A PLAY BY Booth Tarkington The GHOST STORY WALTER H. BAKER CO., BOSTON No. 1 APPLETON LITTLE THEATRE PLAYS Edited by Grace Adams THE GHOST STORY THE GHOST STORY : BOOTH TARKINGTON : Special edition printed for Walter H. Baker Co., The Play Shop Boston, Mass. COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY All rights reserved The professional stage rights of this play are reserved by the Author. The amateur stage rights are held by The Ladies Home Journal. For permission to produce the play applications should be made by pro- fessional producers to Mr. Booth Tarkington, Indianapolis, Indiana, and by amateur producers to the Ladies Home Journal. Printed in the United States of America. THE PERSONS GEORGE, an earnest young gentleman of 22. ANNA, a pretty, young girl of 20. MARY- GRACE Three girls of 19 or 20. LENNIE TOM FLOYD LYNN | F ur youths of about the same. FRED j HOUSEMAID. NOTE. Upon the program it should be mentioned that the curtain will be lowered for a moment during the progress of the play to denote a lapse of about half an hour. THE GHOST STORY The rise of the curtain discloses a comfortable and pleasant living-room of commonplace type. It is early evening; a clock on the mantelpiece marks the time as twenty minutes after seven; the lamps are lit. At a piano is seated a pretty girl of twenty; she plays dance music gayly for a few moments; then abruptly her theme becomes senti- mental and she plays a love song, singing bits of it to herself, while her expression becomes tender and wistful. An electric bell is heard, and upon this sound she stops singing and playing at once; her look is alert. She considers the room thoughtfully, then goes to a chair beside a little table, picks up a small leather-bound book, sits and pretends to read with dreamy absorption. Then, behind her, across the room, a door is opened, offering a glimpse of a hallway, where a nervous and earnest young gentleman of twenty-two is hastily conclud- ing the removal of his heavy overcoat and gloves, with the connivance of a housemaid. He comes into the living-room immediately. With an air of complete surprise the girl looks up from her pre- tended reading. THE GIRL Why, George (She rises.) GEORGE (as the housemaid closes the door) Anna, I came early because 7 THE GHOST STORY ANNA (as they shake hands and sit) I'm so flattered. I didn't dream you'd do more than just call me up to say good-by. GEORGE You didn't think I'd come .myself? ANNA Why, no. I didn't think you'd have time; you have to make good-by calls on all your aunts and married sisters and cousins, don't you? I'm really very much flattered. GEORGE I came early, as soon as I could choke down dinner and run, because well, I wanted to talk to you alone for a few minutes for a novelty. I thought maybe just this once I could get here before the rest of 'em pile in. ANNA "The rest of 'em?" I don't know that any of 'em will "pile in" this evening, George. GEORGE No, you never do; but they pile in, just the same. That's the trouble with you, Anna; you're too popular. (She laughs protestingly. He goes on earnestly.) Oh, yes, you are. It's horrible! ANNA What nonsense! GEORGE It's the truth; it's just horrible for a girl to be like you. ANNA Thanks! 8 THE GHOST STORY GEORGE (emphatically) It is. Nobody can ever get within a mile of you. And what I hate about it is that girls hang around you just as much as the rest of us do. ANNA (demurely) You think it's queer that girls like me, George ? GEORGE It isn't "queer," no. (Adds in a burst of con- fidence.) But it's been pretty painful to me these holidays. ANNA (staring) What are you talking about? GEORGE Well, that's what I came early to tell you. ANNA You came early to tell me what you're talking about ? GEORGE (a little confused) What I mean to say listen; it's just this: I I I ANNA (reminding him) You began by saying it's horrible that any- body seems able to stand me. GEORGE It's horrible that I always have to see you in a crowd; that's what I mean. If there aren't four or five men around you, then there are four or five girls; and if there aren't just four or five girls, or four or five men, then there are four or five of both of 'em ! 