Overtones Flashcards
Opening Line:
Harriet…Harriet, my other self…my trained self.
Harriet: Yes?
I want to talk to you.
Harriet: Well?
Oh, Harriet, you are beautiful to-day.
H: Am I presentable, Hetty?
Suits me.
H: I’ve tried to make the best of the good points
My passions are deeper than yours. I can’t keep the mask on as you do. I’m crude and real, you are my appearance in the world.
H: I am what you wish the world to believe you are
You are the part of me that has been trained.
H: I am your educated self.
I am the rushing river, you are the ice over the current.
H: I am your subtle overtones.
But together we are one woman, the wife of Charles Goodrich.
H: There I disagree with you, Hetty. I alone am his wife.
Harriet, how can you say such a thing?
H: …If I gave you a chance you would tell him at once that you dislike him
I don’t love him that’s certain
H: Considering the amount of scheming it causes me it can be safely said that he is my husband
Oh, if you love him-
H: It isn’t my business to love anybody
Then why need you object to calling him my husband?
H: I resent your appropriation of a man you is managed only through the cleverness of my artifice
You may be clever enough to deceive him, Harriet, but I am still the one who suffers. I can’t forget he is my husband. I can’t forget that I might have married John Caldwell.
H: How foolish of you to remember John, just because we met his wife by chance
That’s what I want to talk to you about. She may be here at any moment. I want to advice you about what to say to her this afternoon
H: Sometimes it is all I can do to keep my poise and appear not to be listening to you.
Impress her.
H: Hetty, dear is it not my custom to impress people?
I hate her.
H: I can’t let her see that
I hate her because she married John
H: Only after you refused him.
Was it my fault that I refused him?
H: That’s right, blame me.
It was your fault. You told me he was too poor and never would be able to do anything in painting. Look at him now, known in Europe, just returned from eight years in Paris, famous.
H: It was too poor a gamble at the time. It was much safer to accept Charles’ money and position.
And then John married Margaret within the year.
H: Out of spite
Freckled, gawky looking thing she was, too.
H: Europe improved her. She was stunning the other morning
Make her jealous today.
H: Shall I be haughty or cordial or caustic or-
Above all else you must let her know that we are rich.
H: Oh yes, I do that quite easily now.
You must put it on a bit
H: Never fear
Tell her I love my husband
H: My husband-
Are you going to quarrel with me?
H: I couldn’t get away from you if I tried
You were a stupid fool to make me refuse John. I’ll never forgive you, never…
H: I’ll be in no condition to meet her properly this afternoon
I could choke you for robbing me of John!
H: Don’t muss me!
You don’t know how you have made me suffer
H: It is not my business to have heartaches
You’re bloodless. Nothing but sham, sham while I-
H: Be quiet! I can’t let her see that I’ve been fighting with my inner self
And now after all my suffering you say it has cost you more than it has cost me to be married to Charles. But it’s the pain here in my heart, I’ve paid the price, I’ve paid…Charles is not your husband