Chapter VI: Act TWO: Scene Two

SCENE—_The same. Six months later. It is evening. The walls of the
room appear shrunken in, the ceiling lowered, so that the
furniture, the portrait, the mask look unnaturally large and
domineering._ JIM _is seated at the table studying, law books
piled by his elbows. He is keeping his attention concentrated only
by a driving physical effort which gives his face the expression
of a runner’s near the tape. His forehead shines with
perspiration. He mutters one sentence from Blackstone over and
over again, tapping his forehead with his fist in time to the
rhythm he gives the stale words. But, in spite of himself, his
attention wanders, his eyes have an uneasy, hunted look, he starts
at every sound in the house or from the street. Finally, he
remains rigid, Blackstone forgotten, his eyes fixed on the
portières with tense grief. Then he groans, slams the book shut,
goes to the window and throws it open and sinks down beside it,
his arms on the sill, his head resting wearily on his arms,
staring out into the night, the pale glare from the arc-lamp on
the corner throwing his face into relief. The portières on the
right are parted and_ HATTIE _comes in_.

HATTIE—[_Not seeing him at the table._] Jim! [_Discovering him._] Oh, there you are. What’re you doing?

JIM—[_Turning to her._] Resting. Cooling my head. [_Forcing a smile._] These law books certainly are a sweating proposition! [_Then, anxiously._] How is she?

HATTIE—She’s asleep now. I felt it was safe to leave her for a minute. [_After a pause._] What did the doctor tell you, Jim?

JIM—The same old thing. She must have rest, he says, her mind needs rest—— [_Bitterly._] But he can’t tell me any prescription for that rest—leastways not any that’d work.

HATTIE—[_After a pause._] I think you ought to leave her, Jim—or let her leave you—for a while, anyway.

JIM—[_Angrily._] You’re like the doctor. Everything’s so simple and easy. Do this and that happens. Only it don’t. Life isn’t simple like that—not in this case, anyway—no, it isn’t simple a bit. [_After a pause._] I can’t leave her. She can’t leave me. And there’s a million little reasons combining to make one big reason why we can’t. [_A pause._] For her sake—if it’d do her good—I’d go—I’d leave—I’d do anything—because I love her. I’d kill myself even—jump out of this window this second—I’ve thought it over, too—but that’d only make matters worse for her. I’m all she’s got in the world! Yes, that isn’t bragging or fooling myself. I know that for a fact! Don’t you know that’s true? [_There is a pleading for the certainty he claims._]

HATTIE—Yes, I know she loves you, Jim. I know that now.

JIM—[_Simply._] Then we’ve got to stick together to the end, haven’t we, whatever comes—and hope and pray for the best? [_A pause—then hopefully._] I think maybe this is the crisis in her mind. Once she settles this in herself, she’s won to the other side. And me—once I become a Member of the Bar—then I win, too! We’re both free—by our own fighting down our own weakness! We’re both really, truly free! Then we can be happy with ourselves here or anywhere. She’ll be proud then! Yes, she’s told me again and again, she says she’ll be actually proud!

HATTIE—[_Turning away to conceal her emotion._] Yes, I’m sure—but you mustn’t study too hard, Jim! You mustn’t study too awfully hard!

JIM—[_Gets up and goes to the table and sits down wearily._] Yes, I know. Oh, I’ll pass easily. I haven’t got any scarey feeling about that any more. And I’m doing two years’ work in one here alone. That’s better than schools, eh?

HATTIE—[_Doubtfully._] It’s wonderful, Jim.

JIM—[_His spirit evaporating._] If I can only hold out! It’s hard! I’m worn out. I don’t sleep. I get to thinking and thinking. My head aches and burns like fire with thinking. Round and round my thoughts go chasing like crazy chickens hopping and flapping before the wind. It gets me crazy mad—’cause I can’t stop!

HATTIE—[_Watching him for a while and seeming to force herself to speak._] The doctor didn’t tell you all, Jim.

JIM—[_Dully._] What’s that?

