MOONY: Lots of water’s run under the bridge since then.

JANE: Yeah.

MOONY: When was that, Jane? How long ago was it?

JANE: Ten months; an’ it seems ten years!

MOONY: Ten months. And how old’s the kid? One month? Exactly one month?

JANE [furiously]: You’ve got a nerve to say that! As if it was me that insisted, that couldn’t wait even until we’d——

MOONY: Naw, it wasn’t your fault. It was nature got hold of us both that night, Jane. Yuh remember? The Paradise dance-hall down on the waterfront, huh? My first night in town after six months up in the woods. You had on a red silk dress. Yuh remember? Cut down sorta low in front. Hah, you was real pretty then—your hair frizzed up in the back in a thousan’ or so little curls that I could just barely poke my littlest finger through!

JANE [falling under a nostalgic spell]: Yeah. [Her face softens.] I useter have it done ev’ry Satiddy night. Mamie said she never seen hair that could take such a curl!

MOONY [with sly cruelty]: Yeh, that’s how it was—them curls— an’ the red silk dress—it was nature got hold us both that night, huh, Jane?

JANE [suspecting an innuendo]: What d’yuh mean by that?

MOONY: The way you pressed up against me when we was dancing—that was nature, wasn’t it, Jane? And when they played “Roses of Picardy” an’ the lights was turned out—we was dancin’ real slow—we was almost standin’ still—your breath was so warm on my neck, so warm—you had on a kind of perfume——

JANE: Perfume? Oh, yes. Narcissus perfume!—Mr. O’Connor give it to me for my birthday.

MOONY: Yeah, narcissus, that’s it—narcissus! An’ what was it, Jane, you whispered in my ear?

JANE [indignantly]: Me whispered? It was you that whispered, not me!

MOONY: Was it? Maybe it was. You didn’t have to say nothin’, the way you danced was enough!—Anyhow, I got hooked.

JANE [furiously]: Hooked! Hooked?! You dare to say such a thing?!

MOONY: Yes, I was hooked all right. Narcissus perfume, little curls, an’ a low-cut dress. Makin’ me think that holdin’ you in my arms an’ waltzin’ aroun’ a two-bit arch-acher was better’n holdin’ an axe in my two han’s up in the North Woods an’ choppin’ down big trees!

JANE [choking]: You—you—! [Covers her face.]

MOONY [a little less harshly]: Aw, well, I don’t mean that I’m— sorry about it—exactly . . .

JANE [brokenly]: How didja mean it, I’d liketa know then?

MOONY [pacing about the kitchen]: Oh, I dunno, I dunno! [Suddenly stops and catches Jane in his arms.] People say things, things happen! What does it mean? I dunno. Seems to me like a crazy man, deaf, dumb, and blind, could have put together a better kind of a world than this is! [He kisses Jane’s bare shoulder where the kimono has slipped down a little.] Let’s get out of it, honey!

JANE [sniffling]: Out of it? What d’yuh mean?