CORNELIA: After I received yours. You wanted urging.
GRACE: I wanted to be quite sure I was really wanted! I only came intending to stay a few weeks. I was so afraid that I would outstay my welcome!
CORNELIA: How blind of you not to see how desperately I wanted to keep you here forever!
GRACE: Oh, I did see that you—(The phone rings.) Miss Scott’s residence!—Yes, she’s here.
CORNELIA: (She snatches it up finally.) Cornelia Scott speaking! Oh. It’s you, Esmeralda! Well, how did it come out?—I don’t believe you! I simply don’t believe you . . . (Grace sits down quietly at the table.)—MRS. HORNSBY ELECTED? Well, there’s a dark horse for you! Less than a year in the chapter . . . Did you—nominate—me?— Oh—I see! But I told you to withdraw my name if—No, no, no, don’t explain, it doesn’t matter, I have too much already. You know I am going into the Daughters of the Barons of Runymede! Yes, it’s been established, I have a direct line to the Earl of—No, it’s been straightened out, a clear line is established, and then of course I am also eligible for the Colonial Dames and for the Huguenot Society, and what with all my other activities and so forth, why, I couldn’t possibly have taken it on if they’d— wanted. . . . Of course I’m going to resign from the local chapter! Oh, yes, I am! My secretary is sitting right here by me. She has her pencil, her notebook! I’m going to dictate my letter of resignation from the local chapter the moment that I hang up on this conversation. Oh, no, no, no, I’m not mad, not outraged, at all. I’m just a little—ha ha!—a little—amused . . . MRS. HORNSBY? Nothing succeeds like mediocrity, does it? Thanks and goodbye, Esmeralda. (She hangs up, stunned. Grace rises.)
GRACE: Notebook and pencil?
CORNELIA: Yes. Notebook and pencil . . . I have to—dictate a letter . . . (Grace leaves the table. Just at the edge of the lighted area, she turns to glance at Cornelia’s rigid shoulders and a slight, equivocal smile appears momentarily on her face; not quite malicious but not really sympathetic. Then she crosses out of the light. A moment later her voice comes from the outer dark.)
GRACE: What lovely roses! One for every year!
CURTAIN
Copyright 1945 by Tennessee Williams
Copyright 1953 by Tennessee Williams
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Caution: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that all of these plays are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union, and are subject to a royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion-picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio-broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. For permission to produce any of these plays, address all inquiries to the author’s representative, Tom Erhardt, Casarotto Ramsey Ltd., National House, 60-66 Wardour Street, London W1V 311P, England.
Amateur Acting Rights
The amateur acting rights of the plays in this volume are controlled exclusively by The Dramatists Play Service Inc., 440 Park Ave. S., New York, N. Y. 10016, without whose permission in writing no amateur performances of them may be made.
Library of Congress Catalog card number: 50-20932
eISBN: 978-0-8112-2080-4
First published as ND Paperbook 217 in 1966
Published simultaneously in Canada by
Penguin Books Canada Limited.
New Directions books are published for James Laughlin
by New Directions Publishing Corporation,
80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011.
By TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
PLAYS
Baby Doll & Tiger Tail
Camino Real
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Clothes for a Slimmer Hotel
Dragon Country
The Glass Menagerie
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur
The Red Devil Battery Sign
Small Craft Warnings
Stopped Rocking and Other Screenplays
Sweet Bird of Youth
THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME I
Battle of Angels, A Streetcar Named Desire. The Glass Menagerie
THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME II
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, Camino Real
THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME III
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer
THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME IV
Sweet Bird of Youth, Period of Adjustment, The Night of the Iguana
THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME V
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Kingdom of Earth (The Seven Descents of Myrtle), Small Craft Warnings, The Two-Character Play
THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VI
27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Short Plays
THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VII
In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel and Other Plays
THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VIII
Vieux Carré, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, The Red Devil Battery Sign
27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays
The Two-Character Play
Vieux Carré
POETRY
Androgyne, Mon Amour
In the Winter of Cities
PROSE
Collected Stories
Hard Candy and Other Stories
One Arm and Other Stories
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Where I Live: Selected Essays