to Morris, who stands gloomily ex- alted and absorbed.^ isabelle Beloved — we are alone. morris [Starting.'l At last! [They approach each other from op- posite sides of the room.^ ISABELLE My superman! morris My oversoul! 40 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE My Zarathustra! MORRIS My Heloise! ISABELLE My Master Builder! MORRIS My Rebekka West ! [They embrace.'] ISABELLE I will stand beside you in the pillory of public scorn; husbands and wives shall point, and name us a hated name ; yet will I smile and say, Lo ! I am glad and unashamed. MORRIS Our love shall lift us above the clouds ; the princes of the world shall bow down to us in their hearts ; but behold, the slave and the fool and the hypocrite shall cry, "Unclean ! unclean !" ISABELLE We will go forth alone into the deserts and the si- lent places. There we will supply to the v/orld de- tailed information of our solitary days. MORRIS Decadence, ribaldry, scandal, can never wrong us, my beloved ; for they shall all be transmuted to mate- rial for my latest play. ANTI-MATRIMONY 41 ISABELLE My modern mystic! MORRIS My immortal BashkirtsefF ! \^He leads her to the open door, at back. Meantime, the door, left, reopens and Mildred enters,'] MILDRED It was a safety-pin, my dears, so she didn't swal- low it. [Mildred looks toward Morris and Isabelle, who manifestly have not heard her, where they stand — their arms about each other — facing the or- chard. Taking in the situation, Mildred hur- ries tip-toe across to the foot of the stairs, which she climbs, very quietly, to the landing, pausing once or twice to glance toward the two lovers, who remain oblivious of her entrance.] MORRIS Hark to the golden ritual of the bees; they are chanting hymns to their Utopia. How did you like my symbol? ISABELLE [Spying on the table the b ah y- chasuble, lifts it, un- seen of Morris.] Beautiful ! morris You're not wearing the apple-blossoms. m ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE [Quickly dropping the hdby dress y picks up the apple sprays from the table.'] They would fade, dearest. I'll put them in water. \_She takes them to the vase by the newel-post. '\ MORRIS \_Watching her.'] Keep your face so — against them. ISABELLE [Smiling. ] Are they so becoming to me.? MORRIS You — to them. Ah, my living goddess, I am afraid I did wrong to bring you back to this old house of phantoms. ISABELLE Don't be blue. MORRIS I have reasons. I have wrestled with my brother, to save him. It's hopeless. How did you succeed with your sister .^^ ISABEI.I.E ; No better, I'm afraid. She lacks the tragic spirit ; j they all do here in America. I've quoted the Masters — I've quoted you — I've told her about everything, except our marriage. Do you think I ought to men- tion it — confidentially ^ ANTI-MATRIMONY 43 MORRIS Mention it ! Great God, haven't I told you to for- get it? ISABELLE Certainly, dear. But I thought perhaps if I just mentioned how we were married for form's sake in Vienna, but how of course that can never affect our ideals MORRIS [/tz a great voice. 1 Isabelle ! {Above on the landing Mildred beckons; Elliott en- ters there from off right; Mildred motions si- lence to him, while they listen, with 'pantomime, which indicates their huge enjoyment of what they hear.^ ISABELLE Please don't get excited. I say — for argument — to convince Mildred — I don't see why the mere fact of a marriage certificate — Really, / feel that it makes our position stronger. Don't you.^* MORRIS Are you mad? Didn't you burn our marriage cer- tificate in Berlin? ISABELLE Of course, dear. But I suppose there is some rec- ord in the German archives. 44 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS Buried! It shall lie buried in that heathen lan- guage forever. ISABELLE Dearest, you forget. It's the language of Nietzsche. MORRIS Don't interrupt. I say that no one — no one must ever learn of our marriage. It was a weak and bar- barous act. I committed it in a prosaic moment — as a concession to you. ISABELI.E O Maurice ! You know I conceded it for your sake, SO as not to complicate your career. MORRIS My career! Don't you realize I can never have a career if this is known .^^ ISABELLE But, dearest MORRIS Silence ! Let me tell you this : the moment you ever mention our marriage — that moment is the end of our love ; that moment is the knell of our joy ; in that mo- ment I will repudiate you — deny you and that wretched bondage ; from that moment I will continue my career alone. ANTI-MATRIMONY 45 ISABELLE Thirty-seven ! This is the thirty-seventh time we've had this argument, and you always win out, my be- loved. You are always reasonable and always right. So, please forgive me, and give me a kiss. MORRIS It's terrible. You see how the mere thought of matrimony degrades us, and makes us wrangle like wretched husbands and wives. ISABELLE Come, we'll forget it. MORRIS You promise me — never to refer to it again? ISABELLE Never, never again — so long as you love me! MORRIS [Kissing her.'] My guiding star! After all, man is the reasoner. And now, my own, we will press onward in our cam- paign together, shall we? ISABELLE I will lead you, love — wherever you decide. J 46 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS This, then, is the plan. We will try to capture this household, but by a different attack. You will ap- proach Elhott, and I will approach Mildred. You will emancipate the male and / the female. This plan is psychologically correct ; I believe it will succeed. ISABELLE Just as you wish, dear. I have hopes of Elliott, but Mildred — you will find Mildred incorrigibly con- ventional. Where are you going? MORRIS To find them. Come — I cannot quite agree with you, my love, in regard to Mildred. I believe that Mildred's soul is sufficiently mystical to be saved, and I really think [Exeunt. The door closes. Bursting into laughter, Mildred and Elliott come down the stairs.'\ MILDRED Aren't they heavenly? ELLIOTT But we were fiends to listen. MILDRED Dear unsuspecting cherubs! ANTI-MATRIMONY 47 ELLIOTT It's on my conscience. MILDRED It's not on mine. Married! "O living lie of love !" Rev. Elliott Grey, this is the opportunity of our lives. ELLIOTT What must we do.? MILDRED Be saved, of course. Be converted. ELLIOTT Converted .f* MILDRED To Anti-Matrimony. ELLIOTT Mrs. Reverend Elliott — you're the limit. Do you intend MILDRED Certainly. I intend to administer some anti-matri- monial toxin. These poor babes have got lost in the misty continental woods and fetched home the latest imported influenza. It's called the tragicus mysticis- mus morbiditi. "Mystics," for short. ELLIOTT My dear, you should hang out a shingle. 48 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED You see, the nice old foreign folks thrive on it ; it's just a pleasant after-dinner pinch of snufF to them. But when .our young Yankees catch it, it's like a sud- den pneumonia to their native humor, which very sel- dom survives. So, I say, we must be up and doing for these two poor lambs ; we must nurse them back to the Yankee fold. ELLIOTT Very good. How shall we give them the anti-toxin ? MILDRED Leave that to me. It's a delicate task, and needs gradual doses. ELLIOTT But don't you think we'd better just tell them how we overheard MILDRED O you blunder beetle ! How do you suppose Mor- ris would take that.'* ELLIOTT Like a man. Keep his head, and lump it. MILDRED The lump, my dear, would be on your manly head. I can see Morris lumping it. I can see your dear mother watching and hearing him lump it. I can see ANTI-MATRIMONY 49 the whole Grey family, and the families of the Reverend Grey's whole parish, listening and louting low to the lumping of Morris ! No, goodman Elliott, your grey matter doesn't absorb the full fun of our situation. It's more serious than you think. ELLIOTT Than I think? That's a good one! I think it's mighty serious — especially for mother. Do you think Morris would really do as he said, and deny his mar- riage with Isabelle to our faces ? MILDRED I'm sure of it. They both would. And to get proofs of their marriage from Germany would be very impracticable. No; we've got to get them to own up of themselves. What's more — we've got to get them to own up before they start to convert the United States. ELLIOTT I see. We must give their campaign a big send-off here at home; is that \t? MILDRED Precisely. Henceforth, O domestic tyrant, the mystic sword of Anti-Matrimony must divide our bosoms ! ELLIOTT Good! Me for "the mystics." 50 ANTI-MA'rtllMONY MILDRED You for the Mats, and I for the Antis ! ELLIOTT By the way, are we to be undomesticated simul- taneously, or one at a time? MILDRED As to that, I must ask you to keep in close touch with me. I'll signal when I want trumps. Here they come. Now, then; play the game, and remember, Divided we stand! ELLIOTT United we fall ! {Enter Morris and Isabelle, at bacAr.] MORRIS [To ISABELLE.] Here they are. Don't forget, you are to capture Elliott. Courage, now, for the cause. ISABELLE My misgivings are all for you, love. ELLIOTT [To Mildred, who has sunk upon the settee, staring ahead of her.~\ What's up now,? Are you ill.'^ ANTI-MA'TRIMONY 51 MILDRED [^Just audibly/, motioning him away,~\ Influenza! Catching! ELLIOTT Oh! [He crosses to the table. In the background, Morris — a Napoleon overseeing his campaign — directs IsABELLE, who gocs to the bottom step of the stairs, gracefully and deliberately unties the boivs of her shoe-lacings, then approaches Elliott with ingratiating smile. 1 ISABELLE Dear ElHott, will you be so kind as to tie my shoe- lace? It's come undone. ELLIOTT [Momentarily abashed, scrambles to do so.^ Charmed ! [Morris, meantime, approaching Mildred, starts visibly at her altered expression.'^ MORRIS [Solicitously.'] Are you ill, Mildred? May I be of any service to you? [Mildred continues to stare ahead of her, as in painful reverie.] Good heavens, I'm afraid you are. Perhaps it might — I have been thinking 52 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED [/w hollow tone.'\ I, too! MORRIS I beg pardon. MILDRED \_Slo'wly.~\ I, too, have been thinking. \_Intensey she looks up at him.^ ISABELLE [^To Elliott, changing her foot.'\ The other, please. ELLIOTT [^Tying the lace.'