HARRIET: Oh, Margaret, I'm so glad to se...

HARRIET: Oh, Margaret, I'm so glad to see you!

HETTY: [to MAGGIE] That's a lie.

MARGARET: [in superficial voice throughout] It's enchanting to see you, Harriet.

MAGGIE: [in emotional voice throughout] I'd bite you, if I dared.

HARRIET: [to MARGARET] Wasn't our meeting a stroke of luck?

MARGARET: [coming down left of table] I've thought of you so often, Harriet; and to come back and find you living in New York.

HARRIET: [coming down right of table] Mr. Goodrich has many interests here.

MAGGIE: [to MARGARET] Flatter her.

MARGARET: I know, Mr. Goodrich is so successful.

HETTY: [to HARRIET] Tell her we're rich.

HARRIET: [to MARGARET] Won't you sit down?

MARGARET: [takes a chair] What a beautiful lamp!

HARRIET: Do you like it? I'm afraid Charles paid an extravagant price.

MAGGIE: [to HETTY] I don't believe it.

MARGARET: [sitting down. To HARRIET] I am sure he must have.

HARRIET: [sitting down] How well you are looking, Margaret.

HETTY: Yes, you are not. There are circles under your eyes.

MAGGIE: [to HETTY] I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm hungry.

MARGARET: [to HARRIET] How well you are looking, too.

MAGGIE: [to HETTY] You have hard lines about your lips, are you happy?

HETTY: [to HARRIET] Don't let her know that I'm unhappy.

HARRIET: [to MARGARET] Why shouldn't I look well? My life is full, happy, complete --

MAGGIE: I wonder.

HETTY: [in HARRIET'S ear] Tell her we have an automobile.

MARGARET: [to HARRIET] My life is complete, too.

MAGGIE: My heart is torn with sorrow; my husband cannot make a living. He will kill himself if he does not get an order for a painting.

MARGARET: [laughs] You must come and see us in our studio. John has been doing some excellent portraits. He cannot begin to fill his orders.

HETTY: [to HARRIET] Tell her we have an automobile.

HARRIET: [to MARGARET] Do you take lemon in your tea?

MAGGIE: Take cream. It's more filling.

MARGARET: [looking nonchalantly at tea things] No, cream, if you please. How cozy!

MAGGIE: [glaring at tea things] Only cakes! I could eat them all!

HARRIET [to MARGARET] How many lumps?

MAGGIE: [to MARGARET] Sugar is nourishing.

MARGARET: [to HARRIET] Three, please. I used to drink very sweet coffee in Turkey and ever since I've --

HETTY: I don't believe you were ever in Turkey.

MAGGIE: I wasn't, but it is none of your business.

HARRIET: [pouring tea] Have you been in Turkey, do tell me about it.

MAGGIE: [to MARGARET] Change the subject.

MARGARET: [to HARRIET] You must go there. You have so much taste in dress you would enjoy seeing their costumes.

MAGGIE: Isn't she going to pass the cake?

MARGARET: [to HARRIET] John painted several portraits there.

HETTY: [to HARRIET] Why don't you stop her bragging and tell her we have an automobile?

HARRIET: [offers cake across the table to MARGARET] Cake?

MAGGIE: [stands back of MARGARET, shadowing her as HETTY shadows HARRIET. MAGGIE reaches claws out for the cake and groans with joy] At last! [But her claws do not touch the cake.]

MARGARET: [with a graceful, nonchalant hand places cake upon her plate and bites at it slowly and delicately] Thank you.

HETTY: [to HARRIET] Automobile!

MAGGIE: [to MARGARET] Follow up the costumes with the suggestion that she would make a good model for John. It isn't too early to begin getting what you came for.

MARGARET: [ignoring MAGGIE] What delicious cake.

HETTY: [excitedly to HARRIET] There's your chance for the auto.

HARRIET: [nonchalantly to MARGARET] Yes, it is good cake, isn't it? There are always a great many people buying it at Harper's. I sat in my automobile fifteen minutes this morning waiting for my chauffeur to get it.

MAGGIE: [to MARGARET] Make her order a portrait.

MARGARET: [to HARRIET] If you stopped at Harper's you must have noticed the new gowns at Henderson's. Aren't the shop windows alluring these days?

HARRIET: Even my chauffeur notices them.

MAGGIE: I know you have an automobile, I heard you the first time.

MARGARET: I notice gowns now with an artist's eye as John does. The one you have on, my dear, is very paintable.

HETTY: Don't let her see you're anxious to be painted.

HARRIET: [nonchalantly] Oh, it's just a little model.

MAGGIE: [to MARGARET] Don't seem anxious to get the order.

MARGARET: [nonchalantly] Perhaps it isn't the gown itself but the way you wear it that pleases the eye. Some people can wear anything with grace.

HETTY: Yes, I'm very graceful.

HARRIET: [to MARGARET] You flatter me, my dear.

MARGARET: On the contrary, Harriet, I have an intense admiration for you. I remember how beautiful you were -- as a girl. In fact, I was quite jealous when John was paying you so much attention.

HETTY: She is gloating because I lost him.

HARRIET: Those were childhood days in a country town.

MAGGIE: [to MARGARET] She's trying to make you feel that John was only a country boy.

MARGARET: Most great men have come from the country. There is a fair chance that John will be added to the list.

HETTY: I know it and I am bitterly jealous of you.

HARRIET: Undoubtedly he owes much of his success to you, Margaret, your experience in economy and your ability to endure hardship. Those first few years in Paris must have been a struggle.

MAGGIE: She is sneering at your poverty.

MARGARET: Yes, we did find life difficult at first, not the luxurious start a girl has who marries wealth.

Alice Gerstenberg. Overtones. http://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/overtones.html

Read Overtones: http://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/overtones.html