9 THE GHOST STORY ANNA But look, George. Look under the piano, and under the chairs, and under GEORGE What for? ANNA For all those people you said were always around me. It's queer, but you do seem to me to be the only one here. GEORGE Yes, just this minute. But you know as well as I do that pretty soon the bell will begin ringing, and they'll come pouring in. Then when they're here they stay and stay and stay and Why, it is horrible! ANNA Aren't you a funny boy! GEORGE I wish I could see any fun in it! (He rises and paces the floor as he talks.) Why, I believe if I'd known it was going to be like this I wouldn't have come home for the holidays. You don't know how I looked forward to coming home and and seeing you! Why, I've hardly thought of anything else, all the fall term! ANNA (incredulously) You don't mean you thought of it during the football season? GEORGE No. I mean yes. Yes, I was looking forward to it even then, too. I kept thinking: "Just wait till the Christmas holidays come; then I'll get to see a whole lot of Anna. I'll get to 10 THE GHOST STORY dance with her a lot, to take her to a lot of things maybe, even, I'll get some evenings alone with her by the fire, and we'll read some poetry or something together." That's what I thought! (He laughs bitterly.) And look what's happened! You were booked up solid for every last little thing a person could hope to take you to! I've never got once clear around with you a single time you've danced with me some frenzied bird always cut in and every afternoon or evening I've found you at home I've had to sit about seventeen rows back and just be audience for the bickering that went on. And now it's my last evening; my train leaves at nine-fifty-one, and I won't see you again till June, after commencement; and I know I'm not going to get a chance to talk to you five minutes! Some of these birds'll be breaking in here any second. That's why it's horrible! ANNA But they haven't broken in yet, George. GEORGE Yes, but they will! ANNA (shyly) Well, but if you if you do like being alone with me, why don't you well, why don't you just like it until they do come? GEORGE "Like it?" You don't seem to realize my train is the nine-fifty-one, and I'll have to leave here at least half an hour before then; and I'll have ii THE GHOST STORY to say good-by to you with people around, so I cant say what I want to! ANNA But what is it you want to say to me except just good-by? GEORGE Well, it's something I couldn't say with people around. ANNA (nervously) But but there aren't any people around now, George. GEORGE (shaking his head gloomily) Oh, there would be, before I could say it! I know 'em! ANNA (noncommital) Well- GEORGE (taking a chair near her suddenly) Anna, it's just this. I want you to understand the position I'm in. I want you to understand what I what I have in mind. (Breaking off abruptly in a tone of abysmal despair.) But what's the use? Some of 'em are sure to come in. Couldn't you send word you're not at home? ANNA Well, you see, Lennie Cole and Tom Ban- nister and Mary and Grace and Fred GEORGE I knew it ! And you said you didn't know they'd be piling in! ANNA I don't not precisely, that is. But but, of course it's possible. And they'd certainly 12 THE GHOST STORY know it wasn't so if I sent word "not at home," and they'd feel hurt. GEORGE (despairingly) That's it! That's my regular luck with you! Isn't there any way to get rid of 'em? ANNA (seemingly reproachful) They are friends of mine, you know, George. GEORGE (despondently) Pardon me. ANNA Very well. GEORGE Listen. What I was saying ANNA (quickly) Yes, George? GEORGE (speaking hurriedly) I wanted to tell you, I have been looking for- ward to the holidays because I thought this would be the time I'd be ah justified, as it were, in saying something I something I had in mind to say to you. ANNA Yes, George? GEORGE I've had it in my mind to say ever since well, for quite a time ever since ever since ANNA Is it something about your studies, George? GEORGE No, it certainly isn't. It's about well, I've wanted to say it ah a long time. ANNA How long? 13 THE GHOST STORY GEORGE Ever since well, it was that day you wore a blue dress. ANNA What sort of a blue dress ? GEORGE I don't know. It was it was blue. ANNA With flounces? And lace on the blouse? GEORGE I don't know. It was just sort of blue. ANNA But I haven't had a blue dress this year. GEORGE No. It wasn't this year. ANNA Why, the last time I wore a blue dress was that summer at the lake, three years ago. GEORGE Yes. That was when it was. You wore it the day we went canoeing for water lilies. That was the day it happened. ANNA The day what happened? GEORGE The day you wore the blue dress. ANNA Oh, yes. GEORGE Yes. It was then. (Both of them are very serious?) 