The Machine | Page 7

Hegan! You! [Recovers himself.] Why . . . an unexpected pleasure!
LAURA. Unexpected on both sides, Mr. Montague.
MONTAGUE. I'm delighted to meet you, really!
[They shake hands.]
JACK. Julia, my friend, Mr. Montague. Miss Patterson.
MONTAGUE. I'm very glad to meet you, Miss Patterson.
JULIA. We had no idea we were bringing old friends together.
MONTAGUE. No; it was certainly a coincidence.
LAURA. It's been . . . let me see . . . a year since we've met.
MONTAGUE. It must be fully that.
LAURA. Where do you keep yourself these days?
MONTAGUE. Oh, I'm studying, in a quiet way.
LAURA. And none of your old friends ever see you?
MONTAGUE. I don't get about much.
LAURA. [Earnestly.] And friendship means so little to you as that?
MONTAGUE. I . . . it would be hard to explain. I have been busy with politics . . .
[A pause of embarrassment.]
JULIA. Mr. Bullen has just been telling us about your heroism.
MONTAGUE. My heroism? Where?
JULIA. At the polling place.
MONTAGUE. Oh, that! It was nothing.
LAURA. It seemed like a good deal to us.
MONTAGUE. Make him tell you about some of his own adventures.
JULIA. Would you ever think, to look at his innocent countenance, that he had helped to hold a building for six hours against Russian artillery?
LAURA. Good heavens! Where was this?
JULIA. During the St. Petersburg uprising.
LAURA. And weren't you frightened to death?
JACK. [Laughing.] No; we were too busy taking pot- shots at the Cossacks. It was like the hunting season in the Adirondacks.
LAURA. And how did it turn out?
JACK. Oh, they were too much for us in the end. I got away, across the ice of the Neva . . . I had the heel of one shoe shot off. And yet people tell us romance is dead! Anybody who is looking for romance, and knows what it is, can find all he wants in Russia.
[Pause.]
LAURA. [To MONTAGUE.] Have you seen my father lately?
MONTAGUE. No; not for some time.
LAURA. You may see him this evening. He promised to call for me.
MONTAGUE. Indeed!
JACK. Oh, by the way, Julia, I forgot! How's Annie?
LAURA. Oh, yes; how is she?
JULIA. She's doing well, I think. Better every day.
LAURA. Is she still violent?
JULIA. Not so much. I can always handle her now.
LAURA. Is she in the next room?
[Looking to the right.]
JULIA. Yes. She's been asleep since afternoon.
LAURA. And you still won't let me send her to a hospital?
JULIA. Oh, no. Truly, it would kill the poor girl.
LAURA. But you . . . with all your work, and your engagements?
JULIA. She's very quiet. And the neighbors come in and help when I'm out. They all sympathize.
LAURA. Talking about heroism . . . it seems to me that you are entitled to mention.
JULIA. Why, nonsense! . . . the girl was simply thrown into my arms.
LAURA. Most people would have managed to step out of the way, just the same. You've heard the story, have you, Mr. Montague?
MONTAGUE. Bullen has told it to me. You haven't been able to get any justice?
JACK. From the police? Hardly! But we're keeping at it, to make the story complete. I went to see Captain Quinn to-day. "What's this?" says he. "Annie Rogers again? Didn't your lady frien' get her pitcher in the papers over that case? An' what more does she want?"
JULIA. I went this afternoon to see the Tammany leader of our district . . .
MONTAGUE. Leary?
JULIA. The same. I went straight into his saloon. "Lady," says he, "the goil's nutty! You got a bughouse patient on your bands! This here talk about the white- slave traffic, ma'am . . . it's all the work o' these magazine muckrakers!" "Meaning myself, Mr. Leary?" said I, and he looked kind of puzzled. I don't think he knew who I was.
MONTAGUE. All the work of the muckrakers! I see Boss Grimes is out to that effect also.
JACK. And I see that half a dozen clergymen sat down to a public banquet with him the other day. That's what we've come to in New York! Bob Grimes, with his hands on every string of the whole infamous system . . . with his paws in every filthy graft-pot in the city! Bob Grimes, the type and symbol of it all! Every time I see a picture of that bulldog face, it seems to me as if I were confronting all the horrors that I've ever fought in my life!
JULIA. It's curious to note how much less denunciation of Tammany one hears now than in the old days.
MONTAGUE. Tammany's getting respectable.
JACK. The big interests have found out how to use it. The traction gang, especially . . .
[He stops abruptly; a tense pause.]
LAURA. [Leaning toward him, with great earnestness.] Mr. Bullen, is that really true?
JACK. That is true, Miss Hegan.
LAURA. Mr. Bullen, you will understand what it means to me to hear that statement made. I hear it