The Gift of Love

William Schuyler:
Beth, go to your room.

Beth Atherton:
No Uncle William, I will not! I full understand my obligation to you, and I appreciate everything you've done for me... but Alfred and I are not in love with each other! I love Rudy.

William Schuyler:
What you don't seem to understand, young lady, is that the amalgamation of two fortunes will make you a very rich woman!

Beth Atherton:
Rudy's leaving! If I don't go after him, I'll lose him!

William Schuyler:
I am telling you what I told your mother... you go out that door, never come back. [pause]

Constance Schuyler:
Oh William...!

William Schuyler:
[Interrupts] Constance, be quiet!

Beth Atherton:
[pause. Steps forward] Uncle William, I'm sorry. You're a dear sweet man, and I owe you a great deal... but I must give you the same answer my mother gave you! [Turns around and exits]

Rudi Miller:
I do not think your father would be happy with your marriage plans.

Beth Atherton:
[pause] If we meet after tonight...

Rudi Miller:
If?

Beth Atherton:
It has to be understanding. We will discuss neither your marriage nor mine, but meet rather to deepen our friendship. [pause] Agreed?

Rudi Miller:
Agreed.

Mary O'Halloran:
Your aunt wants me to help you get ready. Mr. Browning will be here any minute.

Beth Atherton:
Thank you Mary.

Mary O'Halloran:
[Fixes Beth up. Mutters angrily] The whole thing's a cry shame. That's what it is.

Beth Atherton:
Mary please don't start that again!

Mary O'Halloran:
[Upset] Well why shouldn't I? Wouldn't you try to stop me from being pig-headed and throwing my life away?

Beth Atherton:
I'n not throwing my life away! I'm just doing what's expected of me. I love Alfred, you know that.

Mary O'Halloran:
Are you trying to tell me that you would...

Beth Atherton:
[Interrupts] NO! [Crying] I'm trying to tell me!

Constance Schuyler:
[Off stage] Beth! Are you ready?

Mary O'Halloran:
Don't go!

Beth Atherton:
I must.

Beth Atherton:
What time is it?

Rudi Miller:
[Pulls out a pocket watch] It is eleven precisely.

Beth Atherton:
How beautiful. May I?

Rudi Miller:
Of course. [Hands watch to Beth]

Beth Atherton:
Aren't you afraid you'll lose it, carrying it in your pocket like that without a chain?

Rudi Miller:
I nearly did once. A hooligan tried to take it from me! [They laugh softly] It is my most prized possession. It belong to my father and his father before him... and well, I value it as you do you hair.

Rudi Miller:
Never before have I see hair of such luxurious length. Tell me, has it never been cut?

Beth Atherton:
No.

Rudi Miller:
Then whoever issued that command was very wise!

Beth Atherton:
It was my father, and he did not issue commands. I had Scarlett Fever when I was three, and I had to have my hair cut off. When it grew back, my father asked me never to cut it again... and I never will.

Rudi Miller:
You speak of you father in a past tense. Nicht wahr?

Beth Atherton:
Both my parents died when I was a child.

Rudi Miller:
Yesterday?

Beth Atherton:
I'm 18!

Rudi Miller:
[laughs] Forgive me?

Beth Atherton:
Ok. Now please get out.

Mary O'Halloran:
Begging your pardon ma'am, but how many are we serving today?

Constance Schuyler:
Twenty-four.

Mary O'Halloran:
Oooh, then I better get a bigger bowl!

Beth Atherton:
Oh for heavens sake Mary. It's all make believe.

Constance Schuyler:
[Mary exits] Oh Mary's quite right dear. It is imperitive that you choose the right dish for each occasion.

Beth Atherton:
I learned all that from my mother.

Constance Schuyler:
Yes of course you did. After all, your mother was a Schulyer. It's just that, well in her reduced circumstances shall we say, she did have the occasion to entertain on the grand scale which you'll be expected to maintain as the bride of Alfred Browning.

William Schuyler:
Well, now that we're all here, Alfred has something to say to you Beth

Alfred Browning:
[Nervous] I...

Agnes:
Well?

Alfred Browning:
I... that is... it would do me great honor...

Constance Schuyler:
Go on Alfred, you're doing beautifully!

Alfred Browning:
Thank you Mrs. Constance. What I mean to say Beth is that... your Uncle William and my sister Agnes... have decided that it would be advantageous for us... to marry.

William Schuyler:
[pause] Well Beth, what do you say?

Beth Atherton:
I didn't hear a question.

Constance Schuyler:
Well she's quite right William. You could say that Alfred has issued a statement. Perhap a plan for a merger.

William Schuyler:
I have no difficulty seeing the meaning of Alfred's remarks.

Agnes:
Nor do I.

Constance Schuyler:
[pause] Alfred dear. Go back and start again just the way you did before.

Alfred Browning:
It would give me great honor... [sighs in frustration]

Agnes:
Oh for heavens sake, he's asking you to marry him!

Alfred Browning:
Yes, that's it. I'm asking you... to marry me.

