The Lady in the Glass by Robert Herrick


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SETTINGS

New York, 1907

ACT I: Doctor Chord's Office, West 11th Street
ACT II: Parlor of the suite at Crown Point, the Lyfords' place on the
Sound
ACT III: The Arcade of the Court at Crown Point
ACT IV: The doctor's office.

Two weeks between Act I and Act II
Three days between Act II and Act III
Three hours between Act III and Act IV

ACT I

Dr. Chord's office in West 11th Street, 9:30 a.m., on a May morning.
A large back room of an old-fashioned city house, lighted by a window
at left rear. Center back is a fireplace, with a door to the right
leading to a private laboratory. The doctor's desk, covered with
pamphlets, writing materials, and so forth, is located right of center
in front of a window.

Between the desk and the audience is a long mirror, covering a long
disused door. The doctor has positioned it so that he can see by a
glance whoever enters through the opposite door leading to the waiting
room.

The room is loft-like and bare, as if inhabited by a man camping
rather than dwelling. There is a telephone on the desk and a
straightbacked chair next to the desk for patients.

The doctor is seated on a swivel chair behind the desk facing the
audience, busily writing, wrinkling his brow and puckering his lips.
He writes in a brisk determined manner as if confronting a busy day.
From time to time he squints at an appointment book before him.

DOCTOR
(sharply)
Miss Turbine!

NURSE
(entering from the laboratory at the left rear)
Yes, doctor.

DOCTOR
(head down writing)
How many are gathered together out there?
(gestures to the waiting room with his head)

NURSE
Quite a bunch - there's Miss Plunkett, and the old lady Mrs. Gossam,
and the young one, the scared one -

DOCTOR
(impatiently)
Yes, yes.

NURSE
And Mrs. Jacobson, and those two smart little misses that come in pairs-

DOCTOR
The Leaveritts. Their troubles come in pairs: they usually have the
same kind of pain.

NURSE
And young Mrs. Prentiss - and one or two odds and ends. I should say
eight or nine. Oh I forgot the swell one out in the electric cab. She
told Joe she'd rather wait out in the open air.

DOCTOR
Good idea. Well, start 'em in. Wait. Here's a telegram from Mrs.
Delamar.
(reads)
"Very important - must see you at ten.' Let me know when she
comes. She's found a new symptom, most likely.

NURSE
(thrilled)
Oh, doctor, is it that Mrs. Delamar?

DOCTOR
Mrs. Harold Delamar.

NURSE
The one in the papers this morning!

DOCTOR
(contemptuously)
The women are always in the papers these days!

NURSE
Restraining herself with difficulty, she starts to go, but stops at
the door.

You'll be moving up by the Park one of these days!

DOCTOR
(coldly as he writes)
What makes you think so?

NURSE
Why just see the string of motors and cabs and coupes lined up this
back street, and all to see you, and every day! You'll follow your patients up town.

DOCTOR
(indifferently)
Never! Let 'em come here if they want me. Besides they'll chance
another crow some day, if he caws with a new note.

Gestures the nurse out, looks hastily at his watch, goes on with his
writing until the telephone rings. He answers it.

Yes - this is Dr. Chord. Good morning, ma'm. Yes - yes - no - no.
Couldn't say.
(pause)
My dear madam, I am not a mind reader. Yes - nothing doing there. No -
too busy. Good-bye!

(hangs up the receiver)

These gabby women! She must take the telephone to be with her.

Returns to his writing.

The door opens and a fashionably dressed little woman - Miss Josephine Plunkett - enters.

She looks stealthily around, and then makes a nervous little rush to
the chair next to the doctor's desk, drops into it, sighs portentously, and
says in an affected, pleading voice

MISS PLUNKETT
Oh, doctor!

DOCTOR
(glancing up as he signs the letter)
Is that you Miss Josephine?
(gives her a quick look)
Got a sad story this morning? Let's hear the tale of woe. Out with it!

Seals and stamps the letter.

