The Elevator
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William D. Howells >> The Elevator
MILLER, guarding himself with the fan: "Not with me?"
MISS LAWTON, to young MR. BEMIS: "How it DOES creep!"
YOUNG MR. BEMIS, looking down fondly at her: "Oh, does it?"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Why, it doesn't go at all! It's stopped. Let us get
out." They all rise.
THE ELEVATOR BOY, pulling at the rope: "We're not there, yet."
MRS. CRASHAW, with mingled trepidation and severity: "Not there?
What are you stopping, then, for?"
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "I don't know. It seems to be caught."
MRS. CRASHAW: "Caught?"
MISS LAWTON: "Oh, dear!"
YOUNG MR. BEMIS: "Don't mind."
MILLER: "Caught? Nonsense!"
MRS. CURWEN: "WE'RE caught, I should say." She sinks back on the
seat.
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "Seemed to be going kind of funny all day!" He
keeps tugging at the rope.
MILLER, arresting the boy's efforts: "Well, hold on--stop! What are
you doing?"
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "Trying to make it go."
MILLER: "Well, don't be so--violent about it. You might break
something."
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "Break a wire rope like that!"
MILLER: "Well, well, be quiet now. Ladies, I think you'd better sit
down--and as gently as possible. I wouldn't move about much."
MRS. CURWEN: "Move! We're stone. And I wish for my part I were a
feather."
MILLER, to the boy: "Er--a--er--where do you suppose we are?"
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "We're in the shaft between the fourth and fifth
floors." He attempts a fresh demonstration on the rope, but is
prevented.
MILLER: "Hold on! Er--er" -
MRS. CRASHAW, as if the boy had to be communicated with through an
interpreter: "Ask him if it's ever happened before."
MILLER: "Yes. Were you ever caught before?"
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "No."
MILLER: "He says no."
MRS. CRASHAW: "Ask him if the elevator has a safety device."
MILLER: "Has it got a safety device?"
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "How should I know?"
MILLER: "He says he don't know."
MRS. CURWEN, in a shriek of hysterical laughter: "Why, he
understands English!"
MRS. CRASHAW, sternly ignoring the insinuation: "Ask him if there's
any means of calling the janitor."
MILLER: "Could you call the janitor?"
THE ELEVATOR BOY, ironically: "Well, there ain't any telephone
attachment."
MILLER, solemnly: "No, he says there isn't."
MRS. CRASHAW, sinking back on the seat with resignation: "Well, I
don't know what my niece will say."
MISS LAWTON: "Poor papa!"
YOUNG MR. BEMIS, gathering one of her wandering hands into his:
"Don't be frightened. I'm sure there's no danger."
THE ELEVATOR BOY, indignantly: "Why, she can't drop. The cogs in
the runs won't let her!"
ALL: "Oh!"
MILLER, with a sigh of relief: "I knew there must be something of
the kind. Well, I wish my wife had her fan."
MRS. CURWEN: "And if I had my left glove I should be perfectly
happy. Not that I know what the cogs in the runs are!"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Then we're merely caught here?"
MILLER: "That's all."
MRS. CURWEN: "It's quite enough for the purpose. Couldn't you put
on a life-preserver, Mr. Miller, and go ashore and get help from the
natives?"
MISS LAWTON, putting her handkerchief to her eyes: "Oh, dear!"
MRS. CRASHAW, putting her arm around her: "Don't be frightened, my
child. There's no danger."
YOUNG MR. BEMIS, caressing the hand which he holds: "Don't be
frightened."
MISS LAWTON: "Don't leave me."
YOUNG MR. BEMIS: "No, no; I won't. Keep fast hold of my hand."
MISS LAWTON: "Oh, yes, I will! I'm ashamed to cry."
YOUNG MR. BEMIS, fervently: "Oh, you needn't be! It is perfectly
natural you should."
MRS. CURWEN: "I'm too badly scared for tears. Mr. Miller, you seem
to be in charge of this expedition--couldn't you do something? Throw
out ballast, or let the boy down in a parachute? Or I've read of a
shipwreck where the survivors, in an open boat, joined in a cry, and
attracted the notice of a vessel that was going to pass them. We
might join in a cry."
MILLER: "Oh, it's all very well joking, Mrs. Curwen" -
MRS. CURWEN: "You call it joking!"