14 THE GHOST STORY ANNA Yes. That one was blue linen, and very simple. It was another one that had flounces with lace on the blouse. GEORGE Well ever since then I've thought that some day I might feel that I was in a well, in a position to to justify ah what I'd like to say. You see, I well, I was pretty young then; we both were, in fact. ANNA Yes, I suppose we were. GEORGE Yes. I suppose I hardly realized how young I was at the time. Funny, isn't it? I thought I was a real grown-up man of the world, and I was only nineteen! Looking back on it over these years a person sees how much he had still to learn! My goodness! When I think of all I've been through since then ANNA You mean at college? GEORGE Yes, and here at home, too like what I've been through these holidays, for instance. ANNA Have you? Why, I thought you looked so well, George. GEORGE I mean not getting near you. You know. What I was talking about. ANNA But that couldn't be very severe, George. 15 THE GHOST STORY GEORGE Yes, it could, because it was. Anna, my father stopped off a day to see me at college in October ANNA How nice! GEORGE We had a pretty serious talk about my future. ANNA Oh, I'm sorry it was serious, George. GEORGE What I mean it was business-like. About my future in business. ANNA (somewhat vaguely) Oh, yes. GEORGE Next June, when I get home, he's going to take me right in with him. He thinks well, he thinks I'll get along all right. He he's going to give me a ten-per-cent interest in the business, Anna. ANNA How lovely! GEORGE (swallowing) So that's that's why I said I feel ah justified in saying what I want to get a chance to to say to you, Anna. ANNA Yes, George? GEORGE What I mean I mean that's why I'm sure to have sufficient means to to settle down, as it were and so I I thought I 16 THE GHOST STORY ANNA Yes, George? GEORGE You see, that day you wore the blue dress I was only nineteen, and I hadn't had this talk with my father, because, in fact, I never did have this talk with him until just this October as it were and so and so ANNA Yes, George? GEORGE (solemn but increasingly nervous) And so well, the time has come the time has come ANNA (glancing over her shoulder at the hall door) The time has come? Yes, George? GEORGE The time has come when I when I want to ask you if if if the time has come it's come it's come ANNA Yes, George? (The bell rings loudly.) GEORGE (leaping to his feet) I knew it! I knew they'd come piling in here just the instant I (He turns up-stage, clasp- ing his brow.) Oh, my heavens! I knew it! ANNA Oh! (The door into the hall is opened by the house- maid^ and two girls of nineteen or twenty are re- vealed^ divesting themselves of outer wraps. They 17 THE GHOST STORY at once come hurrying gay I y down to Anna, greeting her with a jumble of words and laughter , to which she contributes in like manner, as they exclaim: "We just thought we'd frolic over to see you, old thing," and "Nothing doing at our house, so we thought we'd see if you knew anything." Anna responds simultaneously ', "Just lovely of you! We were just hoping you'd take it into your heads to drop in. How nice of you!" and so forth. The newcomers greet George with "Hello, George.") GEORGE (res-ponds pessimistically) Howdy-do, Mary. Howdy-do, Grace. ANNA George just dropped in to say good-by. MARY Gracious! Hope we're not interfering. GEORGE (feebly) Oh, no. Not at all! ANNA (laughing) Why, of course not! (The bell rings.) GEORGE Oh, my goodness! Here's some more! GRACE (reproachfully) College English, George? Don't they teach you to say "Here are more"? GEORGE (with gloomy absent-mindedness) Yes, there certainly are! I knew it! (The hall door opens to admit five more lively young people: a girl and four youths. The girl's 18 THE GHOST STORY name it appears during the ensuing greetings is LENNIE, and the young gentlemen are known to those present as TOM, FLOYD, LYNN, and FRED. They chatter phrases and half sentences of greeting all together for a few moments , though George takes only a pessimistic and fragmentary part in the ceremonies; then Lennie shouts louder than any of the others and obtains a hearing^) LENNIE But what are we going to do? We aren't just going to sit around and talk, are we? MARY Let's all go somewhere. SEVERAL OF THE OTHERS Well, where? Where is there to go? Where do you want to go? LENNIE Well, most anywhere. GEORGE That's a sensible idea. MARY Where do you say to go, Anna? ANNA I? Oh, nowhere. I thought I wouldn't go out to-night. GRACE All right, then; we'll stay here. CHORUS Well, why not? Might as well be here as anywhere. Yes, let's take it easy for one night. (And so forth?) THE GHOST STORY LENNIE