Hillcrist. [Smiling] Jill, I don’t think I ever saw you so serious.

Jill.  No.  Because—­[She swallows a lump in her throat] Well—­I was just beginning to enjoy, myself; and now—­everything’s going to be bitter and beastly, with mother in that mood.  That horrible old man!  Oh, Dodo!  Don’t let them make you horrid!  You’re such a darling.  How’s your gout, ducky?

Hillcrist. Better; lot better.

Jill.  There, you see!  That shows!  It’s going to be half-interesting for you, but not for—­us.

Hillcrist. Look here, Jill—­is there anything between you and young what’s-his-name—­Rolf?

Jill. [Biting her lip] No.  But—­now it’s all spoiled.

Hillcrist. You can’t expect me to regret that.

Jill.  I don’t mean any tosh about love’s young dream; but I do like being friends.  I want to enjoy things, Dodo, and you can’t do that when everybody’s on the hate.  You’re going to wallow in it, and so shall I—­oh!  I know I shall!—­we shall all wallow, and think of nothing but “one for his nob.”

Hillcrist. Aren’t you fond of your home?

Jill.  Of course.  I love it.

Hillcrist. Well, you won’t be able to live in it unless we stop that ruffian.  Chimneys and smoke, the trees cut down, piles of pots.  Every kind of abomination.  There! [He points] Imagine! [He points through the French window, as if he could see those chimneys rising and marring the beauty of the fields] I was born here, and my father, and his, and his, and his.  They loved those fields, and those old trees.  And this barbarian, with his “improvement” schemes, forsooth!  I learned to ride in the Centry meadows—­prettiest spring meadows in the world; I’ve climbed every tree there.  Why my father ever sold——!  But who could have imagined this?  And come at a bad moment, when money’s scarce.

Jill. [Cuddling his arm] Dodo!

Hillcrist. Yes.  But you don’t love the place as I do, Jill.  You youngsters don’t love anything, I sometimes think.

Jill.  I do, Dodo, I do!

Hillcrist. You’ve got it all before you.  But you may live your life and never find anything so good and so beautiful as this old home.  I’m not going to have it spoiled without a fight.

[Conscious of batting betrayed Sentiment, he walks out at the French window, passing away to the right.  Jill following to the window, looks.  Then throwing back her head, she clasps her hands behind it.]

Jill.  Oh—­oh-oh!

     [A voice behind her says, “Jill!” She turns and starts back,
     leaning against the right lintel of the window.  Rolf appears
     outside the window from Left.]

Who goes there?

Role. [Buttressed against the Left lintel] Enemy—­after Chloe’s bag.