MILLER: "But it's not so amusing, being cooped up here indefinitely.
I don't know how we're to get out. We can't join in a cry, and rouse
the whole house. It would be ridiculous."
MRS. CURWEN: "And our present attitude is so eminently dignified!
Well, I suppose we shall have to cast lots pretty soon to see which
of us shall be sacrificed to nourish the survivors. It's long past
dinner-time."
MISS LAWTON, breaking down: "Oh, DON'T say such terrible things."
YOUNG MR. BEMIS, indignantly comforting her: "Don't, don't cry.
There's no danger. It's perfectly safe."
MILLER to THE ELEVATOR BOY: "Couldn't you climb up the cable, and
get on to the landing, and--ah!--get somebody?"
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "I could, maybe, if there was a hole in the roof."
MILLER, glancing up: "Ah! true."
MRS. CRASHAW, with an old lady's serious kindness: "My boy, can't
you think of anything to do for us?"
THE ELEVATOR BOY yielding to the touch of humanity, and bursting into
tears: "No, ma'am, I can't. And everybody's blamin' me, as if I
done it. What's my poor mother goin' to do?"
MRS. CRASHAW, soothingly: "But you said the runs in the cogs" -
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "How can I tell! That's what they say. They
hain't never been tried."
MRS. CURWEN, springing to her feet: "There! I knew I should. Oh"--
She sinks fainting to the floor.
MRS. CRASHAW, abandoning Miss Lawton to the ministrations of young
Mr. Bemis, while she kneels beside Mrs. Curwen. and chafes her hand:
"Oh, poor thing! I knew she was overwrought by the way she was
keeping up. Give her air, Mr. Miller. Open a--Oh, there isn't any
window!"
MILLER, dropping on his knees, and fanning Mrs. Curwen: "There!
there! Wake up, Mrs. Curwen. I didn't mean to scold you for joking.
I didn't, indeed. I--I--I don't know what the deuce I'm up to." He
gathers Mrs. Curwen's inanimate form in his arms, and fans her face
where it lies on his shoulder. "I don't know what my wife would say
if" -
MRS. CRASHAW: "She would say that you were doing your duty."
MILLER, a little consoled: "Oh, do you think so? Well, perhaps."
YOUNG MR. BEMIS: "Do you feel faint at all, Miss Lawton?"
MISS LAWTON: "No, I think not. No, not if you say it's safe."
YOUNG MR. BEMIS: "Oh, I'm sure it is!"
MISS LAWTON, renewing her hold upon his hand: "Well, then! Perhaps
I hurt you?"
YOUNG MR. BEMIS: "No, no! You couldn't!'
MISS LAWTON: "How kind you are!"
MRS. CURWEN, opening her eyes: "Where" -
MILLER, rapidly transferring her to Mrs. Crashaw: "Still in the
elevator, Mrs. Curwen." Rising to his feet: "Something must be
done. Perhaps we HAD better unite in a cry. It's ridiculous, of
course. But it's the only thing we can do. Now, then! Hello!"
MISS LAWTON: "Papa!"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Agne-e-e-s!"
MRS. CURWEN, faintly: "Walter!"
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "Say!"
MILLER: "Oh, that won't do. All join in 'Hello!'"
ALL: "Hello!"
MILLER: "Once more!"
ALL: "Hello!"
MILLER: "ONCE more!"
ALL: "Hello!"
MILLER: "Now wait a while." After an interval: "No, nobody
coming." He takes out his watch. "We must repeat this cry at
intervals of a half-minute. Now, then!" They all join in the cry,
repeating it as MR. MILLER makes the signal with his lifted hand.
MISS LAWTON: "Oh, it's no use!"
MRS. CRASHAW: "They don't hear."
MRS. CURWEN: "They WON'T hear."
MILLER: "Now, then, three times!"
ALL: "Hello! hello! hello!"
III.
ROBERTS appears at the outer door of his apartment on the fifth
floor. It opens upon a spacious landing, to which a wide staircase
ascends at one side. At the other is seen the grated door to the
shaft of the elevator. He peers about on all sides, and listens for
a moment before he speaks.
ROBERTS: "Hello yourself."
MILLER, invisibly from the shaft: "Is that you, Roberts?"
ROBERTS: "Yes; where in the world are you?"
MILLER: "In the elevator."