MISS PLUNKETT
(breathless haste)
Something dreadful, doctor! Last night I was at dinner at the Wilton
Goddards and all of a sudden everything went black before me. I
thought I was going to faint. But I made a great effort over myself
and managed to sit through the dinner. It was so stupid, and I had a
horrid man at my right. Then I had an AWFUL night—I must have been
awake ten times. I didn't sleep an hour—really!

(tragically)

I CAN'T go on.

DOCTOR
Really! Not more than an hour? Do you keep a stop watch under your
pillow?

MISS PLUNKETT
(keeping right on)
And I have such a nervous fright when I have to cross a street—it
seems as if-

DOCTOR
Get a policeman to help you.

MISS PLUNKETT
(mysteriously)
You think someone is following me—

DOCTOR
(playfully)
How interesting! Is he good looking?

MISS PLUNKETT
(suddenly looking at the doctor naively)
Doctor! Sometimes I don't think you understand my case—don't
understand me.

DOCTOR
Leaning forward on his arms, looking directly into his patient's
eyes, and speaking with a kind of hiss:

Don't deceive yourself, Miss Josephine! I understand your case
per-fect-ly, and I understand YOU, what's more.! Now let's get
down to business.

Draws prescription pad towards him.

MISS PLUNKETT
(a crying note in her voice)
You will help me, won't you.?.. I don't want to go to one of those
horrid rest cures where there's nobody but frumpy women. I'm
having such a good season - if my nerves were right. (coaxingly)
Can't you just give me something—for the digestion? And a little
tonic for the nerves? And something to make me sleep? You're so
clever, doctor! They were saying at the Leroys—

DOCTOR
Smiling sarcastically he takes the pad and prepares to write a
prescription, saying at the same time:

Yes, Miss Josephine, I'll give you something for the digestion. And
something for the nerves. And something to make you sleep!
(pauses, then with mock seriousness)

You must take great care of yourself: for the present you are not to
go to dinner or lunch -

MISS PLUNKETT
But doctor -

DOCTOR
(shaking his finger solemnly)
And you're to be in bed at twenty minutes of ten every night. And
after every meal you must lie down for seven minutes, first on your
right side, then on you left, then on your back.

MISS PLUNKETT
(repeats carefully)
First on my right side, then on my left, then on my back. Can't I
begin with the back first?

DOCTOR
No! And you are to take this to make you sleep.

Scribbles hastily.

Every time you wake up one teaspoon in boiling water. You may find it
a little bitter and sticky, and it takes a long time to swallow….And
Get a stop watch, Miss Josephine…. Walk a mile and a quarter twice a
day, around the block, if it troubles you to cross the street.
Hands prescription to her, the with a placid smile Now you'll follow
my directions for about two days, maybe two and a half.

MISS PLUNKETT
(looking dubiously at the symbols of the prescription)

But it's such an awful lot to DO, doctor! I thought you'd just tell me to sleep,
the way you did Sally Gor- (with a flash of animation) Oh, doctor! Did you see
it in the paper this morning?

DOCTOR
(indifferently)
No-what's the scandal? Some new divorce?

MISS PLUNKETT
(thoroughly revived, with great animation)

It's all here in the Herald this morning. Mrs. Delamar's collar
was stolen last week. How Sally Gorton's diamond collar was stolen
at the Delamar's last week. Such horrid insinuations! They must be
furious, you know, that it got out—they kept it dark a week nearly—
but the servants always tell, especially when they're suspected.

DOCTOR
(cynically)
Don't they suspect any guest?

MISS PLUNKETT
Why I know Sally has her ideas.

(lowers her voice)
You know Cissy Dalton—the queer one whose father made such a mess of
things—well, she was there!

DOCTOR
So they suspect her as well as the servants?

MISS PLUNKETT
(nods)
You see her brother drinks fearfully, and everybody says that she
takes something—she's so queer at times. I wonder people have her round—

[end of extract]



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