Thirty Pieces of Silver: A Play in Three Acts Read online

  (HILDA enters now.)

  Hello, Hilda.

  HILDA Good evening, Mr. Graham.

  DAVID Where’s my beautiful daughter?

  HILDA Having her supper. But she won’t eat.

  DAVID That’s no daughter of mine. Let me try. I’ll be back.

  (He takes his drink and goes out through the dining-room. HILDA hesitates a moment, then starts to follow DAVID.)

  JANE Wait a minute, Hilda.

  HILDA Yes, Mrs. Graham?

  JANE (without warmth) Try calling me Jane, just for once.

  HILDA Yes, Mrs. Graham.

  JANE You’re not going to try, are you? You’re going to ride that little bit of hurt right into the ground, aren’t you?

  HILDA I don’t know what you want from me, Mrs. Graham.

  JANE The trouble is, you do. What’s wrong with me, Hilda?

  (HILDA stands there, without reacting particularly, without answering.)

  Or what’s right with me—or with David—or with Lorry? Are you as uncomfortable as I am, Hilda? The trouble isn’t that I’m superior to you, but that you can convince me that you’re so superior to me. Why? That’s what I want to know, Hilda. We’re Americans. I want to do what’s right; so does David. What’s wrong with us?

  HILDA I’m sorry, Mrs. Graham.

  JANE (suddenly angry) Like hell you are.

  (The doorbell rings.)

  All right. See who it is, Hilda.

  (HILDA goes to the door. Offstage, FULLER’S voice asks if MR. DAVID GRAHAM lives here. HILDA brings him in, a middle-sized, youngish man, middle thirties, well-groomed, quietly dressed, unimpressive and not too unusual. In all points of origin, he is vaguely similar to DAVID GRAHAM, yet there is a subtle though consistent difference. It might be said that a trained shrewdness has substituted for intelligence—a somewhat laboured control for whatever spontaneity DAVID GRAHAM exhibits. He wears saddle shoes and carries a soft Panama.)

  FULLER (to JANE) HOW do you do. My name’s Fuller. Are you Mrs. Graham?

  JANE That’s right.

  FULLER I’d like to see Mr. Graham, if it’s no trouble. If he’s home now?

  JANE Is he expecting you?

  FULLER (smiling apologetically) I don’t think so, Mrs. Graham. I’ll explain to him, if he’s home.

  JANE All right. Sit down. I’ll get him. Do you want a drink? Hilda, will you give Mr. Fuller a martini or something?

  FULLER (He remains standing.) Thank you, no.

  JANE (pausing as she turns to leave) Nothing? Well, won’t you sit down? What did you say your name was?

  FULLER Fuller. F-U-L-L-E-R. Mr. Fuller.

  JANE I see. Thank you, Mr.… Fuller. I’ll call my husband.

  (JANE goes out. Fuller stands there, turning his hat in his hands.),

  HILDA May I take your hat?

  FULLER You’re the maid?

  HILDA You guessed that, didn’t you? I’m the maid. How did you guess?

  FULLER I’ll hold the hat, if you don’t mind. This is fine weather, isn’t it? I mean, for June, it’s cool.

  (His speech is precise and emotionless. He ignores HILDA’S sarcasm. Now DAVID GRAHAM enters, JANE after him. LORRY trails them with a piece of bread.)

  JANE Take her inside, will you, Hilda? David, this is Mr. Fuller.

  FULLER How do you do, Mr.Graham.

  LORRY How old are you, Mr. Fuller?

  JANE Will you finish your supper, Lorry—please.

  (HILDA leads LORRY out. JANE picks up her drink now, and DAVID looks at FULLER inquiringly.)

  FULLER This is a very nice house—nice family, too, Mr. Graham. Nice little girl. You got a lot to be thankful for.

  DAVID What can I do for you, Mr. Fuller?

  FULLER (There is a fussy, almost womanish quality in his speech.) I will sit down, thank you. I come into a fine, nice American home like this—I will say it always makes me a little uneasy.

  JANE Would you like me to go?

  DAVID (with some annoyance) Why should it make you uneasy? You’ll have to forgive me, Mr. Fuller—but we have an appointment this evening and dinner before then, so I wish you’d get down to what you have to say, whatever it is.

  FULLER (to JANE) Please don’t go, Mrs. Graham. I’d like to talk to both of you, if you’ll permit me.