\ Dehghted! MILDRED Your words have been ringing through my soul: "A lie! A living lie!" MORRIS IStartled.] Mildred ! MILDRED lRising.'\ Maurice! You have come at an awful moment in my life. MORRIS In your life ! 4= ANTI-MATRIMONY 53 MILDRED Will you — will you lead me to the orchard? [Compelling him before her by look and gesture, she passes toward the outer door, while Isabelle slowly turns, watching aghast, and Elliott on his knees peeps round her skirts.^ MORRIS \_Bewildered.'\ Lead you to the MILDRED Out there under the apple-bloom. Teach me, Mau- rice ! Teach me the mystic symbol of the bees. [Taking the apple sprays from the vase, she pauses an instant on the door sill.^ ELLIOTT [ Open-mouthed. ] Well, I'll be ISABELLE So Willi! MILDRED "A little commonwealth of natural lovers." [Extending one hand to Morris, she buries her face in the apple-bloom. They go. Isabelle starts to follow. Elliott, still on his knees, holds ab- sent-mindedly the shoe-lace he was tying.'] 54 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE [rar%.] Leave go ! Leave go ! [Mildred and Morris disappear in the orchard.'\ CURTAIN. ACT II ACT II Late Afternoon. [Mes. Geey stands in the middle of the room Usterir ing.l MES. GREY Who spoke? A VOICE [After a pause, '\ Have the trunks come? MRS. GREY l^Nervousli/.'] Why, I think — would you mind saying where you are? [Mrs. Grey goes to the door left, opens it and stands flustered. Meantime the curtains of the stair landing are opened and Isabelle p7its her head out.~\ isabelle [Snappishly.'] I should think you could hear. MRS. GREY Oh, it's you, Isabelle. 57 58 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE Yes, it's I. Will you please have the trunks sent up? MRS. GREY My dear, they haven't arrived from the steamship yet. ISABEI.I.E How exasperating! Well, then, bring back my gown, please. I have nothing else to wear. MRS. GREY But, my dear ISABELLE Don't wait to sponge it. MRS. GREY But, my dear, it isn't being sponged. It's being washed. ISABELLE Washed ! MRS. GREY Yes ; Mildred said you wanted it put in the tub. ISABELLE [Shrill^.'] Tub! \_She disappears.'] ANTI-MATRIMONY 59 MRS. GREY \^Going up the stairs.^ It may be — perhaps I misunderstood Mildred — she told me she would explain later. ISABELI.E {^Coming out on the landing in a dressing-gown, speaks, on the point of tears. 1 Do you mean to say — Why, it's ruined, then, ruined ! In the tub ! MRS. GREY I thought it rather pecuhar. But of course you and Morris are peculiar, my dear. ISABELLE And I've no other dress with me. MRS. GREY Don't worry. Mildred has some pretty dresses. ISABELLE Mildred's — for me ! MRS. GREY Just come with me to her room. She has laid out for you a pretty brown dress. Or perhaps you would prefer one of mine. ISABELLE Yours ? Horrors ! \_The2^ disappear along the landing, left.^ 60 ANTI-MATRIMONY [Enter, from out of doors, Morris and Mildred. Mildred is dressed in a beautiful flowing gown of old rose, and wears apple-hlossoms in her hair, which she has arranged in a graceful mediosval style, differing from its simple arrangement in Act First.^ MILDRED Please go on. It is fascinating. MORRIS I haven't actually written the play, you know, but perhaps you would like to get some idea of the plot and symbolism. MILDRED Oh, please, yes. What do you call it? MORRIS The play? Well, I haven't quite decided. I've thought of several titles : "Spectres," "The Passionate Puritan," "Hosmer's Home ; or, the Love of the Bee." Which do you like best? MILDRED Oh, I think "The Love of the Bee" is most beau- tiful. [Mildred reclines, with studied cestheticism, on the cushions of the settee; Morris stands beside her,~\ ANTI-MATRIMONY 61 MORRIS Do you? So do I. Well, as I said, the hero, Hosmer, is an artist-philosopher; a superman, born with all the tragic advantages of genius. He is the last of an ancient house, and inherits a noble neu- rasthenia and subtle melancholia of character. MILDRED Neurasthenia, I understand, is the foundation of tragedy. MORRIS Absolutely. Hosmer is highly wrought, and his sensitive nature makes him shun all commonplace con- flicts with life. His soul, like a silkworm, spins an exquisite chrysalis of its own mystic being to shroud it from the garish world. But this beautiful filament is rudely and suddenly torn by Destiny. He marries a wife. MILDRED I begin to see. MORRIS You know the type — forgive me for ever having associated you with it: — a woman hopelessly whole- some, obtusely moral, blindly domestic, hideously fond of a joke. MILDRED I know: the kind with incurably good digestion. 62 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS That's it. Well, this abnormally healthy woman is hung by fate like a mill-stone round the neck of Hosmer. Her sunny disposition (as the old school used to call it), her red-cheeked laughter, her unshake- able nerves — these fail utterly to develop the psychic powers of the superman. Slowly but surely he de- clines into a happy contentment with her normal view of things. Step by step his tragic genius is under- mined. At last she even makes him see a flaw in his own masterpiece — and she laughs at him. But listen ! At that very moment, a single knock resounds on the ancestral knocker, and enter — Amorata! MILDRED Masterly ! MORRIS That's the curtain of Act First. MILDRED Amorata, of course, is the superwoman. MORRIS Yes. She symbolizes the psychic emanation of the oversoul, the embodied spirit of Anti-Matrimony. She enters palely beautiful, wearing a swarm of bees. MILDRED A whole swarm! But is that practical.'' ANTI-MATRIMONY 63 MORRIS It's symbolical. She wears them in clusters, at climaxes. MILDRED Oh! MORRIS Amorata, then, enters — superb, erotic, divinely pathological. She saves Hosmer at the dramatic in- stant, reawakens the artistic vacillation of his will, and restores him to perfect self-approval of his mas- terpiece. MILDRED What is his masterpiece? MORRIS It's — I haven't decided that either. A bell tower, I think, or a painting; either some pinnacle that he can fall down from, or some portrait that he can hack to pieces. My last three acts, you see, are not settled yet. We must consult the Masters carefully. MILDRED It is so kind of you to want me to collaborate. MORRIS Not at all. MILDRED Are there any other characters.'* / i J 64 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS Yes, I have in mind several — a morphine patient, an inebriate pastor, a suicidal doctor, a tubercular poet, a kleptomaniac and some others. MILDRED Are none of them — quite well? MORRIS Only the wife, for contrast. Undiseased persons are essentially undramatic. MILDRED I see. I suppose, then, you must take care not to let your characters meet each other, for fear of in- fection. MORRIS Not at all. My characters have only those highly artistic diseases adapted to modern technique. What puzzles me, however, is how to bring them all to the mill-race. MILDRED The mill-race ; what's that ? MORRIS That's the final catastrophe. It's the water, you know, that leads to the mill-wheel. My chief charac- ters, of course, must all be drowned there. ANTI-MATRIMONY 65 MILDRED By accident? MORRIS No, indeed ; by inheritance. Inheritance is the mod- ern form of fate, you know. But the minor persons still puzzle me. Which do you prefer — death by paranoeic insanity, or pistol shot.^ MILDRED Oh, pistol shot, please ! Of all thrilling effects, I think, a pistol shot — off the scene, just before the curtain falls — is the most delightful. MORRIS You are extremely helpful, Mildred. I don't re- member that Isabelle ever gave me such illuminating criticisms. MILDRED Why, Isabelle is just a little immature, don't you think? I mean — to appreciate fully your problems as a dramatist. MORRIS I have often thought that. MILDRED After all, she is only nineteen. And there is an impassable gulf between the teens and the twenties, isn't there? y 66 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS There's a lot to what you say. MILDRED I was thinking just now — It's such a beautiful co- incidence. MORRIS What.? Oh, nothing. Please tell me ! MILDRED \_Dreamily.'\ MORRIS MILDRED Well, I was just thinking how mystical it is that you and I — of all this household — are the only ones in our twenties. MORRIS By Jove ! That's so. MILDRED ElHott is thirty-one. MORRIS So he is. MILDRED Ah! There is so much in the subtle affiliations of time. MORRIS Affiliations of time! Mildred, you're wonderful. You seem to have developed since this morning. ANTI-MATRIMONY 67 MILDRED Thanks to you — my master! MORRIS I always suspected that underneath your cold New England restraint there lurked a bright naiad of the beautiful old world. MILDRED A nix in the home mill-pond, you mean? Yes, but it needed a mystical fisher like yourself to lure the naiad to the surface, and reveal to her visions of the sunset and the stars. But now you mustn't stop ; you must teach me your whole secret — how I may free my soul completel}^ from this narrow world that has sealed my eyes so long. MORRIS Be exceptional, Mildred; dare to be different — at all costs. MILDRED [Pensively.'] Dare to be different. MORRIS Deny the gross dictates of society, the tyranny of others. MILDRED [Murmurs.'] The tyranny of husbands. 68 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS Realize yourself. Be an individual — free, self- poised, unique. MILDRED O, Maurice, I see it all now; the beauty of being unique. I have never realized before how exceptional, how beautiful I am. I have been blinded — by Elliott. He has forced me to lead a life which has taught me to forget the very aim of existence — my own soul, myself. MORRIS Do you know why? It's because he has made you the victim of his own dark inheritance: — he has al- lowed himself and you to be guided by ghosts. MILDRED Ghosts ! You are right. You have shown me this home of mine for what it really is — a charnel house, in which my soul sits mated to a spectre. I see it now. This hearthstone — it was here he led me home — his living bride. This haunted house — what is it but the hollow chamber of a skull, musty with dead creeds, every window a staring, vacant eye, every gable a Puritan's peaked hat ? Oh, forgive me this outburst ! But do you wonder that the mere thought of Elliott awakens in me feelings — impossible to express ! MORRIS Mildred^ ANTI-MATRIMONY 69 MILDRED You have turned a searchlight into my soul and shown me my own hopelessness. MORRIS No, Mildred, not hopelessness, but hope; the hope of anti-matrimony. Think of all that holds out to you — uniqueness, tragedy, scorn of the common world ! All, all are yours, if you only dare. MILDRED Oh, Maurice, may I indeed lay my soul bare to you, without shame or fear of rebuke .