he could see those
chimneys rising and marring the beauty of the fields] I was born
here, and my father, and his, and his, and his. They loved those
fields, and those old trees. And this barbarian, with his
"improvement" schemes, forsooth! I learned to ride in the Centry
meadows--prettiest spring meadows in the world; I've climbed every
tree there. Why my father ever sold----! But who could have
imagined this? And come at a bad moment, when money's scarce.

JILL. [Cuddling his arm] Dodo!

HILLCRIST. Yes. But you don't love the place as I do, Jill. You
youngsters don't love anything, I sometimes think.

JILL. I do, Dodo, I do!

HILLCRIST. You've got it all before you. But you may live your
life and never find anything so good and so beautiful as this old
home. I'm not going to have it spoiled without a fight.

[Conscious of batting betrayed Sentiment, he walks out at the
French window, passing away to the right. JILL following to
the window, looks. Then throwing back her head, she clasps her
hands behind it.]

JILL. Oh--oh-oh!

[A voice behind her says, "JILL!" She turns and starts back,
leaning against the right lintel of the window. ROLF appears
outside the window from Left.]

Who goes there?

ROLE. [Buttressed against the Left lintel] Enemy--after Chloe's
bag.

JILL. Pass, enemy! And all's ill!

[ROLF passes through the window, and retrieves the vanity bag
from the floor where CHLOE dropped it, then again takes his
stand against the Left lintel of the French window.]

ROLF. It's not going to make any difference, is it?

JILL. You know it is.

ROLF. Sins of the fathers.

JILL. Unto the third and fourth generations. What sin has my
father committed?

ROLF. None, in a way; only, I've often told you I don't see why you
should treat us as outsiders. We don't like it.

JILL. Well, you shouldn't be, then; I mean, he shouldn't be.

ROLF. Father's just as human as your father; he's wrapped up in us,
and all his "getting on" is for us. Would you like to be treated as
your mother treated Chloe? Your mother's set the stroke for the
other big-wigs about here; nobody calls on Chloe. And why not? Why
not? I think it's contemptible to bar people just because they're
new, as you call it, and have to make their position instead of
having it left them.

JILL. It's not because they're new, it's because--if your father
beh