Well, what's the matter with our shaking the hoof a while? Turn on that phonograph, some- body. (She grasps the youth Floyd.) CHORUS That's it! Come on, then! We can dance here's well's anywhere! Tune her up, George! (They prepare to dance; Anna is seized upon, and, in the pairing of couples, the gloomy George finds himself the odd person, excluded.) CHORUS Start the instrument, George! George, you're the band! Why don't you tune up, George? (George starts the phonograph, which stands in a corner of the room. The others dance, chattering. George goes to the fireplace and compares his watch with the clock on the mantel shelf. Then he produces a camper s pocketknife, opens out of it a small screwdriver, and returns to the phono- graph with an air of determination. Glancing over his shoulder and assuring himself that the dancers are too busy to observe him, he busily sets to work upon the mechanism of the phonograph. Meanwhile the others begin to sing loudly and gayly the air played by the record, all oblivious of George's energetic destructiveness. The record falters; then it begins to make peculiar sounds.) CHORUS (not pausing in the dance) Why, gracious! What's the matter with the music? Is that instrument sick? Sounds like cholera morbus! (And so forth.) 20 THE GHOST STORY FLOYD (shouting) Put on another record, George. What's the matter with the thing, anyhow? GEORGE (moving hastily away from the phonograph) I don't know. Is something wrong? CHORUS Can't you fix it? Put on another record! Do something! GEORGE Well, I'll see. (He puts a hand under the lid of the phonograph; there is instantly a clatter , and the music stops. So do the dancers?) CHORUS What is the matter? Why don't you fix it? Why don't you GEORGE Something seems to be the matter with it. GRACE Well, hurry and fix it. GEORGE I don't believe I LYNN (looking under the lid) Well, no; I don't believe you could! (He takes from under the lid the metal arm and detached sound box of the instrument?) Why, it would take Edison himself to put this phonograph together again it's all fallen apart! CHORUS Goodness! Why, just look at it! Well, of all the disappointing Oh, my, how silly of it! (And so forth.) 21 THE GHOST STORY TOM That's all the dancing you'll do to-night, ladies ! MARY But you're men. Why don't some of you fix it? LYNN (singing) Humpty Dumpty sat on a wa/! y Humpty Dumpty had a great fall GRACE Oh, do hush. Why don't you fix it? FLOYD and LYNN (singing together) All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again! (They execute a few clog steps by way of con- clusion.) MARY (sinking into a chair) How tiresome! FLOYD and LYNN Thanks, lady! GRACE (sitting) Well, what are we going to do? FRED Let's play Button, Button! Who's Got the Button? LENNIE (sitting) Do hush! GEORGE (earnestly) Well, I can't think of any way you could amuse yourselves. Strikes me this would be a great night for everybody to go home and get some sleep. 22 THE GHOST STORY TOM I thought you had to start back to college tonight. GEORGE I do. I meant everybody else. TOM What's the matter with you, George? I mean with your mind. GEORGE Nothing. I only meant GRACE Oh, do hush! Can't anybody think of some- thing we could do? GEORGE No. Not a thing. MARY We could play charades. GEORGE Charades? They're terrible. GRACE (with a shrug) Well, let's just sit around and talk, then. GEORGE Oh, murder, no! ANNA Well, what do you want to do, George? GEORGE (hastily) Well, I want to (He checks himself.) I was just trying to think. It does seem a great night to go home and sleep. FLOYD (finishing a consultation with Fred) Why, of course. We've got enough for two tables, with George left over. He has to go pretty soon, anyhow, so he needn't play. 23 THE GHOST STORY GEORGE (uneasily) I needn't play what? FLOYD (smilingly) Bridge. We've got just enough for two tables without you. CHORUS That's it! Of course! Bridge! We'll play bridge till midnight. That's splendid! (And so forth.) (As they chatter they begin to clear two tables for cards.) GEORGE No! For heaven's sake CHORUS Anna, where are the cards? Get some counters and pencils. Who's going to be my partner? Who's going to be mine? GEORGE (shouting) No! Stop it! My goodness! Don't you ever get tired of doing the same thing night after night? Just because you can't dance you don't have to play bridge, do you? Stop it! (He is so vehement that he commands their attention; they pause in arrested attitudes.) FLOYD Well, what's your idea? What do you think we'll like better? GEORGE (desperately) Well, let's let's let's I'll tell you what let's do: let's tell ghost stories. 