Thirty Pieces of Silver: A Play in Three Acts Read Online Free PDF Page A

midnight of the same day. One lamp burns in the room as the curtain rises on the same scene. There is a sound of the door opening, and the GRAHAMS come in , DAVID first.
    DAVID ( continuing a speech he started offstage ) —not just losing, but their damned arrogance. I don’t mind the five dollars. I do mind being set the way we were set three times.
    JANE Dave, what difference does it make? Maybe if Jim Andrews was better at other things, he wouldn’t have to feed his ego this way on a card game. Maybe then we’d talk once in a while, instead of burying ourselves in cards.
    DAVID ( putting on a lamp and lighting a cigarette ) What makes you think I’m better than Jim Andrews at anything?
    JANE ( smiling ) I’ve got my reasons.
    DAVID ( dropping into a chair ) What are they? Andrews was an up and coming New Dealer, but when they threw out the New Dealers, he became a solid administration man. When the war came, they made him a captain in the Pentagon. He’ll be Secretary of the Interior some day, and I’ll still be doing statistics at six thousand a year. That’s how much better I am than Jim Andrews. His father just happens to, be a vice president of Amalgamated Steel, and mine runs a drug store in Peoria.
    JANE Go ahead, get it all off your chest. You’re nobody. You’re just poor David Graham who never amounted to anything and never will amount to anything.
    DAVID You mean that, don’t you?
    JANE David, you’re impossible. All this because I play bridge as stupidly as I always have. Why did we go there to-night?
    DAVID Because I haven’t got the guts to turn down a bid from Andrews. Because I brownnose him the same way I did Agronsky. Because I’m not good enough to get anything or do anything on my own.
    JANE Agronsky never thought so.
    DAVID How do you know what Agronsky thought?
    JANE Dave, he spoke to me about you. Is that so unnatural? He thinks you’re a hell of a guy.
    DAVID Then I’ve really achieved something.
    ( bitterly )
    I’m a hell of a guy to Leonard Agronsky. I shouldn’t take that from where it comes, should I? What was in it for him? What I am doesn’t matter. But if Agronsky puts in a good word for me, I’m solid with you.
    JANE I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dave.
    DAVID I asked Jim Andrews about Agronsky when you were inside with Ruth. Do you know what he said?
    JANE I can guess. He wouldn’t like Agronsky. What difference does it make?
    DAVID Nothing that concerns me makes any difference, does it?
    JANE Dave, I’m not going into all that again at this time of the night. If you want to beat yourself, do it alone. I’m going to bed.
    ( She starts toward the stairs. )
    DAVID Poison.
    JANE What?
    DAVID Nothing—I’m just giving you Jim Andrews’ opinion of Agronsky. He said the man is poison.
    JANE Did he?
    DAVID It just seems funny as hell that you know so much more about Leonard Agronsky than I ever did. Nothing surprises you.
    JANE Why should I be surprised by one of Jim Andrews’ profound opinions?
    DAVID If you’re on such solid ground with Agronsky, why couldn’t you offer an opinion when Fuller asked you?
    JANE ( She has gone on to the stairs. Now she stops with her hand on the rail and turns to h im.) Dave, I’m not a police informer.
    DAVID Then Agronsky is a Communist? In other words—even if you knew, you’re not talking.
    JANE Dave, he may be a Martian, I don’t know. If your friend, Mr. Fuller, is going to think I’m a Communist because I allow a Negro woman to come in my house through the front door, then he’ll think just what he pleases about Leonard Agronsky, and nothing you or I say is going to change it.
    DAVID ( standing up and facing her ) That’s fine. But it never occurred to you that I might take any rap for this?
    JANE That occurred to me, Dave.
    DAVID And——
    JANE What do you think I should have done, Dave?