JILL.Of course.I love it.
HILLCRIST.Well, you won't be able to live in it unless we stop that ruffian.Chimneys and smoke, the trees cut down, piles of pots.Every kind of abomination.There! [He points] Imagine!
[He points through the French window, as if he could see those chimneys rising and marring the beauty of the fields] I was born here, and my father, and his, and his, and his.They loved those fields, and those old trees.And this barbarian, with his "improvement" schemes, forsooth! I learned to ride in the Centry meadows--prettiest spring meadows in the world; I've climbed every tree there.Why my father ever sold----! But who could have imagined this? And come at a bad moment, when money's scarce.
JILL.[Cuddling his arm] Dodo!
HILLCRIST.Yes.But you don't love the place as I do, Jill.You youngsters don't love anything, I sometimes think.
JILL.I do, Dodo, I do!
HILLCRIST.You've got it all before you.But you may live your life and never find anything so good and so beautiful as this old home.I'm not going to have it spoiled without a fight.
[Conscious of batting betrayed Sentiment, he walks out at the French window, passing away to the right.JILL following to the window, looks.Then throwing back her head, she clasps her hands behind it.]
JILL.Oh--oh-oh!
[A voice behind her says, "JILL!" She turns and starts back, leaning against the right lintel of the window.ROLF appears outside the window from Left.]
Who goes there?
ROLE.[Buttressed against the Left lintel] Enemy--after Chloe's bag.
JILL.Pass, enemy! And all's ill!
[ROLF passes through the window, and retrieves the vanity bag from the floor where CHLOE dropped it, then again takes his stand against the Left lintel of the French window.]
ROLF.It's not going to make any difference, is it?
JILL.You know it is.
ROLF.Sins of the fathers.
JILL.Unto the third and fourth generations.What sin has my father committed?
ROLF.None, in a way; only, I've often told you I don't see why you should treat us as outsiders.We don't like it.
JILL.Well, you shouldn't be, then; I mean, he shouldn't be.
ROLF.Father's just as human as your father; he's wrapped up in us, and all his "getting on" is for us.Would you like to be treated as your mother treated Chloe? Your mother's set the stroke for the other big-wigs about here; nobody calls on Chloe.And why not? Why not? I think it's contemptible to bar people just because they're new, as you call it, and have to make their position instead of having it left them.
JILL.It's not because they're new, it's because--if your father behaved like a gentleman, he'd be treated like one.
ROLF.Would he? I don't believe it.My father's a very able man;he thinks he's entitled to have influence here.Well, everybody tries to keep him down.Oh! yes, they do.That makes him mad and more determined than ever to get his way.You ought to be just, Jill.
JILL.I am just.
ROLF.No, you're not.Besides, what's it got to do with Charlie and Chloe? Chloe's particularly harmless.It's pretty sickening for her.Father didn't expect people to call until Charlie married, but since----JILL.I think it's all very petty.
ROLF.It is--a dog-in-the-manger business; I did think you were above it.
JILL.How would you like to have your home spoiled?
ROLE.I'm not going to argue.Only things don't stand still.
Homes aren't any more proof against change than anything else.
JILL.All right! You come and try and take ours.
ROLF.We don't want to take your home.
JILL.Like the Jackmans'?
ROLF.All right.I see you're hopelessly prejudiced.
[He turns to go.]
JILL.[Just as he is vanishing--softly] Enemy?
ROLF.[Turning] Yes, enemy.
JILL.Before the battle--let's shake hands.
[They move from the lintels and grasp each other's hands in the centre of the French window.]
CURTAIN
