t--it's
like you. You let me make a fool of myself and then you show it to me,
and after that you deny it! [Angrily.] You're always exhibiting your
superiority! Would you do that to the dream girl you told me of, to the
girl at home who plays dream songs for you in the empty house among the
beeches? Do you think _any_ girl could love a man for that? Go back to
your dream girl, your lady of the picture!

PIKE [disconsolately]. She won't be there.

ETHEL [stubbornly]. She _might_ be.

PIKE. No, there ain't any chance of that. The house will still be empty.

ETHEL [almost crying]. Are you _sure_?

PIKE [sadly]. There ain't any doubt of it now.

ETHEL. You might be wrong--for once!

[She gives him a look between tears and laughter, then runs into the
hotel.]

[PIKE stands sadly, his head bent, every line of his body expressing
dejection; then from within the hotel come the sounds of a piano in the
preliminary chords of "Sweet Genevieve." ETHEL'S voice is lifted in the
song, at first faint, somewhat tremulous and quavering, then rising
strongly and confidently. PIKE'S face, slowly upraised, becomes
transfigured. He crosses the stage spellbound, to the hotel door with
the look of a man in a dream. He falls back a step, looking in.]

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN FROM HOME***

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