MRS. CRASHAW: "We're ALL here, Edward."
ROBERTS: "What! You, Aunt Mary!"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Yes. Didn't I say so?"
ROBERTS: "Why don't you come up?"
MILLER: "We can't. The elevator has got stuck somehow."
ROBERTS: "Got stuck? Bless my soul! How did it happen? How long
have you been there?"
MRS. CURWEN: "Since the world began!"
MILLER: "What's the use asking how it happened? We don't know, and
we don't care. What we want to do is to get out."
ROBERTS: "Yes, yes! Be careful!" He rises from his frog-like
posture at the grating, and walks the landing in agitation. "Just
hold on a minute!"
MILLER: "Oh, WE sha'n't stir."
ROBERTS: "I'll see what can be done."
MILLER: "Well, see quick, please. We have plenty of time, but we
don't want to lose any. Don't alarm Mrs. Miller, if you can help
it."
ROBERTS: "No, no."
MRS. CURWEN: "You MAY alarm Mr. Curwen."
ROBERTS: "What! Are YOU there?"
MRS. CURWEN: "Here? I've been here all my life!"
ROBERTS: "Ha! ha! ha! That's right. We'll soon have you out. Keep
up your spirits."
MRS. CURWEN: "But I'm NOT keeping them up."
MISS LAWTON: "Tell papa I'm here too."
ROBERTS: "What! You too, Miss Lawton?"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Yes, and young Mr. Bemis. Didn't I TELL you we were
all here?"
ROBERTS: "I couldn't realize it. Well, wait a moment."
MRS. CURWEN: "Oh, you can trust us to wait."
ROBERTS, returning with DR. LAWTON, and MR. BEMIS, who join him in
stooping around the grated door of the shaft: "They're just under
here in the well of the elevator, midway between the two stories."
LAWTON: "Ha! ha! ha! You don't say so."
BEMIS: "Bless my heart! What are they doing there?"
MILLER: "We're not doing anything."
MRS. CURWEN: "We're waiting for you to do something."
MISS LAWTON: "Oh, papa!"
LAWTON: "Don't be troubled, Lou, we'll soon have you out."
YOUNG MR. BEMIS: "Don't be alarmed, sir, Miss Lawton is all right."
MISS LAWTON: "Yes, I'm not frightened, papa."
LAWTON: "Well, that's a great thing in cases of this kind. How did
you happen to get there?"
MILLER, indignantly: "How do you suppose? We came up in the
elevator."
LAWTON: "Well, why didn't you come the rest of the way?"
MILLER: "The elevator wouldn't."
LAWTON: "What seems to be the matter?"
MILLER: "We don't know."
LAWTON: "Have you tried to start it?"
MILLER: "Well, I'll leave that to your imagination."
LAWTON: "Well, be careful what you do. You might" -
MILLER, interrupting: "Roberts, who's that talking?"
ROBERTS, coming forward politely: "Oh, excuse me! I forgot that you
didn't know each other. Dr. Lawton, Mr. Miller." Introducing them.
LAWTON: "Glad to know you."
MILLER: "Very happy to make your acquaintance, and hope some day to
see you. And now, if you have completed your diagnosis"
MRS. CURWEN: "None of us have ever had it before, doctor; nor any of
our families, so far as we know."
LAWTON: "Ha! ha! ha! Very good! Well, just keep quiet. We'll have
you all out of there presently."
BEMIS: "Yes, remain perfectly still."
ROBERTS: "Yes, we'll have you out. Just wait."
MILLER: "You seem to think we're going to run away. Why shouldn't
we keep quiet? Do you suppose we're going to be very boisterous,
shut up here like rats in a trap?"
MRS. CURWEN: "Or birds in a cage, if you want a more pleasing
image."
MRS. CRASHAW: "How are you going to get us out, Edward?"
ROBERTS: "We don't know yet. But keep quiet" -
MILLER: "Keep quiet! Great heavens! we're afraid to stir a finger.
Now don't say 'keep quiet' any more, for we can't stand it."
LAWTON: "He's in open rebellion. What are you going to do,
Roberts?"
ROBERTS, rising and scratching his head: "Well, I don't know yet.
We might break a hole in the roof."
LAWTON: "Ah, I don't think that would do. Besides you'd have to get
a carpenter."