24 THE GHOST STORY CHORUS (dismally) Oh, my! Why, how silly! Of all the foolish (And so forth.) (They turn to the tables again.) GEORGE Wait! I'll tell you a ghost story. I'll show you if it's silly or not! I'll tell you a ghost story that the first time it was told in college every- body got so nervous that well, some of 'em couldn't stand it. FRED What did they do? GEORGE Well, they they got so nervous they they FLOYD (skeptically) Had to go right home to bed, did they? GEORGE Well, never mind. Let's see what you do. MARY I'd like to hear the ghost story that would make me nervous! ANNA Let's see if he can. Shall we all sit down, George ? GEORGE Yes; all of you please sit down. (They take chairs, smiling to one another and whispering skeptically as he goes on.) And we don't want so much light; just this lamp'll do. I'll make it dimmer. (He ties his handkerchief about the bulb of a lamp on a table.) The way to feel a story like this is to think about it almost in 25 THE GHOST STORY the dark. (He shuts of the other lights at a switch upon the wall, leaving only the vague illu- mination of the dimmed lamp on the table?) CHORUS (incredulous , satirical, and giggling) Goodness, ain't it creepy! Why, George, how can you be so dramatic? How turrabill! Oh, Georgie, Georgie ! (And so forth.) GEORGE (assuming a husky voice) Listen, I tell you. (He stands by the dimmed lamp so that his face is vaguely seen above the triangular patch of light made by the lamp shade?) FLOYD Well, go on. We're listening. GEORGE (impressively husky) This is a true story. It happened in a house a little way out in the country from Wilmington, Delaware. A SATIRIC VOICE Wilmington, Delaware? My goodness, how fearful ! Delaware ! ANOTHER VOICE Give the poor thing a chance. GEORGE It was just fourteen years ago this winter, and the facts are known by pretty near everybody in Wilmington. If you ask almost anybody from Wilmington about it he'll tell you it's so. Well, this house was an old frame house; it was long and and A VOICE Rambling. Long and rambling, George. GEORGE Yes, it is; it's long and rambling. That is, it 26 THE GHOST STORY was; because after what I'm going to tell you happened to it, why, it had to be torn down. Of course after that nobody would live in it. But fourteen years ago an old man lived there; he lived there all alone. After dark nobody ever saw a light in that house, and and nobody knew anything about the old man except that he used to kill any cat that happened to come in his yard. The neighbors watched one night, and they heard a cat meowing under a bush, and they saw the dim figure of this old man creeping and creeping toward the bush. Then they heard the cat give a kind of terrible scream, and they saw the old man capering around and wringing this cat's neck just like a chicken's neck! Now, this old man A GIRL'S VOICE (impressed) It is fairly creepy. A YOUNG MAN'S VOICE (also rather impressed) Well, go on, George. GEORGE This old man never went out in the daytime. No one ever saw just what he looked like, ex- cept that he had long, scraggly white hair, and his complexion was a horrible kind of fishy- white color. But night after night the neigh- bors would see him prowling among the bushes and underbrush in the big weedy yard and then they'd hear something give a kind of strangling scream, and he'd be wringing some- thing's neck like a chicken, in the dark. And they kept wondering and wondering, and so one night one night when everybody was 27 THE GHOST STORY asleep and the wind was moaning and the sky was covered with a thunder cloud this pointy while George talks, the curtain descends for a moment to indicate the lapse of about half an hour, during which George is telling the greater part of his story. Upon the curtain 's rising again he is discovered to be continuing^ speaking more dramatically as he warms toward his climax?) GEORGE The rapping on the wall was always the same. Three times. Just like this. (He raps upon the table?) Three times. Like this. Always just three times. Like this. A GIRL'S VOICE (nervously) See here! I'm beginning not to like this a little bit! GEORGE Listen, will you? Can't you listen? A YOUTH'S VOICE: We are listening! A GIRL'S VOICE (at the same time) Go on; we're listening. ANOTHER VOICE What's the matter with you? TWO OTHER VOICES Why don't you go ahead? GEORGE Then listen! On the thirteenth of March, ex- actly thirteen years after the night the old man was killed, some workmen were