other!

HELEN. Happy!

(MRS. CROSBY _crosses to_ HELEN, _pats her hand and stands between_
WILLIAM _and_ HELEN R.C.)

WILLIAM. Shall we tell 'em all?

MRS. CROSBY. Tell them? (_She laughs_.) What do you think they are?
Blind and deaf? It's been a perfectly wonderful dinner. You were so
blind to everything but each other. Oh, Billy, I thought your father
would have a fit.

HELEN. I thought he had an awful cold, he was coughing terribly.

MRS. CROSBY. Coughing? He nearly choked to keep from laughing. I told
him I'd send him from the table if he laughed at you.

WILLIAM. Why you never spoke to him once.

MRS. CROSBY. Child, explain to him that wives don't have to--Oh, I
forget you haven't learned that yet. You know, Billy, I can talk to your
father very effectively without words.

(_Crosses to below table_ R.)

HELEN (_turning to_ MRS. CROSBY). Mrs. Crosby--

WILLIAM. Mother, Nell's all fussed up because we've got money. She
thinks you'll think--I'm--what in novels they call marrying beneath me.

(_He and_ MRS. CROSBY _laugh_. HELEN _looks a little hurt_.)

HELEN. Well, he is.

MRS. CROSBY. Nonsense, child, don't be silly. (_Sits down stage end of
table_.)

HELEN (_moving a step to_ MRS. CROSBY). It's not silly, Mrs. Crosby.
Everyone will say it, and they'll be right.

WILLIAM. Let's settle this thing now once and for all, then. In the
first place it's all nonsense, and in the second it isn't true--

HELEN. Oh, yes, it is.

MRS. CROSBY. Oh, the first row! I'll settle this one. Nelly!

WILLIAM. Now then, Nell, out with it, get it all out of your system.

HELEN. In the first place, it's the money.

MRS. CROSBY. Yes, but--Helen--

HELEN. Please, let me say it all. You have social position, great
wealth, charming friends, everything that makes life worth--Oh, what's
the use? You know as well as I do the great difference between us, and--

MRS. CROSBY. My dear child, suppose we admit all that, what then?

HELEN. But don't you see--

WILLIAM (_embracing her in front of table_ R.). You little idiot!
I don't see anything but you.

MRS. CROSBY. You love each other, that's the whole of it, children.
Suppose you listen to an old woman.

WILLIAM. Old! Huh!

MRS. CROSBY. Well, old enough. If Billy was the usual rich man's son it
might be different. There might be something in what you say. But thank
God he isn't. Mind you, I don't say he wasn't like most of them when he
was younger. I dare say he wa