ngs to do instead of being neglected....

JOE

Here's your coat, Mr. Wentworth.

MR. WENTWORTH

Thank you. Thank you for the delicious tea, Silvia. If I weren't leaving
town so soon.... Good night.

SYLVIA

Good night. The stairs are rather dark.... (_He goes out_)

JOE

Damn!

SYLVIA

Yes, I know, Joe. It's discouraging....

JOE

Discouraging? It's immoral! Oh, these smug people who have been taught
what to admire! These unborn souls who want to shut us all up in the dark!
I suppose he went away thinking I put myself up higher than Raphael. Who
are we painting for? _They_ don't want it--wouldn't take it for a gift.
And here we are, a poor little group, standing amazed before the glory of
the sun, and painting it--for the blind!

SILVIA

Some day, Joe....

JOE

Some day--yes, when the life has oozed out of all our bright canvasses,
when only the "rules" are left. And we won't be able to rise from our
graves and curse them!

SILVIA

Now, Joe!

JOE

I guess I let you in for a hard time, Silvia. I wish sometimes I could
really paint the kind of thing that goes with stupid people's dining
rooms. They with their _Long Island_ Louvres!

SILVIA

If you did, Joe, I'd put it in the stove. Don't think you are having all
the fun of being a pioneer. It's exciting to be within a mile of it!

JOE

Good girl. Ugh! Let's go to Boudet's and have dinner. I want to get the
bad taste out of my mouth!

HIS LUCK

_The living room in a small flat in Beekman Place. Two women, one of them
in mourning, sit beside the remains of tea._

VERA

But Jean, where are you going, when you pack up here?

JEAN

I'm not leaving here. I'm staying on.

VERA

Oh. But I thought that now ... you were talking about being free for your
own work at last....

JEAN

If I have any work to do, I can do it here. You don't understand, quite.
All these years I have been living from whirlpool to whirlpool, never
settled, always _deracine_--the thought of getting accustomed to another
place makes me shudder.

VERA

I can imagine, now, how it has been, Jean. But can you find any peace
here? With all these things about? You are so sensitive--lamps, and
pictures, and rugs--these aren't just _furniture_ to you, they are images
of the past. Won't they be, too--real? Too personal? Won't you feel more
at liberty with yourself if you create your own atmosphere?

JEAN

Ah, they are real enough! That table is a winte