Good Theatre

PAPA: (taking the check from his pocket) You mean the check is no good?

JENNY: No good at all! (triumphantly) Your Mr. Hyde was a crook, just like I always thought he was, for all his reading and fine ways. Mr. Kruper said he'd been cashing them all over the neighborhood. (MAMA stands quite still, without answering) How much did he owe you? Plenty, I'll bet. (still no answer) Eh? Marta, I said I bet he owed you plenty. Didn't he?

MAMA: (looks around, first at NELS, and then down at the books on the table. she touches them.) No. No, he owed us nothing. (she takes the check from PAPA, tearing it) Nothing.

JENNY: (persistantly) How much was that check for? (she reaches her hand for it)

MAMA: (evading her) It does not matter. He pay with better things than money. (she goes to the stove, where she throws the check, watching it burn)

JENNY: I told you right from the beginning that you shouldn't trust him. But you were so sure... just like you always are. Mr. Hyde was a gentleman. A gentleman! I bet it must have been a hundred dollars that he rooked you of. Wasn't it?

MAMA: (returning to the table) Jenny, I cannot talk now. Maybe you don't have things to do. I have.

JENNY: (sneeringly) What? What have you got to do that's so important?

MAMA: (taking up the medicine bottle, fiercely) I have to chloroform a cat!

"I Remember Mama" by John Van Druten, adapted from
"Mama's Bank Account" by Kathryn Forbes