ROBERTS: "That's true. And it would make a racket, and alarm the
house"--staring desperately at the grated doorway of the shaft. "If
I could only find an elevator man--an elevator builder! But of
course they all live in the suburbs, and they're keeping Christmas,
and it would take too long, anyway."
BEMIS: "Hadn't you better send for the police? It seems to me it's
a case for the authorities."
LAWTON: "Ah, there speaks the Europeanized mind! They always leave
the initiative to the authorities. Go out and sound the fire-alarm,
Roberts. It's a case for the Fire Department."
ROBERTS: "Oh, it's all very well to joke, Dr. Lawton. Why don't you
prescribe something?"
LAWTON: "Surgical treatment seems to be indicated, and I'm merely a
general practitioner."
ROBERTS: "If Willis were only here, he'd find some way out of it.
Well, I'll have to go for help somewhere" -
MRS. ROBERTS and MRS. MILLER, bursting upon the scene: "Oh, what is
it?"
LAWTON: "Ah, you needn't go for help, my dear fellow. It's come!"
MRS. ROBERTS: "What are you all doing here, Edward?"
MRS. MILLER: "Oh, have you had any bad news of Mr. Miller?"
MRS. ROBERTS: "Or Aunt Mary?"
MILLER, calling up: "Well, are you going to keep us here all night?
Why don't you do something?"
MRS. MILLER: "Oh, what's that? Oh, it's Mr. Miller! Oh, where are
you, Ellery?"
MILLER: "In the elevator."
MRS. MILLER: "Oh! and where is the elevator? Why don't you get out?
Oh" -
MILLER: "It's caught, and we can't."
MRS. MILLER: "Caught? Oh, then you will be killed--killed--killed!
And it's all my fault, sending you back after my fan, and I had it
all the time in my own pocket; and it comes from my habit of giving
it to you to carry in your overcoat pocket, because it's deep, and
the fan can't break. And of course I never thought of my own pocket,
and I never SHOULD have thought of it at all if Mr. Curwen hadn't
been going back to get Mrs. Curwen's glove, for he'd brought another
right after she'd sent him for a left, and we were all having such a
laugh about it, and I just happened to put my hand on my pocket, and
there I felt the fan. And oh, WHAT shall I do?" Mrs. Miller utters
these explanations and self-reproaches in a lamentable voice, while
crouching close to the grated door to the elevator shaft, and
clinging to its meshes.
MILLER: "Well, well, it's all right. I've got you another fan,
here. Don't be frightened."
MRS. ROBERTS, wildly: "Where's Aunt Mary, Edward? Has Willis got
back?" At a guilty look from her husband: "Edward! DON'T tell me
that SHE'S in that elevator! Don't do it, Edward! For your own sake
don't. Don't tell me that your own child's mother's aunt is down
there, suspended between heaven and earth like--like" -
LAWTON: "The coffin of the Prophet."
MRS. ROBERTS: "Yes. DON'T tell me, Edward! Spare your child's
mother, if you won't spare your wife!"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Agnes! don't be ridiculous. I'm here, and I never
was more comfortable in my life."
MRS. ROBERTS, calling down the grating "Oh! Is it you, Aunt Mary?"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Of course it is!"
MRS. ROBERTS: "You recognize my voice?"
MRS. CRASHAW: "I should hope so, indeed! Why shouldn't I?"
MRS. ROBERTS: "And you know me? Agnes? Oh!"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Don't be a goose, Agnes."
MRS. ROBERTS: "Oh, it IS you, aunty. It IS! Oh, I'm SO glad! I'm
SO happy! But keep perfectly still, aunty dear, and we'll soon have
you out. Think of baby, and don't give way."
MRS. CRASHAW: "I shall not, if the elevator doesn't, you may depend
upon that."
MRS. ROBERTS: "Oh, what courage you DO have! But keep up your
spirits! Mrs. Miller and I have just come from seeing baby. She's
gone to sleep with all her little presents in her arms. The children
did want to see you so much before they went to bed. But never mind
that now, Aunt Mary. I'm only too thankful to have you at all!"
MRS. CRASHAW: "I wish you did have me! And if you will all stop
talking and try some of you to do something, I shall be greatly
obliged to you. It's worse than it was in the sleeping car that
night."
