Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 153

THEKLA. It was you and no one else who taught me that. Do you still remember finding out my special colors?

GUSTAV. No.

THEKLA. It was quite simple, don't you remember? Come, I still remember distinctly how angry you used to be with me if I ever had anything else except pink.

GUSTAV. I angry with you? I was never angry with you.

THEKLA. Oh yes, you were, when you wanted to teach me how to think.

Don't you remember? And I wasn't able to catch on.

GUSTAV. Not able to think, everybody can think, and now you're developing a quite extraordinary power of penetration--at any rate in your writings.

THEKLA [_disagreeably affected, tries to change the subject quickly_].

Yes, Gustav dear, I was really awfully glad to see you again, especially under circ.u.mstances so unemotional.

GUSTAV. Well, you can't say at any rate that I was such a cantankerous cuss: taking it all round, you had a pretty quiet time of it with me.

THEKLA. Yes; if anything too quiet.

GUSTAV. Really? But I thought, don't you see, that you wanted me to be quiet and nothing else. Judging by your expressions of opinion as a bride, I had to come to that a.s.sumption.

THEKLA. How could a woman know then what she really wanted? Besides, mother had always drilled into me to make the best of myself.

GUSTAV. Well, and that's why it is that you're going as strong as possible. There's such a lot always doing in artist life--your husband isn't exactly a home-bird.

THEKLA. But even so one can have too much of a good thing.

GUSTAV [_suddenly changing his tone_]. Why, I do believe you're still wearing my earrings.

THEKLA [_embarra.s.sed_]. Yes, why shouldn't I? We're not enemies, you know--and then I thought I would wear them as a symbol that we're not enemies--besides, you know that earrings like this aren't to be had any more.

[_She takes one off._]

GUSTAV. Well, so far so good; but what does your husband say on the point?

THEKLA. Why should I ask him?

GUSTAV. You don't ask him? But that's rubbing it in a bit too much--it could quite well make him look ridiculous.

THEKLA [_simply--in an undertone_]. If it only weren't so pretty.

[_She has some trouble in adjusting the earring._]

GUSTAV [_who has noticed it_]. Perhaps you will allow me to help you?

THEKLA. Oh, if you would be so kind.

GUSTAV [_presses it into the ear_]. Little ear! I say, dear, supposing your husband saw us now.

THEKLA. Then there'd be a scene.

GUSTAV. Is he jealous, then?

THEKLA. I should think he is--rather!

[_Noise in the room on the right._]

GUSTAV [_pa.s.ses in front of her toward the right_]. Whose room is that?

THEKLA [_stepping a little toward the left_]. I don't know--tell me how you are now, and what you're doing.

[_She goes to the table on the left._]

GUSTAV. You tell me how you are. [_He goes behind the square table on the left, over to the sofa.--Thekla, embarra.s.sed, takes the cloth off the figure absent-mindedly._] No! who is that? Why--it's you!

THEKLA. I don't think so.

GUSTAV. But it looks like you.

THEKLA [_cynically_]. You think so?

GUSTAV [_sits down on the sofa_]. It reminds one of the anecdote: "How could your Majesty say that?"

THEKLA [_laughs loudly and sits down opposite him on the settee_]. What foolish ideas you do get into your head. Have you got by any chance some new yarns?

GUSTAV. No; but you must know some.

THEKLA. I don't get a chance any more now of hearing anything which is really funny.

GUSTAV. Is he as prudish as all that?

THEKLA. Rather!

GUSTAV. Never different?

THEKLA. He's been so ill lately.

[_Both stand up._]

GUSTAV. Well, who told little brother to walk into somebody else's wasps' nest.

THEKLA [_laughs_]. Foolish fellow, you!

GUSTAV. Poor child! do you still remember that once, shortly after our engagement, we lived in this very room, eh? But then it was furnished differently, there was a secretary for instance, here, by the pillar, and the bed [_With delicacy._] was here.

THEKLA. Hus.h.!.+

GUSTAV. Look at me!