Beth Atherton:
What are you doing here? It's your day off.

Mary O'Halloran:
I know, but I just had to tell you. The lake in Central Park has frozen over!

Beth Atherton:
If only I can go with you.

Mary O'Halloran:
Have a headache!

Beth Atherton:
A headache? I can't. Alfred and Ms. Browning are going to pop the question today.

Mary O'Halloran:
[Sarcastic] How romantic.

Franz Hollner:
Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?

Mary O'Halloran:
Look whose forgotten me manners! My mother would be that ashamed! [to Beth] Meet Franz Hollner, and Rudy...

Rudi Miller:
Miller.

Mary O'Halloran:
Miller. This is my friend, Beth Atherton.

Rudi Miller:
[to Beth] Are you also an upstairs maid?

Beth Atherton:
Oh no, I'm...

Mary O'Halloran:
[Interrupts] Oh no, Beth's a parlor maid! [Beth glares at her]

Rudi Miller:
Well, with your beauty, you shall be Mistress of the House. [Takes Beth's hand. Kisses it]

Rudi Miller:
[after revealing Beth's now short hair] Your hair! What have you done?

Beth Atherton:
Please don't look at me like that! I had to! It was Christmas Eve, and my heart was just bursting with love that... there was this place where you can sell hair to make wigs, and I had no money and... here open this. [Hands him his present. Rudy opens the present and reveals a small watch chain] It's for your watch. You know how you cherish it, and I'm always afraid you'll lose it!

Rudi Miller:
[Slowly hands Beth her present] . [Whispers] Open it. [Beth open her present and takes out two small combs] I too wished to show you my love. I had no money and... I sold my watch. [They laugh] I sold my watch to buy you combs for... for the hair you sold... [They laugh harder]... to buy a chain for my watch! [They stop laughing] Oh but you are beautiful. You are more beautiful than before. [They kiss]

Beth Atherton:
I love you so much.

Griggs:
Finish your primping Mary. It is time to set the table. [Mary sticks her tongue out at him behind his back. Griggs exits]

Beth Atherton:
Oh Mary! [They both laugh]

Beth Atherton:
[to Mary] I thought you said he wasn't coming!

Rudi Miller:
[to Franz] I thought you said she wasn't coming!

Mary O'Halloran:
You're practicing to be old before your time. I don't know what you aunt and uncle are thinking of; arranging a match like that!

Beth Atherton:
[Defensively] They're thinking of my future. They don't want me running of with a penny-less music teacher like my mother did.

Mary O'Halloran:
Did that end up so bad?

Beth Atherton:
[Softens] Bad? My parent's house was the most wonderful place in the world.

Mary O'Halloran:
Well then...

Beth Atherton:
That was different then. They were so much in love with each other that nothing else mattered. A love like that just doesn't come along everyday.

Mary O'Halloran:
Well maybe you...

Beth Atherton:
[Interrupts] No! I don't want to talk about it. My Uncle William's heart was broken when my mother ran off with my father

Mary O'Halloran:
[Sympathetic] Oooh.

Beth Atherton:
That's what Aunt Constance said... an even though he never got over it, he was kind enough to take me in after my parents died... and now I can make up to him for all the pain.

Mary O'Halloran:
I bet your Aunt Constance told you that too.

Rudi Miller:
You see? She is conceited, rude, impossible churlish girl!

Franz Hollner:
But adorable.

Rudi Miller:
I see nothing adorable with bad manners.

Franz Hollner:
This one has bad manners? The one last week has too many freckles? Sally's friend, that I introduced to you talks to much? You're impossible to please! Seems to me that you don't want to be please.

Rudi Miller:
Perhaps you forget I'm betrothed to Hilda. I cannot.

Franz Hollner:
What's that got to do with it? I have an arranged bride waiting for me at home too, but that doesn't mean I can't look at a pretty girl, does it? Look I'm in the United States. I work hard, send my money home. And when I have free time, I flirt a little. What harm can there be in that?

Rudi Miller:
[pause] Franz, if you fall in love with one of these oh-so-pretty American girls, you will find out.

Franz Hollner:
[laughs] Fall in love? I'm not planning to fall in love.

Rudi Miller:
I did not know one fell in love only if one planned to.

Constance Schuyler:
I do wish you wouldn't play that dear. It will only bring you pain.

Beth Atherton:
But it doesn't Aunt Constance. It gives me comfort.

Constance Schuyler:
Well, then I'm sure it will please your father if he only knew.

Beth Atherton:
Somehow I think he does.

Franz Hollner:
[to Mary] And when Rudy told me, I said he must be mistaken.

Rudi Miller:
There is no mistake. The young lady was playing a cruel trick common to people in her station!

Franz Hollner:
[to Mary] And you allowed it, which forces me to change my estimation of you.

Rudi Miller:
I too would have though better of you.