MRS. ROBERTS: "Oh, do you remember it, Aunt Mary? Oh, how funny you
are!" Turning heroically to her husband: "Now, Edward, dear, get
them out. If it's necessary, get them out over my dead body.
Anything! Only hurry. I will be calm; I will be patient. But you
must act instantly. Oh, here comes Mr. Curwen!" MR. CURWEN mounts
the stairs to the landing with every sign of exhaustion, as if he had
made a very quick run to and from his house. "Oh, HE will help--I
know he will! Oh, Mr. Curwen, the elevator is caught just below here
with my aunt in it and Mrs. Miller's husband" -
LAWTON: "And my girl."
BEMIS: "And my boy."
MRS. CURWEN, calling up: "And your wife!"
CURWEN, horror-struck: "And my wife! Oh, heavenly powers! what are
we going to do? How shall we get them out? Why don't they come up?"
ALL: "They can't."
CURWEN: "Can't? Oh, my goodness!" He flies at the grating, and
kicks and beats it.
ROBERTS: "Hold on! What's the use of that?"
LAWTON: "You couldn't get at them if you beat the door down."
BEMIS: "Certainly not." They lay hands upon him and restrain him.
CURWEN, struggling: "Let me speak to my wife! Will you prevent a
husband from speaking to his own wife?"
MRS. MILLER, in blind admiration of his frenzy: "Yes, that's just
what I said. If some one had beaten the door in at once" -
MRS. ROBERTS: "Oh, Edward, dear, let him speak to his wife."
Tearfully: "Think if _I_ were there!"
ROBERTS, releasing him: "He may speak to his wife all night. But he
mustn't knock the house down."
CURWEN, rushing at the grating: "Caroline! Can you hear me? Are
you safe?"
MRS. CURWEN: "Perfectly. I had a little faint when we first stuck"
-
CURWEN: "Faint? Oh!"
MRS. CURWEN: "But I am all right now."
CURWEN: "Well, that's right. Don't be frightened! There's no
occasion for excitement. Keep perfectly calm and collected. It's
the only way--What's that ringing?" The sound of an electric bell is
heard within the elevator. It increases in fury.
MRS. ROBERTS and MRS. MILLER: "Oh, isn't it dreadful?"
THE ELEVATOR BOY: "It's somebody on the ground-floor callin' the
elevator!"
CURWEN: "Well, never mind him. Don't pay the slightest attention to
him. Let him go to the deuce! And, Caroline!"
MRS. CURWEN: "Yes?"
CURWEN: "I--I--I've got your glove all right."
MRS. CURWEN: "Left, you mean, I hope?"
CURWEN: "Yes, left, dearest! I MEAN left."
MRS. CURWEN: "Eight-button?"
CURWEN: "Yes."
MRS. CURWEN: "Light drab?"
CURWEN, pulling a light yellow glove from his pocket: "Oh!" He
staggers away from the grating and stays himself against the wall,
the mistaken glove dangling limply from his hand.
ROBERTS, LAWTON, and BEMIS: "Ah! ha! ha! ha!"
MRS. ROBERTS: "Oh, for shame! to laugh at such a time!"
MRS. MILLER: "When it's a question of life and death. There! The
ringing's stopped. What's that?" Steps are heard mounting the
stairway rapidly, several treads at a time. Mr. Campbell suddenly
bursts into the group on the landing with a final bound from the
stairway. "Oh!"
CAMPBELL: "I can't find Aunt Mary, Agnes. I can't find anything--
not even the elevator. Where's the elevator? I rang for it down
there till I was black in the face."
MRS. ROBERTS: "No wonder! It's here."
MRS. MILLER: "Between this floor and the floor below. With my
husband in it."
CURWEN: "And my wife!"
LAWTON: "And my daughter!"
BEMIS: "And my son!"
MRS. ROBERTS: "And aunty!"
ALL: "And it's stuck fast."
ROBERTS: "And the long and short of it is, Willis, that we don't
know how to get them out, and we wish you would suggest some way."
LAWTON: "There's been a great tacit confidence among us in your
executive ability and your inventive genius."
MRS. ROBERTS: "Oh, yes, we know you can do it."
MRS. MILLER: "If you can't, nothing can save them."
CAMPBELL, going to the grating: "Miller!"
MILLER: "Well?"
CAMPBELL: "Start her up!"