HATTIE—He told me you’re liable to break down too, if you don’t take care of yourself.

JIM—[_Abjectly weary._] Let ’er come! I don’t care what happens to me. Maybe if I get sick she’ll get well. There’s only so much bad luck allowed to one family, maybe. [_He forces a wan smile._]

HATTIE—[_Hastily._] Don’t give in to that idea, for the Lord’s sake!

JIM—I’m tired—and blue—that’s all.

HATTIE—[_After another long pause._] I’ve got to tell you something else, Jim.

JIM—[_Dully._] What?

HATTIE—The doctor said Ella’s liable to be sick like this a very long time.

JIM—He told me that too—that it’d be a long time before she got back her normal strength. Well, I suppose that’s got to be expected.

HATTIE—[_Slowly._] He didn’t mean convalescing—what he told me. [_A long pause._]

JIM—[_Evasively._] I’m going to get other doctors in to see Ella—specialists. This one’s a damn fool.

HATTIE—Be sensible, Jim. You’ll have to face the truth—sooner or later.

JIM—[_Irritably._] I know the truth about Ella better’n any doctor.

HATTIE—[_Persuasively._] She’d get better so much sooner if you’d send her away to some nice sanitarium——

JIM—No! She’d die of shame there!

HATTIE—At least until after you’ve taken your examinations——

JIM—To hell with me!

HATTIE—Six months. That wouldn’t be long to be parted.

JIM—What are you trying to do—separate us? [_He gets to his feet—furiously._] Go on out! Go on out!

HATTIE—[_Calmly._] No, I won’t. [_Sharply._] There’s something that’s got to be said to you and I’m the only one with the courage—— [_Intensely._] Tell me, Jim, have you heard her raving when she’s out of her mind?

JIM—[_With a shudder._] No!

HATTIE—You’re lying, Jim. You must have—if you don’t stop your ears—and the doctor says she may develop a violent mania, dangerous for you—get worse and worse until—Jim, you’ll go crazy too—living this way. Today she raved on about “Black! Black!” and cried because she said her skin was turning black—that you had poisoned her——

JIM—[_In anguish._] That’s only when she’s out of her mind.

HATTIE—And then she suddenly called me a dirty nigger.

JIM—No! She never said that ever! She never would!

HATTIE—She did—and kept on and on! [_A tense pause._] She’ll be saying that to you soon.

JIM—[_Torturedly._] She don’t mean it! She isn’t responsible for what she’s saying!

HATTIE—I know she isn’t—yet she is just the same. It’s deep down in her or it wouldn’t come out.

JIM—Deep down in her people—not deep in her.

HATTIE—I can’t make such distinctions. The race in me, deep in me, can’t stand it. I can’t play nurse to her any more, Jim,—not even for your sake. I’m afraid—afraid of myself—afraid sometime I’ll kill her dead to set you free! [_She loses control and begins to cry._]

JIM—[_After a long pause—somberly._] Yes, I guess you’d better stay away from here. Good-by.

HATTIE—Who’ll you get to nurse her, Jim,—a white woman?

JIM—Ella’d die of shame. No, I’ll nurse her myself.

HATTIE—And give up your studies?

JIM—I can do both.

HATTIE—You can’t! You’ll get sick yourself! Why, you look terrible even as it is—and it’s only beginning!

JIM—I can do anything for her! I’m all she’s got in the world! I’ve got to prove I can be all to her! I’ve got to prove worthy! I’ve got to prove she can be proud of me! I’ve got to prove I’m the whitest of the white!

HATTIE—[_Stung by this last—with rebellious bitterness._] Is that the ambition she’s given you? Oh, you soft, weak-minded fool, you traitor to your race! And the thanks you’ll get—to be called a dirty nigger—to hear her cursing you because she can never have a child because it’ll be born black——!

JIM—[_In a frenzy._] Stop!

HATTIE—I’ll say what must be said even though you kill me, Jim. Send her to an asylum before you both have to be sent to one together.

