]
CURTAIN.
THE STRONGER
CHARACTERS
MME. X., an actress, married
MLLE. Y., an actress, unmarried
A WAITRESS
THE STRONGER
[SCENE--The corner of a ladies' cafe. Two little iron tables, a red
velvet sofa, several chairs. Enter Mme. X., dressed in winter
clothes, carrying a Japanese basket on her arm.]
[MLLE. Y. sits with a half empty beer bottle before her, reading an
illustrated paper, which she changes later for another.]
MME. X. Good afternoon, Amelie. You're sitting here alone on
Christmas eve like a poor bachelor!
MLLE. Y. [Looks up, nods, and resumes her reading.]
MME. X. Do you know it really hurts me to see you like this, alone,
in a cafe, and on Christmas eve, too. It makes me feel as I did one
time when I saw a bridal party in a Paris restaurant, and the bride
sat reading a comic paper, while the groom played billiards with
the witnesses. Huh, thought I, with such a beginning, what will
follow, and what will be the end? He played billiards on his
wedding eve! [Mlle. Y. starts to speak]. And she read a comic
paper, you mean? Well, they are not altogether the same thing.
[A waitress enters, places a cup of chocolate before Mme. X. and
goes out.]
MME. X. You know what, Amelie! I believe you would have done better
to have kept him! Do you remember, I was the first to say "Forgive
him?" Do you remember that? You would be married now and have a
home. Remember that Christmas when you went out to visit your
fiance's parents in the country? How you gloried in the happiness
of home life and really longed to quit the theatre forever? Yes,
Amelie dear, home is the best of all, the theatre next and
children--well, you don't understand that.
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