MILLER: "Now, look here, Campbell, we are not going to stand that;
we've had enough of it. I speak for the whole elevator. Don't you
suppose that if it had been possible to start her up we" -
MRS. CURWEN: "We shouldn't have been at the moon by this time."
CAMPBELL: "Well, then, start her DOWN!"
MILLER: "I never thought of that." To the ELEVATOR BOY: "Start her
down." To the people on the landing above: "Hurrah! She's off!"
CAMPBELL: "Well, NOW start her up!"
A joint cry from the elevator: "Thank you! we'll walk up this time."
MILLER: "Here! let us out at this landing!" They are heard
precipitately emerging, with sighs and groans of relief, on the floor
below.
MRS. ROBERTS, devoutly: "O Willis, it seems like an interposition of
Providence, your coming just at this moment."
CAMPBELL: "Interposition of common sense! These hydraulic elevators
weaken sometimes, and can't go any farther."
ROBERTS, to the shipwrecked guests, who arrive at the top of the
stairs, crestfallen, spent, and clinging to one another for support:
"Why didn't you think of starting her down, some of you?"
MRS. ROBERTS, welcoming them with kisses and hand-shakes: "I should
have thought it would occur to you at once."
MILLER, goaded to exasperation: "Did it occur to any of YOU?"
LAWTON, with sublime impudence: "It occurred to ALL of us. But we
naturally supposed you had tried it."
MRS. MILLER, taking possession of her husband: "Oh, what a fright
you have given us!"
MILLER: "_I_ given you! Do you suppose I did it out of a joke, or
voluntarily?"
MRS. ROBERTS: "Aunty, I don't know what to say to you. YOU ought to
have been here long ago, before anything happened."
MRS. CRASHAW: "Oh, I can explain everything in due season. What I
wish you to do now is to let me get at Willis, and kiss him." As
CAMPBELL submits to her embrace: "You dear, good fellow! If it
hadn't been for your presence of mind, I don't know how we should
ever have got out of that horrid pen."
MRS. CURWEN, giving him her hand: "As it isn't proper for ME to kiss
you"
CAMPBELL: "Well, I don't know. I don't wish to be TOO modest."
MRS. CURWEN: "I think I shall have to vote you a service of plate."
MRS. ROBERTS: "Come and look at the pattern of mine. And, Willis,
as you are the true hero of the occasion, you shall take me in to
dinner. And I am not going to let anybody go before you." She
seizes his arm, and leads the way from the landing into the
apartment. ROBERTS, LAWTON, and BEMIS follow stragglingly.
MRS. MILLER, getting her husband to one side: "When she fainted, she
fainted AT you, of course! What did you do?"
MILLER: "Who? I! Oh!" After a moment's reflection: "She came
to!"
CURWEN, getting his wife aside: "When you fainted, Caroline, who
revived you?"
MRS. CURWEN: "Who? ME? Oh! How should I know? I was insensible."
They wheel arm in arm, and meet MR. and MRS. MILLER in the middle.
MRS. CURWEN yields precedence with an ironical courtesy: "After you,
Mrs. Miller!"
MRS. MILLER, in a nervous, inimical twitter: "Oh, before the heroine
of the lost elevator?"
MRS. CURWEN, dropping her husband's arm, and taking MRS. MILLER'S:
"Let us split the difference."
MRS. MILLER: "Delightful! I shall never forget the honor."
MRS. CURWEN: "Oh, don't speak of honors! Mr. Miller was SO kind
through all those terrible scenes in the elevator."
MRS. MILLER: "I've no doubt you showed yourself duly grateful."
They pass in, followed by their husbands.
YOUNG MR. BEMIS, timidly: "Miss Lawton, in the elevator you asked me
not to leave you. Did you--ah--mean--I MUST ask you; it may be my
only chance; if you meant--never?"
MISS LAWTON, dropping her head: "I--I--don't--know."
YOUNG MR. BEMIS: "But if I WISHED never to leave you, should you
send me away?"
MISS LAWTON, with a shy, sly upward glance at him: "Not in the
elevator!"
YOUNG MR. BEMIS: "Oh!"
MRS. ROBERTS, re-appearing at the door: "Why, you good-for-nothing
young things, why don't you come to--Oh! excuse me!" She re-enters
precipitately, followed by her tardy guests, on whom she casts a
backward glance of sympathy. "Oh, you NEEDN'T hurry!"