Sweet-And-Twenty: A Comedy
by
SWEET-AND-TWENTY
A COMEDY
To EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
“Sweet-and-Twenty” was first produced by the Provincetown Players, New York City, in 1918, with the following cast:
The Young Woman …….. Edna St. Vincent
Millay The Young Man … Ordway Tead
The Agent ………….. Otto Liveright
The Guard ………….. Louis Ell
The cherry-orchard scene was effectively produced on a small stage by a blue-green back-drop with a single conventionalized cherry-branch painted across it, and two three-leaved screens masking the wings, painted in blue-green with a spray of cherry blossoms.
A corner of the cherry orchard on the country place of the late Mr. Boggley, now on sale and open for inspection to prospective buyers. The cherry orchard, now in full bloom, is a very pleasant place. There is a green-painted rustic bench beside the path. . . .
A young woman, dressed in a light summer frock and carrying a parasol, drifts in from the back. She sees the bench, comes over to it and sits down with an air of petulant weariness.
A handsome young man enters from the right. He stops short in surprise on seeing the charming stranger who lolls upon the bench. He takes off his hat
.
HE.
Oh, I beg your pardon!
SHE.
Oh, you needn’t! I’ve no right to be here, either.
HE.
( coming over to her )
Now what do you mean by that?
SHE.
I thought perhaps you were playing truant, as I am.
HE.
Playing truant?
SHE.
I was looking at the house, you know. And I got tired and ran away.
HE.
Well, to tell the truth, so did I. It’s dull work, isn’t it?
SHE.
I’ve been upstairs and down for two hours. That family portrait gallery finished me. It was so old and gloomy and dead that I felt as if I were dead myself. I just had to do something. I wanted to jab my parasol through the window-pane. I understood just how the suffragettes felt. But I was afraid of shocking the agent. He is such a meek little man, and he seemed to think so well of me. If I had broken the window I would have shattered his ideals of womanhood, too, I’m afraid. So I just slipped away quietly and came here.
HE.
I’ve only been there half an hour and we–I’ve only been in the basement. That’s why our tours of inspection didn’t bring us together sooner. I’ve been cross-examining the furnace. Do you understand furnaces? ( He sits down beside her ) I don’t.
SHE.
Do you like family portraits? I hate ’em!
HE.
What! Do the family portraits go with the house?
SHE.
No, thank heaven. They’ve been bequeathed to some museum, I am told. They’re valuable historically–early colonial governors and all that sort of stuff. But there is some one with me who–who takes a deep interest in such things.
HE.
( frowning at a sudden memory )
Hm. Didn’t I see you at that real estate office in New York yesterday?
SHE.
Yes. He was with me then.
HE.
( compassionately )
I–I thought I remembered seeing you with–with him.
SHE.
( cheerfully )
Isn’t he just the sort of man who would be interested in family portraits?
HE.
( confused )
Well–since you ask me–