CRAIG’S WIFE
13
- home she said if he ever said anything to me, she’d be glad if I could like him well enough to marry him. She said she’d feel easier about me, in case anything ever happened to her. And I wanted to tell her.
Mrs. Craig
- You mean he had said something?
Ethel
- Yes, he asked me to marry him right after Easter. But I didn’t write anything about it to Mother; I thought I’d wait until she’d be up there in June for my Commencement, and then I’d tell her.
Mrs. Craig
- I don’t know why your mother should be so panicky about your future, Ethel; you’re only nineteen.
Ethel
- She said she’d like to feel that I’d have somebody.
Mrs. Craig
- Why does a person need anybody, dear, if he has money enough to get along on? (She turns and crosses to the mirror to remove her hat) And, as a matter of fact, you wouldn’t be left absolutely desolate even if something did happen to your mother. You’d always have me—I’m your mother’s sister. So that, really, I think you’re a very foolish girl, Ethel, if you allow your mother’s apprehensions to rush you into marriage. Unless, of course, it were an advantageous marriage.
Ethel
- She didn’t want to rush me into it —she simply said she thought it would be better for me to be settled.
Mrs. Craig (bringing her hat back to the table, and taking a powder puff from her bag)
- Well, naturally, I can understand that, of course.