JIM—[_With a sudden wild laugh._] Do you think you’re threatening me with something dreadful now? Why, I’d like that. Sure, I’d like that! Maybe she’d like it better, too. Maybe we’d both find it all simple then—like you think it is now. Yes. [_He laughs again._]

HATTIE—[_Frightenedly._] Jim!

JIM—Together! You can’t scare me even with hell fire if you say she and I go together. It’s heaven then for me! [_With sudden savagery._] You go out of here! All you’ve ever been aiming to do is to separate us so we can’t be together!

HATTIE—I’ve done what I did for your own good.

JIM—I have no own good. I only got a good together with her. I’m all she’s got in the world! Let her call me nigger! Let her call me the whitest of the white! I’m all she’s got in the world, ain’t I? She’s all I’ve got! You with your fool talk of the black race and the white race! Where does the human race get a chance to come in? I suppose that’s simple for you. You lock it up in asylums and throw away the key! [_With fresh violence._] Go along! There isn’t going to be no more people coming in here to separate—excepting the doctor. I’m going to lock the door and it’s going to stay locked, you hear? Go along, now!

HATTIE—[_Confusedly._] Jim!

JIM—[_Pushes her out gently and slams the door after her—vaguely._] Go along! I got to study. I got to nurse Ella, too. Oh, I can do it! I can do anything for her! [_He sits down at the table and, opening the book, begins again to recite the line from Blackstone in a meaningless rhythm, tapping his forehead with his fist._ ELLA _enters noiselessly through the portières. She wears a red dressing-gown over her night-dress but is in her bare feet. She has a carving-knife in her right hand. Her eyes fasten on_ JIM _with a murderous mania. She creeps up behind him. Suddenly he senses something and turns. As he sees her he gives a cry, jumping up and catching her wrist. She stands fixed, her eyes growing bewildered and frightened._]

JIM—[_Aghast._] Ella! For God’s sake! Do you want to murder me? [_She does not answer. He shakes her._]

ELLA—[_Whimperingly._] They kept calling me names as I was walking along—I can’t tell you what, Jim—and then I grabbed a knife——

JIM—Yes! See! This! [_She looks at it frightenedly._]

ELLA—Where did I——? I was having a nightmare—— Where did they go—I mean, how did I get here? [_With sudden terrified pleading—like a little girl._] Oh, Jim—don’t ever leave me alone! I have such terrible dreams, Jim—promise you’ll never go away!

JIM—I promise, Honey.

ELLA—[_Her manner becoming more and more childishly silly._] I’ll be a little girl—and you’ll be old Uncle Jim who’s been with us for years and years—— Will you play that?

JIM—Yes, Honey. Now you better go back to bed.

ELLA—[_Like a child._] Yes, Uncle Jim. [_She turns to go. He pretends to be occupied by his book. She looks at him for a second—then suddenly asks in her natural woman’s voice._] Are you studying hard, Jim?

JIM—Yes, Honey. Go to bed now. You need to rest, you know.

ELLA—[_Stands looking at him, fighting with herself. A startling transformation comes over her face. It grows mean, vicious, full of jealous hatred. She cannot contain herself but breaks out harshly with a cruel, venomous grin._] You dirty nigger!

JIM—[_Starting as if he’d been shot._] Ella! For the good Lord’s sake!

ELLA—[_Coming out of her insane mood for a moment, aware of something terrible, frightened._] Jim! Jim! Why are you looking at me like that?

JIM—What did you say to me just then?

ELLA—[_Gropingly._] Why, I—I said—I remember saying, are you studying hard, Jim? Why? You’re not mad at that, are you?

JIM—No, Honey. What made you think I was mad? Go to bed now.

ELLA—[_Obediently._] Yes, Jim. [_She passes behind the portières._ JIM _stares before him. Suddenly her head is thrust out at the side of the portières. Her face is again that of a vindictive maniac._] Nigger! [_The face disappears—she can be heard running away, laughing with cruel satisfaction._ JIM _bows his head on his outstretched arms but he is too stricken for tears_.]

[_The Curtain Falls_]