  (He is very polite, somewhat abashed.)

  This is a routine matter. I’m from the Department, and I have a few questions. It won’t take long.

  JANE (standing to one side, sipping at her drink. DAVID and FULLER are sitting.) What department?

  FULLER The Department of Justice, Mrs. Graham.

  JANE You mean you’re a G-man? Why didn’t you say so?

  FULLER (taking out his wallet and extracting a Jew cards) We don’t like the term. It has melodramatic connotations which are hardly grounded in reality. Here are my credentials, Mr. Graham.

  DAVID (taking the credentials and scanning them uneasily) Yes—well, we’ll be happy to co-operate with you—in any way, Mr. Fuller. I don’t know how we can help you—I mean, I can’t think of anything——

  FULLER It’s just a regular routine matter. We’re checking on someone else, a man by the name of Leonard Agronsky, and we were referred to you as friends of his. That’s all. It’s just as simple as that and I’m sorry that it has to break into your evening this way, but I thought it would be the best time to find both of you home.

  DAVID We know Agronsky. That’s right. Is he in some kind of trouble?

  FULLER I hope not—but then that’s not properly my affair. I’m simply given the routine matter of investigation. My guess would be that it’s simply the routine check we are taking of any government employees about whom there might be any doubt at all.

  (He takes out a small book and opens it.)

  My own information has him as an under-secretary in the Department of Commerce. That’s a pretty important job, so it’s only natural that he would be investigated.

  JANE He’s been in government a long time, hasn’t he?

  FULLER (shrugging) I don’t make the policy. Is there anything you’d like to tell me about him, Mr. Graham?

  DAVID What sort of thing? I guess there’s a lot I could tell you about him, but I don’t know what I could tell you that would help you. I haven’t seen as much of him as I might have since the war. That’s where I met him—in the army. Since then, well, I guess we’ve seen Agronsky about every ten weeks or so.

  FULLER You work for the Treasury Department, don’t you, Mr. Graham?

  DAVID That’s right.

  FULLER You’ve been there almost three years now.

  DAVID Since the war. I’m a statistician. But I suppose you know that?

  FULLER Yes—but don’t let me give you the impression that we have anything like a spy service. There’s too much loose talk about dossiers and things of that sort.

  (He smiles apologetically.)

  This is simple information. We know, for example, that before the war, you worked for New York Life. But it is true that Agronsky helped you get this job with the Treasury Department?

  DAVID Well—I guess you could say that. He knew Phillips quite well. Phillips is out now.

  JANE I don’t see what this has to do with us. Dave’s record is a good one. You’re not investigating him, are you?

  FULLER (He never loses his air of intense and self-concerned seriousness, withal there being always a note of embarrassment.) I don’t enjoy this—it’s a job. But what would you say, Mr. Graham, that Agronsky’s politics are?

  DAVID I don’t know. I suppose he’s a Democrat. A New Dealer, I suppose. At least he was in the Roosevelt administration.

  FULLER I mean—in a deeper sense.

  DAVID I don’t know what you mean by that.

  FULLER Did you know that Agronsky wasn’t born in this country?

  JANE What has that got to do with it?

  FULLER Just in terms of information. I can understand you when you say you were never very friendly with him. He was
born in Russia and he came here when he was seven years old. In addition to that, he’s Jewish. These are matters of information, and I was just curious as to whether you knew. Naturally, you wouldn’t be too friendly with him.

  JANE Why not?

  DAVID You know what he means, Jane. For God’s sake, can’t we keep our heads about this!

  JANE I’d like to keep my head. As a matter of fact, I’ve been practising all day. If Mr. Fuller wants to speak to you, I’ll be happy to go inside and sit with Hilda. If he wants to talk to me, too, I should like to know what Agronsky’s being Jewish or foreign born has to do with us being friends of his?

  DAVID I think all Mr. Fuller meant was that he’s not exactly our kind.

  JANE You know that wasn’t what he meant. Anyway, Leonard was enough your kind when you were in the service.

  DAVID All right, Jane. This isn’t getting us anywhere. Why don’t you let Mr. Fuller say what he means.

  FULLER (placatingly) I don’t think I meant anything in particular. It was your opinion that you were not too friendly with Agronsky. But those times when you did see him, what were his political expressions? I mean, would you call him pro-Russian?