^^ MORRIS How can you ask.'' Of course; confide in me. MILDRED No, I'm afraid; not till you promise you will for- give me when you have heard all. MORRIS But how can I, Mildred, before I know all.? MILDRED [Rushing away.'] Good-by ! Good-by ! MORRIS Mildred, come back. I promise — whatever it is. 70 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED Whatever it is — you'll forgive? MORRIS I promise. MILDRED {^Returning sIowIt^.^ That gives me courage. You ought never to have come. You ought never to have awakened my soul. MORRIS Don't say that. I am proud of that. Tell me all — everything. MILDRED I have deceived you, Maurice. MORRIS Deceived me — you! MILDRED I am deceiving you now. MORRIS Mildred! How is it possible.? MILDRED Listen ! I shall continue to deceive you, unless — unless you should guess. Look in my eyes. Do you guess.? Do you guess.? ANTI-MATRIMONY 71 MORRIS You don't mean that I — that you MILDRED Wait. Hear me. I will confess all. I am a wife — twenty-seven — married five years. Until yesterday I thought myself happy, truthful, innocent. Yester- day you arrived from Europe. Almost the first word from your lips, — that daring, scornful, truthful avowal of your relations with Isabelle — ah, it was elec- tric ! It filled me with a new and dangerous delight. It revolutionized my home and hearth. Oh, at first, of course, I pretended to be shocked. I even gave you foolish domestic advice — asked you to marry Isabelle, you remember. MORRIS Don't, Mildred ! Don't imagine I hold that against you now. MILDRED I don't; it's not that. \^Sitting at the table.l It's — it's — ^liow shall I confess it? After you left me alone in the orchard — I went and sat me down by the mill-pond, thinking — thinking wildly. Your voice was still in my ears, and the music of anti-matrimony ! Then I gazed in the dark waters and beheld there — can you guess? 12 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS Your image. MILDRED The image of a dissembling wife, a deceiving sister, a hypocritical friend. Now, now do you guess.? MORRIS You bewilder me, Mildred. MILDRED \_Rising.'\ In pity's name, do not say that you — my deliverer — fail to understand! MORRIS No, no. I understand perfectly of course. But MILDRED Surely you, of all men, can read my mystic thoughts and sympathize. MORRIS My poor girl! I begin to see. MILDRED I knew you would, MORRIS Since yesterday — only yesterday! In less than twenty-four hours ! ANTI-MATRIMONY 7^ MIIiBUED A moment may be an immortality. MORRIS And it came like that? MILDRED \_Murmurs.'] Just like that. MORRIS In the very moment, you say, when I first spoke to you? MILDRED \_Eccaltedl2/.~\ In your mouth were the thunders of emancipation, and on your lips the lightnings of deliverance. MORRIS It's all so sudden — so splendidly tragic. Desperate child, what are you to do? MILDRED Do you ask me that ? — you ! MORRIS I mean, how are you going to announce it? MILDRED Announce it ! Is it not enough that you know that I know — that we alone know? 74 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS [With abrupt decision.^ No, Mildred, the announcement of this tragic case will strengthen my campaign. The declaration of your secret passion for me will help to rally others to my banner. You must declare it. MILDRED But my husband — your own brother; Isabelle — my sister. Such relationships ! What will the world say ? MORRIS / My child, it is glorious ! The relationships are xj classic; the tragic conflict is perfect. And the world — the world will revile us ! MILDRED \_SinMng on the settee. ~\ Ah, but you are a man and brave. I am weak and a woman. MORRIS Not now ! Now you are neither weak, nor a woman — you are an Anti-Mat. MILDRED I know, Maurice. But consider how long I have lived the life of a Mat — abject, trodden underfoot. You can't expect me to rise all alone on my own hearthstone and be spurned by the foot of my op- pressor. ANTI-MATRIMONY 75 MORRIS Alone! Of course not. Where you rise, a whole army of Anti-Mats will flock to our standard. [Elliott appears outside, quietly passing. '\ MILDRED [Crying out and pointing.^ Ah ! There he is. [Elliott precipitately disappears.'] MORRIS Who.? MILDRED Elliott. There in the orchard. What if he should see us ! MORRIS Let him come. MILDRED No, no. Pm afraid. Consider; he is my husband. And you — you know what you are to me. Have pity. MORRIS Poor, infatuated child! Why do you seek refuge in cowardice.? MILDRED The spirit of Anti-Matrimony forsakes me. I need time — wisdom. 76 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS Remember what Zarathustra, the master, has said: "Be brave, indifferent, scornful, violent — thus wis- dom would have us to be." Be violent, Mildred! This is your tragic moment. Be true to the Masters. MILDRED You are right. I need violence. [Rising, speaks with increasing ^^ violence. ^^1 Go — ^bring them. I will be true to them. MORRIS Bring them.'* MILDRED The Masters. Upstairs. Go. Bring down the dress-suit case. Bring me the Masters, Maurice. MORRIS [Hastening up the stairs.^ Mildred!— I will. [jNIorris disappears from the landing. Mildred sinJcs upon the settee cushions in muffled laughter. En- ter at hack, Elliott.] ELLIOTT [In a low voice, saluting with his right hand.^ Orders, Captain.? How's the wind.'^ ANTI-MATRIMONY 77 MILDRED [Catching her breath,'] East-nor-west due southerly. ELLIOTT Are those your sailing instructions? MILDRED Yes, sir. I now am headed, full sail, for the Eman- cipation Isles, and you, mate, are bound for the Haven of Home and the Straits of Separation. ELLIOTT But I thought you had me in tow. MILDRED No, sir, you're cut loose. So remember; whenever the Morris is in sight, you must fly matrimonial col- ors and steer port, and whenever you spy the Isabelle, you must fly the Anti-Mat flag and run starboard. ELLIOTT And what if I sight them both at once.? MILDRED Why, then, steer both ways at once and send up a signal of distress. 78 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT Hold on, my dear ! Do you expect a mere minister of the gospel to be j'^our co-star in this advanced vaudeville ? MILDRED I do, old stupid. Don't you see ? To Isabelle you're an Anti, and to Morris and me you're a Mat. ELLIOTT Kind of a reversible Persian rug. Is that it? MILDRED Exactly. Topside up, you're the perfect pattern of a husband; upside down, you're a mystical lover. ELLIOTT How about wrong side out? [EnteVy left, Isabelle. She wears a shrunken, faded, hrown dress, axvhwardly misfiUing and unbecom- ing. This contrasts absurdly with the extra pains she has bestowed upon the towering, com- plicated architecture of her hair. Seeing El- liott and Mildred, she hesitates, embarrassed and woeful. Elliott, facing the other way, does not see her. Mildred, instantly altering her voice to one of pained accusation, continues to speak to Elliott, who stares at her in fresh be- wilderment.^ ANTI-MATRIMONY 79 MILDRED No, Elliott! After five years of married life to- gether — five years, in which I have sacrificed my soul to your narrow interests — after five long years, I think I have the right to expect of you • ELLIOTT What the devil MILDRED \_With horrified tone.'\ Please ! — don't give way to one of your outbursts of profanity. Remember you are a minister. ELLIOTT Ministers get their livelihood from the devil, my V dear. It's only Christian to allude to him. [Above, on the landing, enters Morris, carrying a dress-suit case. He pauses to look down; then listens intently. Meantime, Isabelle — who does not see him — manifests also an eager detective interest in the conversation.^ MILDRED Oh, don't, don't ! Don't make me a partner in this hypocrisy. ELLIOTT Hypocrisy ! 80 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED You wear one face toward the world, and another in your home. For five years I have wasted my youth, I have repressed my personaHty, I have concealed my art — and all for this ! ELLIOTT Do you mean to accuse me of MILDRED Oh, I don't accuse you. I may be wrong. Heaven grant that I am. I only say that when I see this sud- den infatuation ELLIOTT Infat MILDRED Before my very eyes, I cannot be silent. I will only ask why you should have chosen that dress of all others! [Elliott turns and discovers Isabelle.] I will only remind you how you once said you loved that dress for my sake. You gave me that dress on my wedding anniversary, and now — and now ISABELLE \_Coming forward wildly. '\ You know why I wear it. You know! MILDRED And now she confesses ! Yes, Isabelle, I know in- ANTI-MATRIMONY 81 deed why you wear it. I know, yet I will not accuse you either. O my husband — my sister! Heaven be just to us all. [She rushes out, right. 1 ISABELIiE [Calling after her.~\ The trunks — you know — I've got nothing else MORRIS [Hurrying down the stairs with the dress-suit case.^ Mildred ! ISABELLE [Trz/ing to conceal her dress by standing behind the settee. 1 Maurice ! Did you overhear her ? MORRIS [Stopping and looking severely from Isabelle to Elliott.] Yes. ELLIOTT [To himself .'\ Starboard — port ! MORRIS I overheard all — all! 8^ ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE I — I haven't seen anything of you for hours. [Suddenly seeing the dress-suit case, steps forward with a cry.^ Oh! — Where are you taking that? MORRIS Why are you wearing that? ISABELLE [Tearfully.'] Mine's in the tub. MORRIS In the tub! ISABELLE The trunks — ^You're not taking that to her? MORRIS Why did you put it in? ISABELLE I didn't — the Masters — the Masters are in it. MORRIS In the tub? ISABELLE No, in the suit-case, I said. Don't prevaricate, Maurice. The Masters are in there. ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT Perhaps if I might arbitrate this MORRIS [To Elliott.] You ! You that for five years— ha ! This gown, I understand, is a favorite of yours. Do you deny it.? ELLIOTT Dear me, no! I own to a very ancient par- tiahty ISABELLE Won't you answer me.? Are you taking this to Mildred.? MORRIS Certainly. She is developing wonderfully. Her open-mindedness is magnificent. I have every hope of making her an Anti. I only wish that I could ac- count for this astonishing change in you, Isabelle. ISABELLE [Moving- farther from Elliott.] Oh, Maurice! Don't you understand.? Don't let him hear. MORRIS [Glancing back at Elliott.] Him.? Oh, I see. You mean you wear this to con- vert him to our campaign.? His favorite gown. Clever girl ! 84 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE [Dolefully.'\ oil, no, no! MOimis [Sternly. '\ What, then, do you mean? ISABELI.E I mean the Masters — my favorite passages — ^they're underlined. You mustn't let her see them. MORRIS Isabelle, you are utterly transformed. I will not ask your secret motive in selecting this gown ; I leave that to your conscience. I cannot discuss it further. [Going outy at right y with the suit-case.^ Mildred ! ISABELI.E Maurice ! — Stop him — What shall I do ? ELLIOTT My dear Isabelle, it has appealed to me strangely for years. I remember originally the stuff was a bargain. ISABELLE Don't allude to it. ELLIOTT Certainly not. I only mean that I appreciate your thought of me in wearing it. ANTI-MATRIMONY 85 ISABELLE I never thought of you. \_Looking after Morris.] Oh, it's beyond words ! ELLIOTT [^Looking her over.^ Yes ; I think it is. ISABELLE But I won't stand it. If I am to be falsely sus- pected, insulted — I'll have my revenge. ELLIOTT You were kind enough, my dear, to say that you would instruct me in the principles of Anti-Matri- mony. ISABELLE Did 1? I beheve I did. ELLIOTT I can promise you shall find me an attentive dis- ciple. Will you begin — now? ISABELLE No, please. We'll postpone that. I should like, instead, to — to ask you a favor. ELLIOTT Dehghted! As a Mat or an Ailti? ^ 86 ANTI-MATRIMONY j ISABELLE Oh, neither. I should just like to ask if you would mind being — well, pleasant. ELLIOTT i Oh! Pleasant! I 1 ISABELLE ] To me, you know. I mean as pleasant as you know how — whenever Maurice is around. ELLIOTT ( Attentive, you mean.? i i ISABELLE 3 Attentive — without intention. You understand. ELLIOTT Unintentionally attentive. ISABELLE No, no, I mean — will you please be particularly pleasant, without being painful.'' ELLIOTT My dear Isabelle, that has been the unattainable dream of my life. ISABELLE You mean you can't be pleasant to me.^^ ANTI-MATRIMONY 87 ELLIOTT Moderately, my dear. I will be moderately pleas- ant to the point of passion. But I know that I shall fall short of being particularly pleasant without pain. ISABELLE Well, that will do nicely. Thank you. \^She starts to go.^ ELLIOTT Won't you wait, and let me moderately please you.'' ISABELLE Oh, it's of no importance now. Only just the mo- ment Maurice and Mildred are near us — then begin. ELLIOTT Hadn't I better stay with you, then.? ISABELLE Perhaps you had. Suppose you read aloud to me in the orchard. ELLIOTT Delighted. Some of my own books? ISABELLE Yes, that will be just the thing. {^He goes to the book-shelves and selects some vol- umes. 1 88 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT These, now, I feel sure will please you — moder- ately. ISABELLE How nice of you. What are they? ELLIOTT Here, my dear, take your choice : "The Sermons of Theodore Parker," "The Life of Channing," "Essays on Irrigation and Social Ethics," "Self-Help versus Humanitarianism," "Sociological Investigations in the Slum Districts of " [They disappear in the orchard. After a moment , enter from the right Morris and Mildred.] MORRIS If I have been able to help you MILDRED Help me? You have created me anew. You found me a matrimonial atom, lost in the collective mass of a myriad wives; and you have made me an indi- vidual. MORRIS You have been so responsive, Mildred. MILDRED Oh, to be at last an individual — singular — excep- ANTI-MATRIMONY 89 tional — solely myself! To know that the centuries and the civilizations have existed merely for this: to evolve me — mystic, immeasurable me! MORRIS Now you speak like a true artist. MILDRED An artist ! Ah, that reminds me. I have never told you, have I.? MORRIS What.? MILDRED What I really am. Oh, you will encourage me, won't you.? You will help me to be — what I really am.? MORRIS I am proud to help you. MILDRED Maurice, I really am MORRIS What, Mildred.? MILDRED A danseuse. All my life I have concealed it. Only occasionally, at picnics and birthday parties, I have given way to the divine instinct, and dazzled my be- wildered partner In the two-step. At all other times my Imprisoned genius has struggled like a captive 90 ANTI-MATRIMONY fawn for freedom. But what hope has an artist with a husband and a home ! MORRIS I know. MILDRED Matrimony and the fine arts are mutually exclusive. What could I do ? I simply sacrificed Terpsychore on the altar of Elliott. MORRIS But not now, Mildred. Never ^again. MILDRED \_Going to the phonograph and winding it."] No, not now. For you have taught me to realize myself. Henceforward I will be me — Mildred, the danseuse. Listen! Do you know those strains.? MORRIS "The Merry Widow." MILDRED Will you waltz with me? MORRIS Now.? Here.? MILDRED Here and now. You have struck off the last of my shackles. Let me revel in my emancipation. ANTI-MATRIMONY 91 MORRIS Mildred, you are superb. MILDRED Dance ! \_To the strains of the phonograph they waltz to- gether. As they do so, Isabelle and Elliott reappear from the orchard, Isabelle hastening ahead, Elliott following with an open hook in his hands.'] ISABELLE [On the threshold, dropping the other volumes from her arms.] I was sure of it. It's they ! ELLIOTT [Reading aloud.] "As far as we are able to determine the sociological aspects " ISABELLE Stop it ; begin : be pleasant. ELLIOTT [Cheerfully.] How delightfully they waltz ! ISABELLE No, no; to me — to me. [Enter, left, Mrs. Grey.] 92 ANTI-MATRIMONY MRS. GREY My dears! The phonograph — It will wake the baby. [Mildred and Morris, heedless, continue to dance. '\ ISABELIiE They're perfectly shameless — Mildred! ELLIOTT Morris 1 I wish to expostulate MRS. GREY Children — the dust — the baby ' ISABELLE {^With flashing eyes, shuts off the phonograph.'] Mildred, what does this mean — this amazing be- havior.? ELLIOTT Yes, my love, this extraordinary change? MILDRED [Pausing.] Mean, my friends? It means I am no longer a Mat. MRS. GREY She is ill. MILDRED This is the moment of my emancipation. The chains of my Puritan ancestors fall from me. Yet ANTI-MATRIMONY 93 still I hesitate. One doubt alone keeps me from claim- ing the fulness of my freedom. MORRIS A doubt, Mildred? MILDRED [With piercing scrutiny.'] Answer me. Is there no bond of convention be- tween you and that woman? None? MORRIS [Ignoring a gesture of supplication from Isabelle.] N-none whatever. MILDRED [To ISABELLE.] And you, O woman: Is there no legal tie between you and this man? ISABELLE [Transfixed by the eyes of Morris.] Of — of course not. [Turning to Elliott.] For heaven's sake, be pleasant! MILDRED Then I hesitate no more. I declare myself. Sis- ter, husband, mother — good-by! You are ghosts, ghosts — all! Into the living commonwealth of free lovers, I elect mvself. 94 ANTI-MATRIMONY MRS. GREY It's turned her head — Elliott ! MILDRED Maurice — you that have delivered me out of the bondage of matrimony, you that have mystically shown me the tragic spirit, you that have made me a superwoman — see! At last I dare: I love you; dance with me again. \^At a sign fj'om her, Elliott has touched the lever of the 'phonograph, which resumes "The Merry Widow. '^^^ ISABELLE [Crying out, as Morris goes toward Mildred.] Maurice ! [Morris pauses.^ Morris ! Morris ! MRS. GREY [Aghast.'\ ELLIOTT [Stentorian.'\ MILDRED [Holding out her arms.'] Maurice ! [Morris waltzes with Mildred.] CURTAIN. ACT III \ ACT III [Night: The room is lighted hy lamps and the glow from a wood ftre in the fireplace. Mildred and Elliott are discovered, and for some mo- ments nothing is said. Mildred is seated on the rug before the fire; Elliott stands by the desk. Mildred is dressed in a splendid black gown, with train, low neck and short sleeves; she wears one flaming red rose and her hair is arranged with striking tragedy^ueen effectiveness. At the moment of discovery she is seated upon her long train, bending over the open dress-suit case, in and about which are piled sundry volumes, some open, others closed, with bookmarks. These vol- umes she is putting back in the suit-case; as she does so, she scans the marked pages hastily, and makes memoranda with a pencil upon a large pad in her lap. Meantime, at the desk, Elliott is solemnly engaged in loading two pistols. From a small tin box he lifts cartridges and inserts them gingerly, one by one, making various aims and passes with each pistol, fixing his attention — with muttered ejaculations — wpon a central spot in the rug.~\ 97 98 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT [As lie begins to load the second pistol.^ Two? MILDRED [^Loohing up.'\ Both. ELLIOTT Is there need of more than one? MILDRED Positively. It's in my notes. Here — [turning to her pad~\ — here it is: [Reads.'] "The agents of ruin are a brace of old cavalry pistols, cunningly pre- pared." A brace : plural. You see. ELLIOTT Right you are! "Cunningly prepared." It's not for me to dispute the Masters. [Both continue their occupations, until Mildred has put all the hooks into the dress-suit case.] Dearie. Hello ! Help me up. MILDRED ELLIOTT MILDRED ANTI-MATRIMONY 99 ELLIOTT {^Assisting her to rise, kisses her.^ How gorgeous we are! * MILDRED ^Returning his caress.'] Aren't we? ELLIOTT Where did yoa hire the dressmaker? MILDRED In the attic. ELLIOTT The attic ! MILDRED In the charade-chest. There's more wonders yet. Wait till the climax. ELLIOTT I thought that came this afternoon with the waltz. MILDRED Not a bit. That didn't explode the catastrophe. I've been boiling 'em down. ELLIOTT Boiling what down? MILDRED The catastrophes. Here. [She hands him the pad.'