making re- 28 THE GHOST STORY pairs to the plumbing in that rickety old house where he died. Now, these workmen A GIRL'S VOICE (interrupting nervously) George, did you say these workmen were plumbers? GEORGE (rather crossly) Yes, they were. A YOUTH'S VOICE Why, they had to be plumbers, didn't they: He said they were doing something to the plumbing. How could they help being plumbers if they were there on account of the plumbing? ANOTHER VOICE (impatiently) Well, who said they weren't? Go ahead. GEORGE (rather annoyed) It was an old plumber and a young plumber. A.NOTHER VOICE Just two of 'em? GEORGE Listen! These two plumbers were in the old house all alone all alone in that empty old house where the murder A GIRL'S VOICE (again interrupting nervously) But if there were two of 'em how could either of 'em have been all alone? I don't GEORGE (impatiently) Listen, will you? These two men were working at the bathtub where the old man's body I mean his remains where his remains had been found thirteen years before, on the thirteenth of March, the same night of the month that they were working there now. The only light these two plumbers had was the light of a 29 THE GHOST STORY lantern, and all the rest of the big old house was pitch dark. Then all at once these two plumbers heard something they thought was a drop of water just one drop of water that seemed to drip from somewhere. But it had a queer sort of sound, and they didn't like it. "What was that?" the younger one asked the older one. "It sounded like a drop of water falling from somewhere. I guess it was water," he said. Well, the older one looked around, but he couldn't see anything. "I guess it's probably only a leak in the roof, maybe, and a drop of rain came through." "Well, but how could that be?" the other one said. "There hasn't been any rain for a month." Then, just as they were talking, they heard another drop fall, and they didn't see where it lit. Then another drop fell, and it made a kind of little sizzling sound. "What makes it sound like that?" the younger one wanted to know; but the older one said he couldn't think what did. Then there was another drop and another and another and all at once the old workman said, "Look, here! What makes our light so red?" Well, the young one jumped right up. "By George! I was just noticing that!" he said. "Our light has been getting red!" And so, just that second another drop fell, and made the sort of sizzling sound they'd noticed and both of 'em jumped round and looked at the lantern, because the sound came from there. "My goodness!" the younger one said. "Look at that lantern chimney!" The drops were 30 THE GHOST STORY falling on the hot lantern chimney; that's what made the sizzling sound. And what made the light red was the color of the drops that were falling on it. The lantern chimney was all red with what had been falling on it! A GIRL'S VOICE (protesting nervously) Say! A YOUTH'S VOICE Hush up! Go on with the story. ANOTHER GIRL'S VOICE This is just awful. I wish you'd turn up the light. ANOTHER YOUTH'S VOICE Go on, George. GEORGE Then, just as another drop fell on the lamp chimney, the two plumbers heard a louder sound, and it made the flesh creep on their spines, because it sounded like a long, strangling kind of a wail, and it seemed to come right from the floor the very floor they were stand- ing on; it came from right under their feet ANNA'S VOICE (protesting) I can't stand this! Honestly, I can't! A YOUTH'S VOICE Don't be so silly, Anna. You know it's only a story. ANNA I don't care! It's too awful. I wish George'd stop! GEORGE Listen! "What on earth is that?" one of the THE GHOST STORY plumbers said. "I never heard any such sound as that from a human voice!" ANNA (pleading nervously) Please stop, George. GEORGE And then the red drops on the lantern chimney trickled so fast they got to be almost a little stream, so the red light got dimmer and dimmer, and then, right underneath them, down in the floor, they heard that long, strangling kind of a wail again. "Oo-oo-oo-oo-ow!" it said. "Oo- oo-oo-ow-ow-ow ANNA (uttering a kind of a wail herself in her ex- treme nervousness, so that the two sounds mingle) Oh-oo-oo-oo ANOTHER GIRL'S VOICE My goodness! What is that? A YOUTH'S VOICE (alarmed) See here! Who's doing that? GEORGE This wailing went on: "Oo-oo-oo-oo ANNA (screaming^ not loudly, but with convincing sincerity) Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! (She continues^ ANOTHER GIRL'S VOICE (excitedly) What is all this? A YOUTH'S VOICE See here! Who is doing that? (Others exclaim: "My goodness!" "What's the trouble here?" and "Let's cut this out!" There are sounds of confusion, chairs are overturned, Anna continues to vociferate, "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!") 