MRS PATRICK _follows her in_.)
MRS PATRICK: They've gone?
(MRS MAYO _nods, facing the closed door_.)
MRS PATRICK: And they're leaving--him? (_again the other woman nods_)
Then he's--? (MRS MAYO _just stands there_) They have no right--just
because it used to be their place--! I want my house to myself!
(_Snatches her coat and scarf from a hook and starts through the big
door toward the dunes_.)
ALLIE MAYO: Wait.
(_When she has said it she sinks into that corner seat--as if
overwhelmed by what she has done. The other woman is held_.)
ALLIE MAYO: (_to herself._) If I could say that, I can say more.
(_looking at woman she has arrested, but speaking more to herself_) That
boy in there--his face--uncovered something--(_her open hand on her
chest. But she waits, as if she cannot go on; when she speaks it is in
labored way--slow, monotonous, as if snowed in by silent years_) For
twenty years, I did what you are doing. And I can tell you--it's not the
way. (_her voice has fallen to a whisper; she stops, looking ahead at
something remote and veiled_) We had been married--two years. (_a start,
as of sudden pain. Says it again, as if to make herself say it_)
Married--two years. He had a chance to go north on a whaler.
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