\ 100 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT [Reads from it, while Mildred examines the pistols. 1 "Suicide: pistols, coal-gas, drowning (mill-race preferred). Desertion, divorce, insanity, general dis- integration, cataleptic hysteria " MILDRED Don't bother to read them all. Morris has chosen the best of 'em. Here ! ELLIOTT [Taking from her a manuscript.'] What's this.? MILDRED The scenario of Morris's play: "Hosmer's Home, or The Love of the Bee." He's selected the mill- race, and, on the whole, I believe that's the best. ELLIOTT Do you really know what you're talking about .^^ MILDRED Yes, nice old partner; but you don't! Anyway, you're a sweet, patient old thing to help me give this little vaudeville lesson to the young folks. I appre- ciate it awfully, and I promise to help you with a lot of parish business before midnight. ANTI-MATRIMONY 101 ELLIOTT Well, my dear, there really is a lot of community work waiting for me. There's the tenement commis- sion, and the swampland reclamation MILDRED All in good time ! We've got to reclaim the fam- ily first. You and I now are a commission of non- sense to restore common sense to two little numbskulls. Isabelle must learn to mind the baby, and Morris, you know, must learn to say "Shucks !" again. ELLIOTT Capital! Only please inform me how all this hodge-podge of pistols and "Hosmer's Home " MILDRED Of course. I'll teach you the plot — cues and aU. ELLIOTT That's some comfort. MILDRED You know, dear, you always were good at Dumb Crambo and Christmas charades ; so you'll learn. It's like this : When you hear me calling outside, "Hos- mer '."—like that— "Hosmer !" \_Enter, left, Mrs. Grey.] Heavens ! here's mother. Go to my room. I'll come in a few minutes and rehearse it with you. 102 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT Rehearse it? MILDRED Here, take my pad and study. MRS. GREY Elliott ! ELLIOTT [With repression, looking toward Mildred for order s.~\ Good-evening, mother. MILDRED [To Elliott, sternly.'] Go, go ! [Elliott retires solemnly toward the outer door.] MRS. GREY [Wringing her hands.] Mildred! You're not parting with Elhott for- ever? MILDRED Naughty motherkin ! Now you're playing truant. You know I told you to stay quietly in your room till to-morrow morning; then I'll explain everything to 3^ou — very slowly. MRS. GREY 1 know you always do explain, Mildred. But this time I was afraid — I'm afraid — you're too ill to ex- plain. ANTI-MATRIMONY lOB MILDRED [Smiling.'] Do I look it? MRS. GREY Oh, yes, my child. I have never seen you look like this before. And this afternoon — your clothes, your behavior, your — ^your unusual words to Elliott. You know, I have heard — yes, I have heard, that when people act like that — when they dance and dress and — and behave like that — it's hysterics ! MILDRED Fiddle, my dear! It's not hysterics — it's just charades. MRS. GREY Charades ! I never thought of charades. MILDRED Don't you remember this gown in the attic chest .^ MRS. GREY Yes, but — yes, but then, my dear — if it's — if it's charades, where's the curtain, and who — who looks on and does the guessing.'^ MILDRED You, dear, of course; haven't you been guessing .-^ MRS. GREY Why — ^why, yes. But not — not a word. You never told me how many syllables to guess, or 104 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED Elliott will tell you all about it. Run along with him. And whatever happens, don't worry ; just guess. ELLIOTT Come on, Mammy. MILDRED And remember! You're not to go near Isabelle, or the baby, on any account. MRS. GREY Oh, Elliott, I'm still afraid she is ill. ^Exeunt INIrs. Grey and Elliott, left. Mildred goes to the desk, where she puts the pistols in a leathern case, and closes it. Enter, at hack, Morris.] morris Ah! Hosmer I Amorata I MILDRED How natural it seems to be called by that name! Since you have made me — what I really am, I feel as if I were a part of your masterpiece. MILDRED MORRIS ANTI-MATRIMONY 105 MORRIS So you are. Art which is not experienced is worth- less. Every true dramatist lives his play. Amorata, you are divine ! MILDRED You like me in this.? It expresses, I think, the ^j tragic spirit. MORRIS Superbly! She must dress like that in the third act. MILDRED She ? You mean, I ! You will let me act Amorata — won't you? — when she's finished.'^ MORRIS Oh, if you would, Mild — I mean, Amorata ! MILDRED You know it requires a danseuse, for she must dance the Tarantella. MORRIS Yes, like Nora. I thought that would be striking ; don't you.'^ MILDRED Oh, of all things — yes ! You can see the sugges- tions I've made in your scenario — on the margin. I've been through the whole suit-case. 106 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS Have jou? Well, and what do you think? MILDRED My Hosmer, I think you have outdone the Masters. MORRIS l^With visible pleasure.^ I hope you're not flattering. I value your critical opinion more than any one's. MILDRED Even than — Isabelle's? MORRIS Isabelle was never truly critical. Besides, she has strangely altered. I don't understand it. MILDRED INa'ively.l I wonder if / am to blame. MORRIS You.? How.? MILDRED Perhaps — somehow I feel — she does not quite ap- prove of my outspoken attitude toward you. MORRIS Do you mean she has expressed her disapproval? ANTI-MATRIMONY 107 MILDRED Oh, not directly. But I am afraid she misjudges me, Hosmer. I'm afraid she considers my artlessness artful, and my innocent boldness immodest. Indeed, I hate to beheve it, but I fear that her soul is con- ventional. MORRIS I'm afraid so, too. I have feared it for some time. Oh, it's terrible ! MILDRED But why, Hosmer? Why to ijou^ Her narrow ideas can never affect your freedom. MORRIS You do not know. MILDRED Fortunately, you do not stand in the awful shadow of a wife, as I do of a husband. MORRIS \]^ ewously .'\ A wife ! Amorata, do not speak of this again. MILDRED Hosmer, you alarm me. You look haggard— ill— MORRIS Oh, it is nothing. Only, if sometimes you detect in me a brooding melancholy, or a sudden wildness, you 108 ANTI-MATRIMONY must forgive me, but never ask its cause. It's only the fingers of old ghosts upon me. MILDRED But you — I thought you had escaped them — defied them ^ MORIIIS Who can escape from the haunting sins of his past? After all, I could never have the tragic spirit otherwise. A past is the birthright of every true artist. MILDRED You are right. I, too, have a secret which is heavy to keep. MORRIS But I guessed it: your passion for me. MILDRED It is even deeper than that. MORRIS Deeper ! But, then, you will tell it to me ! [Enter IsABELLE. He is obout to seize Mildred's hand.^ Amorata, I beg MILDRED Hush ! The shadow of destiny falls on us ! ANTI-MATRIMONY 109 ISABELLE lTh€ once proud architecture of her hair is now in ruins, and in one hand she holds an apron, which she has just removed from her borrowed misfit gown. In a choking voice she speaks to Mil- dred.] Hypocrite ! MILDRED Farewell! [She ascends the stairs to the landing.'\ Farewell! I leave you — together. ISABELLE stop! [E^iOIiLDRED.] Comeback! Oh, it's not fair. She always runs away. She doesn't dare to face me. MORRIS It seems to me she has shown more courage than you. ISABELLE Courage ! She has shown the courage of a brazen adventuress. She has left me helpless and alone. She has dismissed both the maids for a holiday, and your mother's nowhere to be found, and I've had to mind the baby, all by myself, for hours. MORRIS If you will give way to such domestic instincts- 110 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE Could I let it choke with screaming? Courage! I tell you, Maurice, / have shown courage, while my heartless sister has stolen the gown from my back, and the hair from my head, and the husband MORRIS Stop ! Don't speak that word. ISABELLE And all the while pluming herself hke a bird-of- paradise to bamboozle you. MORRIS Bamboozle me. Ha! ISABELLE Yes, bamboozle you. O Maurice, how easily you have been deceived by an artful woman ! MORRIS [Darlhj.] I am beginning to think so, Isabelle. ISABELI.E Thank heaven, then, your eyes are opening at last. MORRIS Thank heaven. Indeed — even though it's heart- breaking. ANTI-MATRIMONY 111 ISABELLE Heart-breaking! So it's gone as far as that? MORRIS Almost, Isabelle. But I shan't let it go any far- ther, now that you have made me to see through you. ISABELLE Through me! Through Mildred, you mean. MORRIS No, you. Ever since that hour in Vienna, when the maid-servant left, and you cried to go home to Amer- ica, I have suspected it — dreaded it. Now you have convinced me. In your heart of hearts, you are not an Anti — you are a Mat! ISABELLE How can you say such a dreadful thing! MORRIS I will prove it. Answer me this: Are you not jealous of Mildred.'' ISABELLE Jealous ? MORRIS Of her devotion to me? ISABELLE [Tearfully.'] Yes, Maurice. I am. I own I am. 112 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS Listen to that ! Where now is jour consecration to our campaign? — to free love? to my career? to the works of the Masters? Have you forgotten my play — my mystic symbol, "The Love of the Bee"? This very morning you called it beautiful. ISABELLE Indeed, but it is ! MORRIS I brought you apple-blossoms. Now they are faded. So be it. Yet the symbol still blooms on, and I am the Bee. ISABELLE Oh, no, Maurice. I never understood it so. / am the Bee. MORRIS You — you! ISABELLE Oh, yes. I always was the Bee. MORRIS Good God! Did you take me for an apple-blos- som ? And you have pretended to be a mystic ! ISABELLE I am; I am a mystic. MORRIS Why, you've got the symbolism all mixed up. ANTI-MATRIMONY 113 ISABELLE I don't care. Mystic things always are mixed. How else could they be beautiful? MORRIS Don't try to argue, Isabelle. You are incapable of it. Remember, you are only nineteen, and your im- mature mind shows in sad contrast with your sister's extraordinary ISABELLE Mildred again ! Your head is hipped with Mildred. Can't you see that she has been deceiving you.'