Free Thirty Pieces of Silver: A Play in Three Acts by Howard Fast Page B

so that DAVID should not see her face. )
    ( DAVID goes over to her and tries to lift her head. She tears away. )
    JANE ( vehemently ) Don’t touch me!
    DAVID Jane—Jane, won’t you listen to me?
    ( She looks up at him now, on her face the searching, uncomprehending expressions of a stranger. )
    I did what was right. I had to do it.
    JANE ( very softly ) I suppose you did, David. I suppose you did. I suppose there was no other way for it, was there?
    DAVID ( trying to stimulate an emotional anger to match hers ) What in hell is your stake in Agronsky?
    ( JANE stares at him. Her face twitches, and then she begins to laugh, half hysterically. The laughter turns into sobs. She walks to the staircase, facing away from DAVID, her body wracked again. Then it passes. )
    JANE What is my stake in Agronsky?
    ( She turns to him. )
    What is my stake in you, David?
    ( Her face contorts and she speaks softly. )
    Oh, my God!
    (Wow HILDA enters. HILDA looks from one to the other . JANE speaks to her very gently .)
    What is it, Hilda?
    HILDA ( looking at her for a long moment before answering. She is making a determined effort to be unaffected by what is happening between these two people. She wants to cut it off from herself. Hers is one world. Theirs is another. ) My bag is packed, Mrs. Graham. I’m going now, and there’s some money coming to me.
    JANE ( fighting for control ) Of course. My bag is upstairs. Do you have a place to go, Hilda?
    HILDA ( ironically ) Even now—do I have a place to go? My God, Mrs. Graham, even the dogs have the warmth of their own kind, but you won’t admit me even there. Do I have a place to go? Don’t you think I have people, friends? Do you live in a jungle? I’ll go to my people, and even if I didn’t know a soul, there’d be doors open to me. There’d be some food and a place to sleep the night. That’s what people are, but you’ve stopped being people.
    DAVID Who are you talking to?
    JANE To us, David. Listen to her. Yes, listen to her. I thought and thought, but it’s so simple.
    ( very slowly and with great inner fear )
    We’ve stopped being people. That’s just it, Hilda.
    HILDA Yes, Mrs. Graham?
    JANE Can I go with you? I have no place to go. And no doors open to me. And no place to sleep the night. Can I go with you?
    HILDA With me?
    JANE Yes—please. Please, Hilda.
    HILDA How can you go with me, Mrs. Graham? How can you? You’re one world. I’m another. You want to go into my world? Then all he’d have to do ( nodding at DAVID ) is to phone the police. Then, do you know what would happen?
    JANE Yes—I think I know.
    HILDA Poor kid.
    JANE ( looking slowly from DAVID to HILDA ) Those are the first two words. Now we talk like people, don’t we, Hilda? Two words—poor kid. But I’m not poor, and I’m not a kid any more. This house is dirty, and I’m dirty, But I’m going to take my child and become clean, and she’s never going to be dirty.
    DAVID What in hell are you talking about?
    JANE Lorry and me—we go away from here to-night.
    DAVID And I have nothing to say about that?
    JANE Nothing.
    DAVID Well, you’re crazy—crazy—pleading to go with that damn——
    JANE ( interrupting savagely ) Don’t say it David! Don’t say it. Look at me! Try to understand! I’m dangerous now.
    DAVID What’s gotten into you?
    JANE Nothing—nothing that I can tell you. I’m no different. I haven’t learned anything. Or have I? I have a million questions but very few answers. But there are answers, David.
    ( pointing to HILDA )
    She has some of them. And I’m going to take Lorry and find other answers.
    DAVID Damn you, if you want to go to Agronsky, don’t wake the child up now——
    JANE David, with you, really, nothing changes. You make things in your own mind, and they become real. Then perhaps I shouldn’t blame you. It may be that by