some friends. The
nurse girl fell asleep--or something--and the children sneaked out in
their underclothes and played in the snow. Pneumonia set in--and a week
later they were both dead.

BIGELOW--[Shocked.] Good heavens!

MARTHA--We were real lunatics for a time. And then when we'd calmed
down enough to realize--how things stood with us--we swore we'd never
have children again--to steal away their memory. It wasn't what you
thought--romanticism--that set Curt wandering--and me with him. It was
a longing to lose ourselves--to forget. He flung himself with all his
power into every new study that interested him. He couldn't keep still,
mentally or bodily--and I followed. He needed me--then--so dreadfully!

BIGELOW--And is it that keeps driving him on now?

MARTHA--Oh, no. He's found himself. His work has taken the place of the
children.

BIGELOW--And with you, too?

MARTHA--[With a wan smile.] Well, I've helped--all I could. His work
has me in it, I like to think--and I have him.

BIGELOW--[Shaking his head.] I think people are foolish to stand by
such an oath as you took--forever. [With a smile.] Children are a great
comfort in one's old age, I've tritely found.

MARTHA--[Smiling.] Old age!

BIGELOW--I'm knocking at the door of fatal forty.

MARTHA--[With forced gaiety.] You're not very tactful, I must say.
Don't you know I'm thirty-eight?

BIGELOW--[Gallantly.] A woman is as old as she looks. You're not thirty
yet.

MARTHA--[Laughing.] After that nice remark I'll have to forgive you
everything, won't I? [LILY JAYSON comes in from the rear. She is a
slender, rather pretty girl of twenty-five. The stamp of college
student is still very much about her. She rather insists on a superior,
intellectual air, is full of nervous, thwarted energy. At the sight of
them sitting on the couch together, her eyebrows are raised.]

LILY--[Coming into the room--breezily.] Hello, Martha. Hello, Big.
[They both get up with answering "Hellos."] I walked right in
regardless. Hope I'm not interrupting.

MARTHA--Not at all.

LILY--[Sitting down by the table as MARTHA and BIGELOW resume their
seats on the lounge.] I must say it sounded serious. I heard you tell
Big you'd forgive him everything, Martha. [Dryly--with a mocking glance
at BIGELOW.] You're letting yourself in for a large proposition.

BIGELOW--[Displeased but trying to smile it off.] The past is never
past for a dog with a bad name, eh, Lily? [LILY laughs. BIGELO