^ MORRIS Of course. She confessed that almost immediately. ISABELLE She confessed it ! MORRIS Certainly. She admitted that she was trying to conceal her infatuation for me. She had to, for I read her thoughts. ISABELLE Foolish boy! What do you know of woman's thoughts ? MORRIS Everything. I am a dramatist. / 114 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE Just slop to think, Maurice. Only this morning she called us both "silly children" for practising Anti- Matrimony. And now she pretends to practise it her- self. Doesn't that show you how paradoxical she is? MORRIS Of course; it shows me how great — how progres- sive — ^how modern she is. Paradox is the standard of progress. Only the vulgar mind is consistent. ISABELLE Do you forget the old proverb MORRIS Proverbs, my dear, are relics of the past. Modern truths are inverted proverbs. I learned that from the Masters long ago. ISABELLE Oh, dear, then, I won't try to argue. I know how much wiser and deeper you are. Only, beloved, I will appeal to our vows to each other. Don't you love me — don't you love me any more? MORRIS I don't see what that has to do with Mildred. I can't help it if you both love me. ANTI-MATRIMONY 115 ISABELLE But she doesn't love you ; not as I do. Look at me, Maurice. Don't you remember how we stood here to- gether, and you called me so many beautiful names? MORRIS Yes. But they don't seem to apply to you now. Somehow a different atmosphere seems to cling about you. ISABELI.E [^Wretchedly. 1 Oh, this dress ! MORRIS [Suspiciously.'] I did not mention it. Yet I notice you still wear it, in spite of my appeal to your conscience. Presuma- bly, my brother ISABELLE ElHott has been MORRIS I see! Elliott has been the reason. Isabelle, you have turned traitor to our cause. Instead of winning him over to our principles, as you promised me, you are allowing him to corrupt you to his. ISABELLE Not at all. Elliott has been the only kind person in the house to me. No one else has come near me. He came and rocked Cynthia for half an hour 116 ANTI-MATRIMONY \ MORRIS I Elliott rocked Cynthia. Indeed! ] ISABELLE ^ \_With increasing tearfulness.'\ \ And before that he read me an essay on "Sociolog- ical Investigations in the Slum Districts of Our '. Larger " j MORRIS I So ! Filled your mind with slumming and domes- I ticity! And what else does Elliott do for you? j [EnteVy left, Elliott.] ELLIOTT Here are the stockings, my dear. ISABELLE \_Taking from him a pair of hdby^s socks.'\ Oh, thanks. ELLIOTT They're both mended. MORRIS By you? ELLIOTT [To IsABELLE.] % Mother urges you to put them on Cynthia at once. , ■ i ANTI-MATRIMONY 117 ISABELLE I'm sure I thank you, Elliott. MORRIS [Looking after her, in astonishment. 1 Isabelle ! ELLIOTT How remarkably she has developed! MORRIS You think so ! ELLIOTT She is wonderfully changed. MORRIS You are right. She is wonderfully changed. Why has she changed? ELLIOTT Why? MORRIS Elliott, your profession is brotherly love. Do you think this a brother!}' way to deal with me? ELLIOTT This way ! What way ? MORRIS The way of the hypocrite. You know why Isabelle has changed. 118 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT ! I know? MORRIS : Yes, you know; and you cannot escape me by turn-; ing into a poll parrot. You yourself have changed; Isabelle. i ELLIOTT I You interest me. Can you advance any proofs? ^ I MORRIS I Proofs ! Look where she's gone now ; gone to mind^ the baby of her own accord. Unprecedented ! I tellj you, you are weaning her from my cause — from my I affections; instructing her how to rock cradles andj^ dandle infants. You are domesticating her. You arej making her a Mat ! ELLIOTT And suppose I were, may I ask what you arej making of Mildred? J MORRIS 1 Certainly. An Anti. I am proud of it, and I gave^ you fair warning. This morning I offered you myl principles; 3^ou rejected them. I told you then you I v/ould reap the consequences. Now you must face| them. Amorata has accepted my principles, and hasi repudiated you. ELLIOTT I beg pardon. Who did you say? ANTI-MATRIMONY 119 MORRIS Your wife that was. ELLIOTT But you mentioned another MORRIS I mentioned her mystic name. You would not understand. Oh, it's hke you to smile. ELLIOTT \_Biting his lips, glances at a large pad which he car- ries.^ Did I smile.? If so, it was only to conceal what I suffer. MORRIS Do I not suffer too? But do you think I object to that? Suffering is the symbol of the cause I serve. The joy of suffering is the art of mysticism; and I am a practical mystic, who lives his art. ELLIOTT You evade the subject of Mildred. MORRIS I do not. I have freed her from your tyranny frankly, honorably, above-board. But you have gone to work clandestinely, treacherously, to inveigle Isa- belle away from me. 120 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT If I have ingratiated myself with Isabelle, how need that affect you? \_S ear chin gly^ Of course, now, if you were married to her MORRIS Married ! Do you imagine that the abra cadabra of a mumbled marriage-vow makes any difference? ELLIOTT I have understood you to claim that it makes all the difference in the world. MORRIS How so? ELLIOTT Between an Anti and a Mat. MORRIS Why — why, of course, in a sense, it does and — and it doesn't. That depends on whether one speaks as a man, or a mystic. ELLIOTT [Glancing again at his pad.^ You must forgive me if I regard this matter merely as a man. To me, it is terribly simple: You, my brother, have entered my home and seduced from me my wife. MORRIS Seduced! How old-fashioned you are! ANTI-MATRIMONY 121 ELLIOTT Yes, Morris, old-fashioned. I am the last in the line of those ancient ghosts you spoke of: my skull is square and my chin is [Glancing at his pad'] Puri- tanical. To me, this outrage is not to be regarded lightly. To me, it is a domestic tragedy. MORRIS Do you think I don't appreciate the tragedy? ELLIOTT [^Taking up the leathern case, begins to toy with it, with increasing air of despondency.'] This case — I have smiled, I have assumed a forced gaiety, in hopes — this very case — in hopes that I should awaken ; that this nightmare would be dis- pelled. It's of leather — ^just a hundred years ago. MORRIS What's a hundred ELLIOTT This case. I have tried to put it off my mind. But I fear it is hopeless. MORRIS What.? ELLIOTT The case. It belonged to an old cavalry — [With sudden intensity] Morris, why have you come back to revive these old horrors of our house .^^ Isn't this the night of the nineteenth of May? 122 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS It is. What of it? ELLIOTT [/w a terrible voice. '\ Don't stand there. He stood In that very spot. MORRIS [Starting from the spot.'\ Who.'' What are you talking about? ELLIOTT Colonel Nehemiah Grey, our ancestor. He stood there, and opening this very case, he took a brace MORRIS Took what? ELLIOTT He took a brace — a brace of old cavalry pis- tols MORRIS Cavalry pistols? Good Lord — my play! ELLIOTT [Who has opened the case, takes slowly out a pistol.'] And on this very night in May, he shot — I've tried to put it off my mind. But Mildred — the thought of Mildred always eggs me on. Morris, this affair must be settled between us. When I am moved deeply, I ANTI-MATRIMONY 123 am not a man of words, but deeds. We two are brothers. One of us is enough for Mildred. Just a hundred years ago to-night, two Grey brothers stood here, as we are standing now. One was super- fluous. Well [^sIowIt/ raising the pistol^, one was removed. MORRIS [Crying out.'\ What are you doing .^^ [The voice of Mildred calls outside: ''HosmerTl ELLIOTT [Letting his hand fall.'\ Her voice ! [Leaving the open pistol-case on the table, he moves backward toward the desk, concealing the pistol.'] MILDRED [Outside, with musical cadence.] Hosmer ! MORRIS [Looking toward the door, right.] Amorata ! [Enter Mildred. She is dressed in Neapolitan cos- tume of scarlet and yellow, and whirls into the room, shaking a tambourine.] J IM ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED Hosmer ! Are you ready for the ball ? We will go to the ball together. ELLIOTT \^Sin1<:s murmuring into the desk-chair.^ Hie jacet Elhott! MORRIS What is this, Amorata? MILDRED This is your triumph, my Hosmer. I have arrayed myself in scarlet and fine linen for you — for you. Look: am I not erotic — am I not beautiful.'^ MORRIS Beyond words. MILDRED We will go to the ball. I will dance for you the Tarantella. Would you know me, my Hosmer? Look in my eyes — would you guess the despair in their brightness? See me move — would you suspect the matrimony that once weighed me down? MORRIS Never, Amorata. MILDRED For your sake I wear proudly the colors of our cause. In your praise I reveal my long-stifled genius. [^Beginning to dance as she speaks. ~\ ANTI-MATRIMONY 125 This, at last, is to live. I, the dead, am awakened. I will go to the ball. Like this I will dance — like this, for you alone. Es lebe das Leben! l^While she dances, Morris — glancing uneasily at Elliott, who has buried himself in the deslc- chair in the comer — approaches the table and se- cures the pistol-case, which he closes and holds tightly under his arm. Mildred has danced but a moment, and is just taking a wild, vivacious pose, when Isabelle enters, left, confronting her.~\ isabelle Mildred ! Is this — you ? MILDRED Madam, this is Amorata. I am dancing for Hos- mer. ISABELLE Hosmer — Amorata ! You have been reading his play! MILDRED We are going to the ball. ISABELLE What ball.? I don't believe there's a ball. MILDRED Pardon me : there is always a ball. 126 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE Maurice, I appeal to you. Is there a ball? Are you going with her? MILDRED Come, my Hosmer. ISABELLE Maurice ! Will you do such a thing ? MORRIS I will do all things in the cause of Anti-Matrimony. ISABELI.E But that is our cause. MORRIS No longer, Isabelle ; you have deserted it. MILDRED [To Morris.] Take me away. ISABELLE Elliott — Elliott, I appeal to you. [Elliott, who has been loriting at the desl^, rises, feverishly thrusting a sheet of paper into an en- velope. 1 MILDRED [To Morris.] You hear; she appeals to him. Oh, telephone for an automobile ! [Morris reaches toward the instrument.'] ANTI-MATRIMONY 127 TSARELLE Stop ! I forbid you to telephone. MORRIS You forbid! By what right? ISABELT.E By the right of an injured wife. MILDRED AND ELLIOTT A wife! ISABELLE Yes; that man is my husband. MILDRED AND ELLIOTT Horrible ! MORRIS Nonsense ; she is mad. [Putting his hand on the telephone, holds the ear- receiver to speak in.