  DAVID God knows! The few times we’ve seen him, we played bridge mostly.

  FULLER And in the service?

  DAVID Well—you could say we were all pro-Russian then, couldn’t you?

  FULLER I wouldn’t know.

  DAVID Agronsky as much as the next fellow, I suppose. We were Russia’s ally.

  FULLER How does he feel about Franco? DAVID Franco?

  JANE Yes, dear. (caustically) That’s the Spanish dictator.

  DAVID I’m not completely an idiot, darling. I don’t know how he feels about Franco. I’ve never talked to him about Franco. There’s one thing I think you should understand, Mr. Fuller. In the service, Agronsky was an officer. I was an enlisted man. He didn’t talk to me about these things, even if he had them on his mind.

  Fuller I see.

  (He closes his notebook, looking from DAVID to JANE.)

  Yet you can always make inferences, would you say? I could infer that you’re not very co-operative.

  DAVID I’m trying to be co-operative, Mr. Fuller.

  JANE (to FULLER) Is that a threat?

  FULLER We don’t make threats, Mrs. Graham. That’s a comic book aspect of the Department. It just seems to me that if you know a man, you know what he thinks’ and what he is. You would know whether or not that man was a Communist—or a Republican—or a Seventh Day Adventist.

  DAVID Maybe I would. I don’t know if Agronsky’s a Communist, if that’s what you’re asking me.

  FULLER What do you think?

  DAVID I don’t know. I never really thought about it. As a matter of fact, I never knew a Communist, so I wouldn’t be able to recognize one if I ran smack up against him. About Franco—well, I would guess Agronsky doesn’t like him. We’ve never talked directly about it, but I would think so from what I know of him. He doesn’t like fascism.

  FULLER Red fascism as well as the other kind?

  DAVID I don’t know how you mean that.

  JANE I don’t like Franco. Does that make me a Communist?

  FULLER I don’t know, Mrs. Graham.

  DAVID (smiling uneasily) Well, just for the record, she isn’t. Neither am I.

  FULLER And Agronsky?

  DAVID I’ve no reason to think he is. I don’t know that I ever talked directly about Communists with him——

  (The bell rings. JANE goes to answer, greets GRACE LANGLY offstage, and comes back into the room leading a Negro woman. This is GRACE LANGLY, about thirty, dark, intelligent looking, with contained dignity.)

  JANE Hilda’s in the kitchen, still struggling with Lorry’s supper.

  DAVID (in the most matter of fact way, still struggling with his thoughts in relation to FULLER) Hello, Grace.

  GRACE Good evening, Mr. Graham. This is certainly a fine summer evening, isn’t it?

  DAVID Yes——

  (For all that he and FULLER are superficially alike, DAVID is at the disadvantage here, wholly so, fighting basically to understand what is the best required response to each situation on his part.)

  I know——

  FULLER (looking at GRACE) Yes, Mrs. Graham?

  JANE This is Mrs. Langly. Grace, this is Mr. Fuller.

  GRACE How do you do, Mr. Fuller.

  (FULLER looks evenly at her. She meets his gaze for a moment, then turns and goes into the kitchen.)

  FULLER (to JANE) YOU keep two in help?

  JANE No. She’s a friend of Hilda. That’s the woman you met before.

  FULLER Oh—I see. You’re a Southerner, aren’t you, Mrs. Graham?

  JANE Yes. I’m from South Carolina originally.

  (FULLER nods slowly, regarding JANE deliberately and curiously.)

  Is that a crime too?

  FULLER Not at all. Quite to the contrary. You talk my language—which’ is more than I can say of most New Yorkers. Or at least, I thought you did. What were you going to say before, Mr. Graham?

  DAVID Nothing important.

  FULLER If it concerned Agronsky, why don’t you let me decide if it was important?

  DAVID Only that I saw a copy of. The New Masses in his house once. I don’t know how it happened to be there or whether it’s of any importance at all.

  JANE David!

  FULLER You don’t object to that, do you, Mrs. Graham?

  JANE I can’t see that it makes any sense. Suppose you found a copy of The New Masses here?

  FULLER Let me decide what makes sense, Mrs. Graham. We’re all of us good Americans and devoted to protecting our country. Or at least I think we are.

