ys
said I was "his own child." I'll do my best to take his place.

RUTH. I will gladly give Jessica a home.

MRS. HUNTER. [_Whimpers._] You'd rob me of my children, too!

JESSICA. Thank you, Aunt Ruth, but I must stay with mother and be
Blanche's right-hand man!

CLARA. I might go on the stage.

MRS. HUNTER. My dear, smart people don't any more.

CLARA. I'd like to be a sort of Anna Held.

JESSICA. I don't see why I couldn't learn typewriting, Blanche?

MRS. HUNTER. Huh! Why, you could never even learn to play the piano; I
don't think you'd be much good at typewriting.

CLARA. You want to be a typewriter, because in the papers they always
have an old gentleman taking them to theatres and supper! No, sir, if
there is to be any "old man's darling" in this family, _I'll_ be _it_!

RUTH. [_Dryly._] You'll have to learn to spell correctly first!

CLARA. [_Superciliously._] Humph!

JESSICA. There are lots of ways nowadays for women to earn their living.

RUTH. Yes, typewriting we will consider.

MRS. HUNTER. Never!

[_No one pays any attention to her except_ CLARA, _who agrees with her._

RUTH. Jess, you learned enough to _teach_, didn't you?--even at that
fashionable school your mother sent you to?

JESSICA. Oh, yes, I think I could teach.

MRS. HUNTER. Never!

[_Still no one pays any attention except_ CLARA _who again agrees with
her._

CLARA. No, indeed! _I_ wouldn't teach!

BLANCHE. If we only knew some nice elderly woman who wanted a companion,
Jess would be a godsend.

CLARA. If she was a nice _old_ lady with lots of money and delicate
health, I wouldn't mind that position myself.

RUTH. Clara, you seem to take this matter as a supreme joke!

MRS. HUNTER. [_With mock humility._] May _I_ speak? [_She waits. All
turn to her. A moment's, silence._] MAY I speak?

RUTH. Yes, yes. Go on, Florence; don't you see we're listening?

MRS. HUNTER. I didn't know! I've been so completely ignored in this
entire conversation. But there is one thing for the girls--the easiest
possible way for them to earn their living--which you don't seem for a
moment to have thought of!

[_She waits with a smile of coming triumph on her face._

RUTH. Nursing!

MRS. HUNTER. [_Disgusted._] No!

CLARA. Manicuring?

MRS. HUNTER. _Darling!_

BLANCHE. Designing dresses and hats?

MRS. HUNTER. No!

JESSICA. Book-keeping?

MRS. HUNTER. No.

RUTH. Then what in the world is it?

MRS. HUNTER. Marriage!

CLARA.