~\ What's the number? ISAT^ELLE Stop! We were married on November 16, 1907, in Vienna. MILDRED Hosmer, is this true? MORRIS No; she is mad, I say. Ask her for proofs. 128 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE [Unclasping from her throat her gold chain with a medallion locket. ~\ Here! Here are the proofs. MILDRED AND MORRIS What? Where? ISABELLE J^Opens the locket, and unfoldi/ng a thin sheet of for- eign paper, holds it out exultantly. 'I Here; this is our marriage-certificate. MILDRED [Taking it, reads.'] "Stadthaus, Wien: den sechzehnten November, neunzehn hundert sieben und " MORRIS [Snatching it from her.'\ Let me see. ISABELLE O Maurice, I forgot to burn it. MORRIS [Glancing at the paper, strides to the fireplace.] Let me save you the trouble. [He throws it in the flames.] ISABELLE Help! Save it. [She snatches, hut singes her fingers.] ANTI-MATRIMONY 1^9 MILDRED You deny her claim? MORRIS I repudiate it — and her. ISABELLE Maurice MORRIS Stand away from me. \_He goes toward the telephone.^ ISABELLE Hear me! I beg ELLIOTT [Starting forward between them, dashes an envelope at Mildred's feet.^ Farewell to all of you ! [He rushes out of doorsJ] MILDRED \Tremhlingly.'\ Elliott! MORRIS [Stooping for the envelope, hands it to Mildred.] What new insult is this? 130 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED [In agitation, opens it and reads. ^ "Faithless one: You will find me in the mill-race. Elliott." MORRIS The mill-race! \^From outdoors, resounds a sharp, single report. ~\ MILDRED Hark! Was that a pistol shot? MORRIS \_Opening the case.~\ The other is gone. ISABELLE I saw one in his hand. MILDRED My God ! He has shot himself. MORRIS \_Starti/ng toward the door.^ Oh, it's not possible! MILDRED \_Motionless and intense. 1 The end has come. ANTI-MATRIMONY 131 ISABELLE Oh, quickly! MORRIS What shall we do? MILDRED \_Half audibly. 1 The mill-race. MORRIS My scenario: it's all so horribly like. What have I done.'* MILDRED \_Swaying with closed eyes.'\ Let me lean upon you. MORRIS Don't fall: I'm beside you. MILDRED Hosmer, it had to be. But we will go forth in atonement. MORRIS Go forth.? MILDRED To the mill-race. See ! I lean far out on your arm. Together — together ! Hosmer ! MORRIS Amorata ! [They go out into the night, '\ 132 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE \_Following to the door.^ Maurice, take me! take me! lEnter, down the stairs, Mrs. Grey, in perturbation.^ MRS. GREY My dear, I heard a noise — a shot. What — what's the matter.'^ ISABELLE [Wildly.] Elliott — Mildred — Maurice MRS. GREY Where are they gone? ISABELLE [Rushing out of doors.] To the mill-race. MRS. GREY A race, my dear ? A race ! But why [Hurrying to the door, she calls out, while the door, right, is opened stealthily, and Elliott, enter- ing, pistol in hand, tiptoes up the stairs.] Children — ^take a lantern. You'll need rubbers. It's very muddy by the mill-pond. It may be burglars — A lantern, my dears — your rubbers ! CURTAIN. ACT IV ACT IV Later, the same evening. At the desk Elliott is discovered, arranging a pile of letters. At the table, Mildred — in a dress- ing-gown, worn over her Tarantella costume — sits typewriting. Elliott crosses to the table. ELLIOTT May I interrupt you a moment? MILDRED Certainly. ELLIOTT Here's that correspondence on the Civic Conven- tion. Please enter these under separate headings. [Handing her separate piles of opened letters. '\ This — factory hygiene. MILDRED [As she takes each pile, marks the top sheet with a pencil, and lays the pile separately on the table.~\ File under F. ELLIOTT Immigration service. MILDRED I. 135 136 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT Tuberculosis exhibit. MILDRED T. ELLIOTT Playground association. Conservation of for- ests. MILDRED p.— c. ELLIOTT Arbitration of labor. MILDRED A. All right, sir. ELLIOTT [Glancing at the typewriter carriage and lifting i*.] Now, in this article of mine that you're typewrit- ing, I've been thinking: this matter of reclaiming the state bogs MILDRED [With a quick glance and smile. '^ Draining the swamps, you mean. ELLIOTT Yes. MILDRED [Taking down a fie, she puts away the letters while she talks, '\ Want my advice.? ANTI-MATRIMONY 137 ELLIOTT Well, if jou MILDRED Sit down. I advise you to make us a shining ex- ample, and begin right here at home. ELLIOTT Here.? MILDRED In our own orchard. Look at my red stockings ! ELLIOTT My dear, you should have changed them — and your dress. You'll catch cold. MILDRED You forget: I'm immune. I've got the influenza already — from those poor children. ELLIOTT Where did you leave them? MILDRED After your shot.? Near the pond. When Isabelle caught up with us, I slipped into the mill, locked the door, and came through the back way. They were groping then toward the old dam. The frogs were piping ; it was dark as a pocket, and the mud [Bursts out laughing and hums.'\ — Oh, my dancing slippers ! 138 ANTI-MATRIMONY ELLIOTT What! You steered them into the swamp? MILDRED [Innocently. '\ I didn't say "steered." ELLIOTT [With a dubious looTc'l Mildred! You never told me. MILDRED No sermons, please, till I win. My little game isn't over. ELLIOTT How SO? MILDRED Isabelle is safely married to Morris, but Morris hasn't returned the compliment — ^yet. ELLIOTT By George, I lost track of that. Do you suppose he's plotting vengeance out there now? MILDRED I suppose fire and brimstone are a frost to it. You know, he threatened before to burn the ghosts out of these walls. ELLIOTT What are we to do if he shows fight? ANTI-MATRIMONY 1S9 MILDRED Trust Amorata! ELLIOTT But suppose he talks Anti among the neighbors? MILDRED Well, Amorata can talk too. ELLIOTT But that won't put water on his fire. MILDRED My dear, mud is thicker than water. [^She puts out her slippers.'] ELLIOTT I see. You mean that, after the swamp, his Anti- Matrimony reform will be left to MILDRED To the bullfrogs. No young reformer can afford to wade far into mud — especially good, mushy mill- pond mud. Now will you scold me? lEnter Mrs. Grey.] MRS. GREY Haven't they come back? MILDRED Who? 140 ANTI-MATRIMONY MRS. GREY Why, the children — Morris and Isabelle. [Elliott resumes work at his desTc.'\ MILDRED Don't worry about them. They're sitting in the arbor. MRS. GREY In the arbor! But it's dark; it's wet; it's been raining hard. Why don't they come in? MILDRED Just a case of cold feet, I guess. MRS. GREY Oh, and I told Isabelle to take her rubbers : they'll catch their deaths. MILDRED Never fear. They've escaped death once to-night. MRS. GREY Mildred! was it a burglar.? What do you mean? Oh dear, I do wish you'd explain if it's still charades, or a game, or what? [Elliott and Mildred hrealc mto laughter. 1 MILDRED Still charades, mother. Aren't you guessing? ANTI-MATRIMONY 141 MRS. GREY Well, I'm still puzzling. But, anyivay, dears, it does my heart good now to hear you laughing again, and to see you both happy and busy at your work as usual. It must be a game, I'm sure; so I'll keep on guessing. MILDRED Do! — that's a darling. MRS. GREY And now that you tell me they're married, I know I should be perfectly happy. But why did they say they weren't? MII.DRED Oh, just to be in style: it's the fashion. MRS. GREY I suppose that's it. You see, the fashions change so, I don't seem to keep up with them. Now, when Elliott's father and I were married, the wedding-cards came first and the christening afterward; but now- adays MILDRED Nowadays, dear, it's christen in haste and marry at leisure. MRS. GREY To think of it ! 143 ANTI-MATRIMONY [^As Mildred rises and lays aside her dressing- gown, Mrs. Grey looks at her closely.'] Oh, that dress, Mildred! It sets me worrying again. I'm afraid it's worse than charades. MILDRED Worse } MRS. GREY I'm afraid you're practising to — to really go on the stage. MILDRED Why, what gave you that idea.? MRS. GREY Something you said. You said, my dear, that Mor- ris had taught you to be one of those theatrical per- sons I've read about ; it begins with "s." MILDRED A star, you mean? MRS. GREY No, it's another word: "Super" — ^that was it — "super." MILDRED A "super" — me ! MRS. GREY Yes, my dear, you said you were going to be a superwoman. I heard you. ANTI-MATRIMONY 143 MILDRED [_Laughing.'\ That's right — just a superwoman. And now I'm going to make you the star, Mother. MRS. GREY [^AgJiast.'\ Me! Me, Mildred — a star? MIIiDRED Yes; come along! I've got an idea. ELLIOTT [As Mildred starts up the stairs.^ Where are you bound now ? MILDRED To the attic again. You must go to your room, and take the lamp. They'll never come in while there's a light downstairs. Come, mother : it's still charades, you know. \_Raising her voicel Good-night, El- liott! MRS. GREY [Preceding her.l A star! But — ^but — ^how will you make me shine, Mildred.? MILDRED [With long calling cadence, "l Good-night, EHiott! [Exeunt along the landing, left,'] 144j anti-matrimony ELLIOTT [Takvng the lamp and some papers, goes out, right.'] Good-night, Mildred. Good-night ! [^The fire is very low, and casts faint, sputtering gleams into the dark hall. After a silence, through which only the clock ticks, two vague forms emerge from the deeper gloom outdoors, and move stealthily in to the glow of the hearth.] ISABELLE [Barely audible.] Please put on a log. [The dim figure of Morris gropes to the wood-closet, opens it and reaches in. Isabelle shivers and shakes her skirt.] Thank heaven they didn't sit up any longer: I'm soaked through. [Rummaging with half -articulate oaths, Morris brings forth two sticks of wood, puts them on the fire and pokes it. The room grows in- termittently lighter, revealing the plightful ap- pearance of the two. Morris's dress-suit is soaked and bedraggled with mire, the shirt-bosom bespattered with mud. Isabelle's appearance is similarly forlorn; and both are dishevelled by the rain.] ISABELLE [Faintly.] I'm famished. ANTI-MATRIMONY 145 MORRIS [Taking a silver basket of white grapes from the mantelpiece. 1 Grapes ; have some. ISABEIiLE [More faintly.