And so sly. She begins telling me about her relatives so I can’t get a word in edgeways and scold her. Well, I might as well get it over.

She goes to the back-parlor doorway, then turns, her face worried again.

You musn’t make Edmund work on the grounds with you, James, remember.

Again with the strange obstinate set to her face.

Not that he isn’t strong enough, but he’d perspire and he might catch more cold.

She disappears through the back parlor. Tyrone turns on Jamie condemningly.

TYRONE

You’re a fine lunkhead! Haven’t you any sense? The one thing to avoid is saying anything that would get her more upset over Edmund.

JAMIE

Shrugging his shoulders.

All right. Have it your way. I think it’s the wrong idea to let Mama go on kidding herself. It will only make the shock worse when she has to face it. Anyway, you can see she’s deliberately fooling herself with that summer cold talk. She knows better.

TYRONE

Knows? Nobody knows yet.

JAMIE

Well, I do. I was with Edmund when he went to Doc Hardy on Monday. I heard him pull that touch of malaria stuff. He was stalling. That isn’t what he thinks any more. You know it as well as I do. You talked to him when you went uptown yesterday, didn’t you?

TYRONE

He couldn’t say anything for sure yet. He’s to phone me today before Edmund goes to him.

JAMIE

Slowly.

He thinks it’s consumption, doesn’t he, Papa?

TYRONE

Reluctantly.

He said it might be.

JAMIE

Moved, his love for his brother coming out.

Poor kid! God damn it!

He turns on his father accusingly.

It might never have happened if you’d sent him to a real doctor when he first got sick.

TYRONE

What’s the matter with Hardy? He’s always been our doctor up here.

JAMIE

Everything’s the matter with him! Even in this hick burg he’s rated third class! He’s a cheap old quack!

TYRONE

That’s right! Run him down! Run down everybody! Everyone is a fake to you!

JAMIE

Contemptuously.

Hardy only charges a dollar. That’s what makes you think he’s a fine doctor!

TYRONE

Stung.

That’s enough! You’re not drunk now! There’s no excuse—

He controls himself—a bit defensively.

If you mean I can’t afford one of the fine society doctors who prey on the rich summer people—

JAMIE

Can’t afford? You’re one of the biggest property owners around here.

TYRONE

That doesn’t mean I’m rich. It’s all mortgaged—

JAMIE

Because you always buy more instead of paying off mortgages. If Edmund was a lousy acre of land you wanted, the sky would be the limit!

TYRONE

That’s a lie! And your sneers against Doctor Hardy are lies! He doesn’t put on frills, or have an office in a fashionable location, or drive around in an expensive automobile. That’s what you pay for with those other five-dollars-to-look-at-your-tongue fellows, not their skill.

JAMIE

With a scornful shrug of his shoulders.

Oh, all right. I’m a fool to argue. You can’t change the leopard’s spots.

TYRONE

With rising anger.

No, you can’t. You’ve taught me that lesson only too well. I’ve lost all hope you will ever change yours. You dare tell me what I can afford? You’ve never known the value of a dollar and never will! You’ve never saved a dollar in your life! At the end of each season you’re penniless! You’ve thrown your salary away every week on whores and whiskey!

JAMIE

My salary! Christ!

TYRONE

It’s more than you’re worth, and you couldn’t get that if it wasn’t for me. If you weren’t my son, there isn’t a manager in the business who would give you a part, your reputation stinks so. As it is, I have to humble my pride and beg for you, saying you’ve turned over a new leaf, although I know it’s a lie!

JAMIE

I never wanted to be an actor. You forced me on the stage.

TYRONE

That’s a lie! You made no effort to find anything else to do. You left it to me to get you a job and I have no influence except in the theater. Forced you! You never wanted to do anything except loaf in barrooms! You’d have been content to sit back like a lazy lunk and sponge on me for the rest of your life! After all the money I’d wasted on your education, and all you did was get fired in disgrace from every college you went to!

JAMIE

Oh, for God’s sake, don’t drag up that ancient history!

TYRONE

It’s not ancient history that you have to come home every summer to live on me.

JAMIE

I earn my board and lodging working on the grounds.