32 THE GHOST STORY GEORGE (determined to reach his climax ^ and mak- ing himself heard in spite of everything) "I'll find out who's doing this wailing," the old plumber said. "It sounds to me like a cat!" And he took his ax and struck right into the floor. That brought the most awful scream (// brings subdued screams also from Anna and Lennie. Everyone talks at once.} FLOYD (commandingly) Stop it, George! Turn up that light! Anna's got hysterics! GEORGE (shouting) I got to finish my story, haven't I? ANOTHER VOICE Turn up some lights, will you? (A key button is pressed and the stage is alight^ revealing a confused group, with the girls gathered anxiously about Anna. She is in a chair near the center and continues to be rather vociferously agitated?) ANNA Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! (She goes on.) GRACE Where's some ammonia! Who's got any am- monia? FRED (rushing in from another room with a glass of water) Here! Dab this on her face! LENNIE Rub her hands! Rub her, Floyd! 33 THE GHOST STORY (They dab water upon her face with handker- chief s, while Floyd and Lynn obediently rub her hands.) ANNA (protesting, but continuing to be hysterical) Don't! Don't splatter me! How could he do it with an ax, George? What do you mean, an ax GEORGE I said ANNA (wildly) You said the plumber hit the floor with an ax! Where would a plumber get an ax? Plumbers don't have axes! GEORGE Well, this one did! ANNA Then he couldn't have been a plumber! (Mary presses a wet handkerchief upon her lips; Anna struggles.) Stop it, Mary! Don't put that handkerchief in my mouth! MARY Yes, dear; it'll do you good. ANNA It won't! Let go my hands! GRACE No. Keep on rubbing 'em! (They do.) ANNA I never saw a plumber with an ax. Oh! Oh! Oh! 34 THE GHOST STORY LENNIE (sternly) Hush! Hush! You must hush! ANNA Oh! Oh! Oh! MARY We'd better call her mother. ANNA (sharply) Don't you dare! GRACE Well, what are we going to do about her? ANNA I'll be all right. Just let me alone. Oh! Oh! Oh! GEORGE That's it. We ought to let her alone. We ought to go home and give her a chance to quiet down. She never will if we all stay here and keep her excited like this. LENNIE Well, some of us ought to stay. The rest of you go, and I'll stay with her. GEORGE No. You go with the rest, and I'll stay till she gets quiet. LENNIE You? Why, you're the one that gave her hysterics ! GEORGE (earnestly) Then I ought to be the one to cure her. ANNA I'm Oh! Oh! I'll be all right if you'll just leave me to myself. 35 THE GHOST STORY MARY (nervously) Let's do go! This room gives me the creeps after CHORUS Let's go! Anna wants us to. We'd better let her alone a while. She says so herself. Come on! GEORGE I'll stay and LENNIE and MARY and GRACE No, you won't! GEORGE Butl- LENNIE Why, the very sight of your face'd make her worse! You march out of here! CHORUS (moving toward the hall door and carrying George with them) You'll be all right pretty soon, Anna. We'd better do as she says. She'll be all right. MARY (returning to Anna) You're sure you don't want ANNA No, no, no! I'll be all right just as soon as I can be a little quiet by myself. I really will. Good night, dear! CHORUS Good night! Good night, Anna! See you to- morrow, Anna! It's a shame George didn't have more sense! George never did have a grain of intelligence! Goodnight! Goodnight! GEORGE (turning back) Anna, I'll 36 THE GHOST STORY MARY and LENNIE No, you won't. Let her alone. (They seize his arms and propel him out into the hall. The door is closed, leaving Anna alone. It is immediately opened again by George ', returning^ GEORGE Anna, I want to say (Lennie, Grace, Mary, Fred, Tom, Floyd, and Lynn instantly seize him and carry him back into the hall.) CHORUS You come back here! Haven't you got any sense? George, you ought to be hanged! Bring him along, the idiot! (They again close the door, and for some mo- ments, as they put on their outer wraps, the sound of their voices in extremely unfavorable comment upon George continues to be heard. Then the talk grows fainter as they move away in the hall. The outer door is heard to close, and there is silence. Anna at once rises calmly ', her agitation entirely vanished. She goes to the hall door, looks out, then closes the door and goes thoughtfully to the fire. She seems to