Mary O'Halloran:
[Angry] Stop, both of you! What you're saying to me, well maybe I deserve it. But all that stuff about Beth, that's just rubbish! [Mocking] "A cruel trick common to people in her station." What station? This isn't Europe and all! She's not a princess, she's just a poor old orphan being forced to marry a man she doesn't love. So she hung out with me for a bit of fun.

Rudi Miller:
And represented herself as someone she was not!

Mary O'Halloran:
That was my idea, not hers!

Rudi Miller:
She did nothing to mistaken my belief she was a maid in this house!

Mary O'Halloran:
And why should she? And why should I be standing here, defending the two of you like I'm in a docket [sp?] ? I would prefer that you both leave! [Pushes them away]

Franz Hollner:
With pleasure. [They turn around, then look at Mary. They exit]

Mary O'Halloran:
Foreigners!

Beth Atherton:
He's gone. He's really gone. [Crying] I'll never see him again. [Beth and Mary cry together. Long pause] Oh Mary, how selfish of me, not thinking about how you must feel with Franz leaving too.

Mary O'Halloran:
There are plenty of other fish in the sea. [pause] We have to get you home.

Beth Atherton:
What? Oh no, no I can't go home. I can never go home.

Mary O'Halloran:
Never's a long time as my mother would say... but perhaps you're right for now.

Beth Atherton:
[singing] # If you will come with me, I will share with you my visions, and maybe you will see the way your future will be. When all my prayers come true, you'll have peace, and joy forever and evermore. And one thing more for you worth much more than any treasure: may you have the pleasure of the precious gift of love. #

Rudi Miller:
It is hard for me to keep my anger in while you're looking so beautiful.

Beth Atherton:
[Mad] Your anger? You were deliberately making fools of Alfred and me!

Rudi Miller:
Don't you think I deserve a bit of revenge?

Beth Atherton:
No! [pause] What have I done to you?

Rudi Miller:
You've allowed me to fall in love with you, even though you're engaged to another man.

Beth Atherton:
[Guilty] I didn't mean to do all that.

Rudi Miller:
None the less, you did.

Mary O'Halloran:
[Sees Beth with her head down] Oh don't cry, oh please don't cry!

Beth Atherton:
[Angry] I'm not crying! Oh I just want to die. I've never been so embarrased in my whole life!

Mary O'Halloran:
Seems to me you're more angry than anything.

Beth Atherton:
[Begins combing her hair roughly] That man... that awful man!

Mary O'Halloran:
He's pretty pushy. I'll give him that. [Begins to fix Beth's hair]

Beth Atherton:
If he ever tries to come in the same room with me, I'll... I'll...

Mary O'Halloran:
And he deserves every bit of it too. [They laugh]

Beth Atherton:
But wouldn't you be angry with him?

Mary O'Halloran:
That I would, but I would be mixed with pleasure. That man certainly finds you attractive.

Beth Atherton:
Don't be silly, he hates me.

Mary O'Halloran:
Awww.

Beth Atherton:
...and I hate him. [pause] What time is it?

Mary O'Halloran:
It must be well past ten.

Beth Atherton:
Oh I've got to go home!

Mary O'Halloran:
Her ladyship and himself won't be home for a while yet!

Beth Atherton:
I want to go! [Mary exits, defeated]

Constance Schuyler:
[after finding out about the Butler's Ball] . Oh Beth, I am surprised. [Mary enters] Mary... [Mary turns to leave] No wait, don't go. Come here for a minute. I would like to speak to you. [pause] I understand it was because of you my niece didn't stay at that, uh, that...

Mary O'Halloran:
Ball ma'am.

Constance Schuyler:
Yes, the ball. I appreciate your common sense.

Mary O'Halloran:
Oh, thank you ma'am.

Constance Schuyler:
Never the less, I must forbid any furthur association between the two of you.

Mary O'Halloran:
[Saddened] Oh my mother would be that upset ma'am. She loves Miss Beth like one of her own.

Constance Schuyler:
That does seem harsh doesn't it? Well, it's Mr. Schulyer's wish.

Mary O'Halloran:
Yes ma'am. Will that be all ma'am?

Constance Schuyler:
Yes dear, you may go now. Good night.

Mary O'Halloran:
Good night ma'am. Good night Miss Beth.

Beth Atherton:
[Whispers] Good Night [Mary exits]

Rudi Miller:
Excuse me, may I cut in?

Dancer at Ball:
Oh we don't do that here.

Rudi Miller:
Please, this is my sister and I have a very important message from her mother.

Dancer at Ball:
Is this true?

Rudi Miller:
Yes. [Takes Beth away from dancer and dances with her] Aren't you going to thank me?

Beth Atherton:
Thank you.

Rudi Miller:
I wasn't planning on being here tonight...

Beth Atherton:
I *prefer* to dance in silence.

Young Man at Ball:
[to Beth] This our dance.

Rudi Miller:
Is it?

Beth Atherton:
Well, I...

Rudi Miller:
I... thought... not. [Continues dancing]

Beth Atherton:
UGH, you are the rudest!

Rudi Miller:
Smile! The judges are watching.

Beth Atherton:
I don't care who's watching!