VERITT

Oh!

WALTER

Where's my portfolio?

MRS. EVERITT

In the office, with those hand bags we decided not to open.

WALTER

I'm going to get it. I just had an idea.... (_He goes out_)

EVERITT

It's only ten o'clock, but it seems like midnight.

ALICE

So it does. Are we going on to-morrow? Will the car be all right?

EVERITT

George says so. To-morrow? I suppose so.

ALICE

Well, I'm going to bed.

MRS. EVERITT

I hope Harold is asleep. Good night, dear.

EVERITT

Good night, Mary.

ALICE

You said "Mary."

EVERITT

Did I? Well, you might be, for all that.

ALICE (_leaving_)

Good night.

EVERITT

If she had on that blue dress you used to wear, your own mother couldn't
tell you apart.

MRS. EVERITT

Charles.

EVERITT

What?

MRS. EVERITT

Walter knows he was born here. He wants to know why we didn't mention it
to-day.

EVERITT

So do I! So do I want to know why we didn't mention it! It's been between
us all these years! (_Walter enters with his portfolio. He stands
unnoticed at the door_)

MRS. EVERITT

You want to know? You know very well yourself! It's I who ought to ask
what the matter is!

EVERITT

You? Good heavens! Wasn't it you who suddenly made up your mind we had to
leave this town, and insisted and insisted until I sold the house? Didn't
I do that to please you, because you went into hysterics about it, and I
had to think of Walter? I didn't want to go. It isn't every man who would
change his whole life for a woman's unreasonable whim!

MRS. EVERITT

Whim! It isn't every wife who--Oh! Oh!

EVERITT

Yes whim! And haven't I stayed away all these years from my people because
you wouldn't hear to our coming back even for a visit?

MRS. EVERITT

No you didn't stay away! You sneaked up here the very next year when you
made that trip to Boston. And you can't deny it, because Janet Richardson
wrote me.

EVERITT

Sneaked up here! Deny it! Are you mad? The only reason I didn't mention it
was because I never understood your positive hatred for the place. What
harm was there in coming back for a day or two? On every other subject you
are all right, but whenever we get within a mile of mentioning this town I
feel your hysteria, so I have kept still. But if there's anything you can
say to explain yourself, for goodness sake say it! This nightmare has
been between us long enough.

MRS. EVERITT

Yes, it has! Too long! And I like your way of say