wait. Then, as though abandoning an idea, she shrugs her shoulders.) ANNA Oh, well! (Humming a tune, she goes to the piano. But she does not sit. Standing, she touches a chord 37 THE GHOST STORY thoughtfully; then shrugs her shoulders again, goes to a table, picks up the leather-bound book she had pretended to read at the opening of the play and, sighing, walks gloomily to the door and opens it, about to leave the room. However, she pauses, listening. A sound has reached her ears from a window across the room. The curtains are drawn, but there is a tapping upon the win- dow pane. The taps come in sets of three, well defined. She smiles suddenly, a very bright smiled) ANNA Oh, it's a ghost. (She becomes serious and re- turns into the room.) Is it the ghost of the old cat murderer? (The tappings continue steadily. She goes to the window, pulls back the curtains, and reveals a frosty glass, behind which is a masculine figure. She interrogates it.) Is it the ghost ? (The tappings become more emphatic; she opens the window, and George is seen, light snow on his hat and shoulders?) GEORGE (huskily) Anna ANNA Yes, George? GEORGE Are you better? ANNA Yes, George. 38 THE GHOST STORY GEORGE I sneaked away from 'em. I thought it might be best to keep away from the front door if any of 'em were looking. Besides, I was afraid they might follow me back. Can I come in? ANNA Yes, George. (He shakes off the snow and climbs in.) GEORGE Why, you look all right. Are you? ANNA (gently) Yes, George. GEORGE I just had to tell you; I never dreamed of frightening you. I thought well, what I thought was maybe I could make that story so awful they'd get scared and go home. But I see I was wrong; the more scared they'd get, why, the less they'd want to leave. I was doing exactly the wrong thing to make 'em go! ANNA (smiling) Yes, George. GEORGE And the only one I really frightened was you! That is, unless unless well, I wondered You see, I know the tones of your voice pretty well and and ANNA Yes, George? 39 THE GHOST STORY GEORGE I wondered Anna, did you pretend to be scared hysterical ? ANNA (laughing faintly) Yes, George. GEORGE And that's why they went! Anna, did you want 'em to go? ANNA (looking away) Yes, George. GEORGE (looking at his watch and the clock) I've only got Anna, I've only got about (he swallows) well, it's a pretty short time. Can j ANNA Yes, George. (She sits.) GEORGE (taking off his overcoat) Thanks! (He puts the coat and his hat on a chair.) Anna, I well, there's something I wanted to say to you. I've wanted to say it ever since the day you wore a blue dress. This thing I want to say to you well, I'm afraid you'll be surprised when I tell you what it is ANNA (biting her lip) Yes, George? GEORGE (with increasing nervousness) Yes, I'm afraid you will. And I'm well, I'm terribly afraid you I'm afraid you won't like it. Of course I I know I'm not worthy to say it to you, and if you don't like it and I'm almost sure you won't well, if you don't, I 40 THE GHOST STORY (he swallows again) I'll just have to stand it somehow, I guess! Well (he looks at the clock) I've hardly got time to say it ANNA (frowning) Yes, George? GEORGE I don't know what you'll say! ANNA Yes, George? (His attention seems to be caught uneasily?) GEORGE Anna, what's the matter? You just say the same thing over and over. ANNA Yes, George. GEORGE (bewildered) I don't understand. You see I came here to- night to to to say to you that I to ask you to ask you ANNA Yes, George? GEORGE I I I told you about what my father said to me how I'd have a share in the business after commencement. So I felt justified in in in ANNA (with some emphasis) Yes, George? GEORGE And so I I I want to ask you to ask to ask you 41 THE GHOST STORY ANNA (whispering it shyly) Yes, George? GEORGE (swallowing) To ask you could you could you Anna, could you, could you (He approaches her, his voice growing louder in his nervousness.) Anna, could you, could you could you (At this instant the heads of Lennie, Mary, Grace. Floyd, Tom, Lynn, and Fred, who have been crouching outside below the sill, suddenly appear in the window) LENNIE, MARY, GRACE, FLOYD, TOM, LYNN, and FRED (all together) Yes, George! (Anna rushes upon the window, closes it, and pulls the curtains across it) GEORGE (astounded) Why, what do they mean? They don't mean I they don't mean you (Anna forms the words "Yes, George" with her lips, then looks shyly down) GEORGE Oh! (He swallows) Oh! (His expression, which has been one of great anxiety, alters to a widening smile as the curtain falls) (4)