Part 2

CAMELE (starts up from the tea table and looks frightened, saying in a whisper to George). Hide my suit case.

JACK (in the door-way). Oh, I beg your pardon--is Vivian in?

ALICE. Hello, Jack--come in. Vivian is out.

JACK. I wanted to see him. He wishes to rent the studio for several months, I hear.

ALICE. You can wait for him, we are just about to leave.

JACK (coming down stage, sees Camele at the tea table). Hello, Cam, what are you doing here?

YVONNE (from the window). What a sun-set! Come and see. (They all, except Camele and Jack, go to the window.)

CAMELE. Maud asked me to lend her my kimona. She wants to do some Japanese dances--I brought it to her.

JACK. I didn't know that you were friendly since we were married, Cam. I was surprised when I saw you.

CAMELE. Don't call me Cam, Jack. Try to call me Camele, here. And make the "a" long.

JACK. Does it shock them? They make me--(seeing her canvases and paint box). What are you doing with your canvases and paint box?

CAMELE. I was painting in the park. The canvases--the canvases--oh, I was taking them to be framed.

JACK. All those?

CAMELE. Yes, it will be cheaper having them all framed at one time--don't you think?

JACK. I hope so. We are so hard up at present.

CAMELE. Are we? Well, they can wait--the canvases, I mean.

JACK. I must have some clothes.

CAMELE. Again?

JACK. Again? Look at these.

CAMELE (coming close to him). You look all right, I think. (She puts her hands on his shoulders.)

JACK. Are you ready to go? I'll not wait for Vivian.

CAMELE. Kiss me, Jack.

JACK. What for--what's the matter with you? You look tired and pale.

CAMELE. Nothing--kiss me. (They kiss. Maud, looking back into the room, sees them. She turns quickly, picks up her hat, puts it on and hurries out.)

CAMELE. Let us go.

JACK. All right.

CAMELE (putting on her hat). I'm going. (The others come from the window.)

GEORGE. Yes?

CAMELE. Yes!

JACK. Here's your kimona.

CAMELE. That is for Maud.

ALICE. Where is she?

CAMELE. She went out--she'll be back, I guess.

CAMELE and JACK (moving towards the door). Good-bye!

ALL. Good-bye!

YVONNE (following them). Good-bye.

ALICE and GEORGE. Good-bye.

GEORGE (after a nervous silence). I'll see you to-night, Alice; now I must go to meet Uncle Billy.

ALICE. Then you can't see me to-night if he is in town. You will have to arrange about the "Azure Adder."

GEORGE. The "Azure Adder"--my life's work--my magazine. How I do wish to get it started! Think what it means! A perfect magazine given to the world after years of darkness. A book perfect in printing, arrangement and in illustration--as beautiful to look at as a masterpiece of painting or sculpture. What a standard it will create when it is published! It will stand alone--nothing but what will suffer when compared to it. It will be above other publications; above them as a golden star over a world of night and ignorance--all will be beneath it! And I who have conceived it will be lost in its splendor. Like a bumble-bee is lost in a lily of silver. Laboring, laboring on for it to the end, through old age, perhaps from beyond the grave. What a life--yes, "Azure Adder," I give to you my time, my energy and my talents. (He grows more and more excited and is now speaking to himself.) I will make of you an aesthetic standard, an artistic gauge and a religion! A new religion whose one and only Goddess will be Beauty--Beauty veiled, alone and sterile! And we who work for you will be its first priests--the priests of a new religion! You know what that means? It always has meant, and will mean in this case, I hope, martyrdom and perhaps death! Death for our gracious goddess--to whom I give my mind and my body! Yes, great and awful goddess, they are yours! (He stands, with his arms outstretched, against the door at the back.) Do as you will! (In a loud ringing voice.) They are yours forever!!

ALICE (smiling, walks up to him). Thank you.

GEORGE (in the same voice). To you, great goddess, I give my mind and--

ALICE (facing him, puts her arms around his neck). George!

GEORGE (relaxing. In a softer voice). Great godd--

ALICE (drawing him closer). Now, George!

GEORGE (wilting. His arms slowly closing around Alice. In a whisper). Great goddess--

Curtain.

The January issue will present "Love of One's Neighbor," by Leonid Andreyev.

Transcriber's Notes

The original spelling was mostly preserved. A few obvious typographical errors were silently corrected.