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Ebook has 1173 lines and 21943 words, and 24 pages

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR

A Play in Three Acts

BAYARD VEILLER

London, Samuel French, Ltd.

All applications for a licence to perform this play, either by professional or amateur companies, must be made to--

Messrs. Samuel French, Ltd., 26 Southampton Street, Strand, London, W.C.2,

or their authorized representatives.

The fee for the representation by amateurs is Five Guineas.

In the event of more than one performance being given by amateurs, the fee for each and every representation subsequent to the first is Four Guineas. This reduction only applies when the performances are consecutive and at the same theatre or hall.

Upon payment of the fee, a licence will be issued for the performance to take place, and no performance may be given unless this licence has been obtained.

Character costumes and wigs used in the performance of plays contained in French's Acting Edition may be obtained from Messrs. CHARLES H. FOX, Ltd., Acre House, 72 Long Acre, London, W.C.2.

Made and Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London.

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR

Produced at The Duke of York's Theatre, London, on October the 16th, 1917, with the following cast of characters:--

ROSCOE CROSBY Mr. Charles Rock WILLIAM CROSBY Mr. Lionel Belcher EDWARD WALES Mr. Yorke Stephens BRADDISH TRENT Mr. Dennis Wyndham HOWARD STANDISH Mr Vane Sutton-Vane PHILIP MASON Mr. Arthur Finn POLLOCK Mr Charles Bishop INSPECTOR DONOHUE Mr. James Carew SERGEANT DUNN Mr. Frank Harris DOOLAN Mr. Denham Charles HELEN O'NEILL Miss Hilda Bayley MRS. CROSBY Miss Dorothy Hammon MARY EASTWOOD Miss Margaret Moffat HELEN TRENT Miss Ethel Carrington ELIZABETH ERSKINE Miss Grace Darby GRACE STANDISH Miss Gladys Maude MME. ROSALIE LA GRANGE Mrs. Patrick Campbell

The scene throughout the play is the Italian Room in Roscoe Crosby's House, New York. The time is evening. The second act takes place ten minutes later than the first and the third act half an hour later than the second.

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR

ACT I

HELEN. I love you so.

WILLIAM. You are the most wonderful thing in all the world.

HELEN. I can't believe it.

WILLIAM. That I love you?

HELEN. Oh, no, I'm sure of that.

WILLIAM. If there's any doubt in your mind, I'll prove it again.

HELEN. They'll see us. Oh, my dear, my dear!

MRS. CROSBY . Don't move, you look so comfortable! Well, are you happy?

WILLIAM. Oh, mother!

HELEN. Happy!

WILLIAM. Shall we tell 'em all?

MRS. CROSBY. Tell them? What do you think they are? Blind and deaf? It's been a perfectly wonderful dinner. You were so blind to everything but each other. Oh, Billy, I thought your father would have a fit.

HELEN. I thought he had an awful cold, he was coughing terribly.

MRS. CROSBY. Coughing? He nearly choked to keep from laughing. I told him I'd send him from the table if he laughed at you.

WILLIAM. Why you never spoke to him once.

MRS. CROSBY. Child, explain to him that wives don't have to--Oh, I forget you haven't learned that yet. You know, Billy, I can talk to your father very effectively without words.

HELEN . Mrs. Crosby--

WILLIAM. Mother, Nell's all fussed up because we've got money. She thinks you'll think--I'm--what in novels they call marrying beneath me.

HELEN. Well, he is.

MRS. CROSBY. Nonsense, child, don't be silly.

HELEN . It's not silly, Mrs. Crosby. Everyone will say it, and they'll be right.

WILLIAM. Let's settle this thing now once and for all, then. In the first place it's all nonsense, and in the second it isn't true--

HELEN. Oh, yes, it is.

MRS. CROSBY. Oh, the first row! I'll settle this one. Nelly!

WILLIAM. Now then, Nell, out with it, get it all out of your system.

HELEN. In the first place, it's the money.

MRS. CROSBY. Yes, but--Helen--

HELEN. Please, let me say it all. You have social position, great wealth, charming friends, everything that makes life worth--Oh, what's the use? You know as well as I do the great difference between us, and--

MRS. CROSBY. My dear child, suppose we admit all that, what then?

HELEN. But don't you see--

WILLIAM . You little idiot! I don't see anything but you.

MRS. CROSBY. You love each other, that's the whole of it, children. Suppose you listen to an old woman.

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