^ Thanks. [Shoving the settee near the hearth for Isabelle to sit in, Morris — wringing his dilapidated coat- tails — sinks on to a hassock in the shadow. Fol- lows then a speechless pause, during which the occasional patter of grape-skins in the fire indi- cates their occupation. Soon Isabelle speaks, plaintively.'] If only the mill-door hadn't been locked [Morris makes a guttural sound.'] We needn't have waded through that awful swamp. morris Hah! isabelle Maurice, are you ill.'' morris [Abysmally.'] Mill-door ! isabelle Is it the grapes.? I'm afraid they're sour. 146 ANTI-MATRIMONY MORRIS She locked it. I saw her go in. She left us to flounder in the mire. ISABELLE Ah, so you begin to see through her. At last you realize I was right. You must acknowledge [^ bunch of grapes falls in her lap.^ Thank you. Oh, how I do wish-— — MORRIS \_Hoarsel7/.^ Don't wish: eat! ISABELLE [After another pause of grape-eating. '\ Beloved, what will become of your campaign now? MORRIS [Growling,'] Mud! ISABELLE Wasn't it awful ^ Up to my knees ! If only we had stayed on the mountain-tops of our spirit, this never would have happened. I'm sure it's symbolic. [Morris mutters.'] Don't you feel, dear, after all, that this mud has a certain mysticy something MORRIS Sticky .? I'm a paste-pot ! ANTI-MATRIMONY 147 ISABELLE It will soon dry, dear. Now that I'm safe indoors and feeling warmer, I begin to see all this in its true poetic light. MORRIS Poetic! Where's a match? \^He rises and gropes ah out. 1 ISABELLE I begin to feel that I can even forgive Mildred. I can understand how, being my sister, a certain mystic likeness to me should have led you to feel that temporary infatuation MORRIS Damn! ISABELLE Can't you find a light, dear? MORRIS J[StriJcing his shins against a chair. ^ Not a glim! ISABELLE Light a scrap of paper. MORRIS [Tearing a piece of paper off a pad on the table, takes it to the fire. There, about to light it, he looks closer and reads.'] "Suicide: pistols, coal-gas, drowning (mill-race preferred)." O Hades! 148 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELIiE What did you say, love? MORRIS I said — Hell. [He crumples the paper, twists it and lights it in the fire. Carrying it thus as a taper, he searches on the table.'] Where's a cigarette? [Feeling in a tin box, he takes from it a cartridge, glances at it, lifts the box quickly and reads the label.] "44 Cahbre Blank Cartridges." Blank ! Blankety blank!! [The taper burns short and he blows it out.] ISABELLE Besides, dear, when I stop to consider that, out of my guiding love for you, I really did dazzle poor El- liott a little too [The clock begins to strike.] Goodness ! Ten o'clock. I wonder if that darling baby has had her MORRIS What? What's that? ISABELLE Oh, nothing — I beg pardon. ANTI-MATRIMONY 149 MORRIS Did I hear you refer to the baby? ISABELLE I just thought about her bottle, but of course ■ MORRIS Thank God! That's the first sensible thought you've had to-night. ISABELLE Maurice ! MORRIS No — Morris; "Maurice" is up the spout. ISABELLE But, my love — you know, ever since we first en- tered into Anti-Matrimony MORRIS Anti-Matrimony is in the mud. ISABELLE Dearest, don't speak so. You mustn't think be- cause I weakly referred to the baby that I don't share with you your lofty emancipated ideals. And, be- loved, even if I did keep our marriage-certificate in the locket, please forgive me for — — MORRIS Quit it, Isabelle. It's the only thing I do forgive you for. 150 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE What — ^the marriage-certificate 1 But you've always told me that the Masters MORRIS Drop them, please ! Can't you see that I've got to get a whole clean suit, or go back to the swamp? ISABELLE A clean suit? But — - — MORRIS A new campaign. ISABELLE [Gasping.l Do you mean that we are to be Mats? MORRIS Just so — ^to scrape the mud off. ISABELLE But, darling, is that quite consistent? MORRIS Consistent? Haven't I told you that consistency is a fallacy of the vulgar mind? I am an artist. ISABELLE Oh! MORRIS All perfect art is paradox. ANTI-MATRIMONY 151 ISABELLE I see. MORRIS And therefore a modem artist who is truly a su- perman — Oh, damn it, there I go again. Stop me. I'm cribbing from the old dress-suit case. ISABELIiE Dearest, I don't know just what to say. I feel so very — so — What will Mildred think of this change in you.'' MORRIS She.? Don't you see that she thinks she has the Yankee laugh on us? ISABELLE Insufferable American humor! MORRIS Quite so. It's devilish, but now it's our last resort. It's simply a case of fight the devil with fire, or — ^be roasted. \_Muttering'\ "Mill-race preferred!" ISABELLE What are we to do ? MORRIS Yankee them back, that's all. Wipe them out with a clean sponge. They expect me to scowl and swear. Well then, watch me smile and compliment. 152 ANTI-MATRIMONY ISABELLE I'm watching, dear. Do you really mean it? MORRIS [Grimly.'] Do I look it? ISABELLE I mean — Do you mind, darling, if I — if I feel — very happy about it? MORRIS Happy about what? ISABELLE {^Embracing him.'] That we're to be Mats, after all! THE VOICE OF MILDRED \_Low and 'plaiffitively.] Hosmer ! [Morris starts,] ISABELLE [Clinging to him.] My dear! [At the top of the stairs, appears an obscure Figure.] THE VOICE [Wailing again.] Hosmer! Why have you forsaken me? ANTI-MATRIMONY 153 ISABELLE [Nervously y to Morris.] What is it? MORRIS It's the limit. [The Figure hesitates, and starts to turn bacJc.'\ THE VOICE It is I — ^Amorata ! ISABELLE Some one is coming down the stairs. Look ! Is it she? \_In the vagueness, the Figure slowly descends.'] THE VOICE [With dying cadence.] Why did you leave me alone — alone in the mill- pond? MORRIS [To ISABELLE.] Keep out of the firelight. [At the bottom of the stairs, the Figure emerges in to the faint glow of the fire. Clad in a long, gray cloak of ample folds, and huge peaked hat pulled far down over its face, it moves slowly toward them.] MILDRED Now I am doomed to walk as your family ghost: O grey, grey, grey — forsaken forevermore! 154j anti-matrimony MORRIS [To ISABELLE.] Leave go of me. THE VOICE \_As the Figure raises one cloaked arm and points at them.'] I am the Passionate Puritan. Forever I shall haunt you both — forevermore! MORRIS \_Coming forward.] Stop pointing at me. Take off your hat. Stop this miserable faking! THE FIGURE [Removing the great hat.] Why, Morris, it's only charades. [Emerging from the ample cloak, which falls on the floor, Mrs. Grey stands revealed in the firelight,] ISABELLE Mother Grey! MORRIS [Raising both arms, inarticulate, suddenly holts for a corner.] O shucks ! MRS. GREY Yes; you've guessed. That's the word. Mildred just told me so. ANTI-MATRIMONY 155 MILDRED [Appearing between the curtams of the landing, runs down the stairs, striking a match J\ Elliott, Elliott, come ! Hot chocolate for five ! [She lights a lamp on the desli.^ ELLIOTT [Entering, downstairs, left, with a steaming tray.~\ Who's won? What does he say? MILDRED We've won: He says "Shucks!" We've made a Yankee of him, after all. ELLIOTT [Setting the tray on the tdbleJ\ Hang if we haven't. MILDRED You darlings — ^both! The Antitoxin has cured you. MRS. GREY The what—Mildred? MILDRED [Whispers in Mrs. Grey's earJ^ Quickly. MRS. GREY But how [Motioned away by Mildred, she exits, agitated, up the stairs.^ 156 ANTI-MATRIMONY MILDRED You adorable boy — let me kiss you! MORRIS Thanks; presently. [Aside to Isabelle] Now just watch me! [To Mildred] But first I wish to apologize. MILDRED Apologize ! MORRIS For having made you the victims of my little prac- tical joke. ELLIOTT Victims ! MILDRED Your little joke? MORRIS I am very glad you take it so lightly. I was afraid — You see our appearance. ELLIOTT Been fishing? MORRIS Yes, Elliott — in the mill-race — fishing for suckers. They still bite. ELLIOTT So it looks. ANTI-MATRIMONY 157 MORRIS Doesn't it? You see, it happened like this: I am, as Mildred knows, writing a Httle skit on the Masters, called "Hosmer's Home," in which, by the way, Isa- belle is collaborating. ISABELLE A little skit. MORRIS So it occurred to me — while we were waiting for our trunks from the steamer — knowing Mildred's great fondness for dancing and private theat- ricals MILDRED [^Twmkling.l Oh, you arch villain! MORRIS It occurred to me, I say, to enlist her rare gifts in trying out a few scenes in the rough, just to work up my material. She was very obliging. ISABELLE Very. MORRIS You also, Elliott, came nobly to the rescue. I am only sorry — and apologize — ^that in working up the mill-race climax, our enthusiasm should have slightly damaged these stage-properties: This dress-suit of 158 ANTI-MATRIMONY yours, Elliott, which I took the liberty of borrow- ing ELLIOTT The deuce you did! MORRIS And that dress of yours, Mildred, which you so kindly loaned to Isabelle. ISABELLE It was good of you, Mildred! MILDRED Not at all, dear, considering your trunks arrived here yesterday evening. ISABELLE [Shaking Mildred.] My own trunks .^^ Here.'^ Yesterday? MILDRED So now we are ready for supper. [She arranges the table and chairs.'] ELLIOTT [Taking Morris's hand.~\ Never mind about the suit. Want to change now.^* morris No, thanks. I'll put it in the suit-case — later. Just now I'm interested in that map of yours. [Points to the wall.~\ ANTI-MATRIMONY 159 ELLIOTT Oh, my ideal community! MORRIS Yes. Please show me your Home for Incurable Married Couples. MRS. GREY [^ Appears on the stairs, holding a swaddled bundle.^ Mildred ISABELLE \_With a cry.l Oh, it's the baby ! [She rushes to the stairs and seizes it from Mrs. Grey.] The darling! Has she had her bottle.? MORRIS Halloa! Is that Cynthia? MILDRED [Beclconing all to the table, where the steaming cups are arranged, takes Cynthia in her arms.^ Cynthia who? MORRIS Just Cynthia. MILDRED No, indeed. This is Cynthia Grey. Isn't it, Mother? 160 ANTI-MATRIMONY MRS. GREY Oh, yes, my son. Please ! We can christen her Grey now, can't we.? MORRIS Grey.? No, Mammy: Red-white-and-blue for Cyn- thia! MILDRED Her Aunt Mildred is going to be godmother. MORRIS \^Looking across Ms lifted cup of chocolate, to Mil- dred, as they all gather round the tahle,^ Here's to her Auntie! MILDRED [Cuddling Cynthia.] Hush, Morris. You mustn't say "Anti !" FINIS. fW('^ »o i^iw One copy del. to Cat. Div.