  (to DAVID)

  What about Agronsky’s friends?

  DAVID (his uneasiness and uncertainty increasing) Just ordinary people—the sort of people you’d find around Washington.

  FULLER But Agronsky isn’t just the sort of people you’d find around Washington, is he?

  JANE What are you trying to make us say, Mr. Fuller? We’re not holding anything back. You’re not asking questions—you’re forming implications.

  FULLER You’re forming the implications, Mrs. Graham.

  DAVID Please, Jane, let me handle this. If Mr. Fuller asks me something, let me try to answer it. God knows, I want to.

  FULLER Exactly. I’m not a private detective and I’m not a policeman—and certainly you’ve got nothing to fear from me. If anything, I’m wholly and completely on your side. The question is simply what side Agronsky’s on. That’s why I asked you about his friends. Are most of them Jews?

  DAVID Some are, I suppose. I just wouldn’t be able to say without thinking about it.

  FULLER Reds? Jews and Reds? That’s a fairly common equation, Mr. Graham. Think about it.

  DAVID I want to help you, Mr. Fuller—but I don’t know where to start.

  FULLER (placatingly, his voice softer, confiding, with a suggestion of warm intimacy) Why don’t you think it over, Mr. Graham? Here’s my card. Just think about it. I’ll be in my office until midnight. I know you wouldn’t have been thinking this way. It’s just our damn good fortune that as yet most Americans don’t have to think this way. And that’s a condition we’re trying to preserve.

  (rising and turning to JANE)

  You agree with me, don’t you, Mrs. Graham?

  JANE Yes, I agree with that.

  FULLER Then I’ll conclude that both of you have forgiven me for breaking in on you like this. It’s a fine family you have, Mr. Graham. I’d be proud of them, if I were you, and I’d fight to the last drop of red blood in me to defend them, if I were you.

  DAVID Yes—thank you.

  FULLER Thank you for your kindness. Good night.

  DAVID Good night. I’ll go to the door with you.

  (He accompanies FULLER to the vestibule. JANE mixes another drink. He returns to the room, stands for a moment regarding JANE.)

  Nice feller.

  JANE Wh
at?

  DAVID I mean he could have been a lot more nasty than he was.

  JANE I think he was insufferable. Do you want another drink? I want another. I think I want two or three. I think I want to get stinking drunk to-night.

  DAVID That’s fine—that’s just fine. That’s a nice healthy reaction.

  (Hands in pockets, he moves slowly across the room, eyes on his feet, almost shuffling. He stops and watches JANE drink.)

  We’re due at the Andrews’ for bridge—at nine.

  JANE And I’m bad enough sober at your favourite game.

  DAVID I didn’t say that. For God’s sake, what’s eating you, Jane?

  JANE Nothing. I just feel lousy. Am I entitled to that? Your friend, who’s such a nice feller, didn’t make me feel any better.

  DAVID You talk as if I invited him over. He’s only doing his job. Did you want me to tell him to go to hell? That would be fine. That would be just fine. That would be all I’d need. The trouble is, you’re still brooding over that business with Hilda. I don’t know why you can’t be sensibe about things like that. I knew a lot of coloured boys in the service. I got on with them too, but I didn’t Snuggle up to them.

  JANE That’s a rotten thing to say!

  DAVID All right. I apologize. Anything I say is a rotten thing to-night.

  JANE (She puts down her drink and looks at him—then walks over to him, shaking her head. She takes him by his arms, gently.) Davey—we’re headed for a real humdinger of a battle, aren’t we?

  (He nods mutely.)

  In ten minutes more, we’d really be hating each other, wouldn’t we?

  (He nods again.)

  Let’s not.

  DAVID Okay—Okay.

  JANE Kiss me, instead of just saying it.

  (He takes her in his arms and kisses her.)

  Want another drink now?

  DAVID All right.

  (She walks over and pours one. DAVID speaks slowly and with difficulty)

  I get panicked by that kind of thing. I just stop thinking. Everything becomes muddy. I say to myself, maybe Agronsky is a Communist. How should. I know?

  JANE (giving him the drink) Maybe he is. The hell with it.

  (LORRY comes in, HILDA following her)

  HILDA This one really ate to-night.

  LORRY Everything. I could see the plate all over. I ought to get a present for that.

  DAVID (picking her up and kissing her) You’re wonderful.