The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder Page A

awful in public.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Laughing.
    Well, I must say I enjoyed it. I feel better. Wish his wife had been there to hear it. Children, what do you want to do?
    GLADYS:
    Papa, can we ride in one of those chairs? Mama, I want to ride in one of those chairs.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    No, sir. If you’re tired you just sit where you are. We have no money to spend on foolishness.
    ANTROBUS:
    I guess we have money enough for a thing like that. It’s one of the things you do at Atlantic City.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Oh, we have? I tell you it’s a miracle my children have shoes to stand up in. I didn’t think I’d ever live to see them pushed around in chairs.
    ANTROBUS:
    We’re on a vacation, aren’t we? We have a right to some treats, I guess. Maggie, someday you’re going to drive me crazy.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    All right, go. I’ll just sit here and laugh at you. And you can give me my dollar right in my hand. Mark my words, a rainy day is coming. There’s a rainy day ahead of us. I feel it in my bones. Go on, throw your money around. I can starve. I’ve starved before. I know how.
    A CONVEENER puts his head through Turkish Bath window, and says with raised eyebrows:
    CONVEENER:
    Hello, George. How are ya? I see where you brought the Whole family along.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    And what do you mean by that?
    CONVEENER withdraws head and closes window.
    ANTROBUS:
    Maggie, I tell you there’s a limit to what I can stand. God’s Heaven, haven’t I worked enough? Don’t I get any vacation? Can’t I even give my children so much as a ride in a roller-chair?
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Putting out her hand for raindrops.
    Anyway, it’s going to rain very soon and you have your broadcast to make.
    ANTROBUS:
    Now, Maggie, I warn you. A man can stand a family only just so long. I’m warning you.
    Enter SABINA from the Bingo Parlor. She wears a flounced red silk bathing suit, 1905. Red stockings, shoes, parasol. She bows demurely to ANTROBUS and starts down the ramp. ANTROBUS and the CHILDREN stare at her. ANTROBUS bows gallantly.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Why, George Antrobus, how can you say such a thing! You have the best family in the world.
    ANTROBUS:
    Good morning, Miss Fairweather.
    SABINA finally disappears behind the beach umbrella or in a cabana in the orchestra pit.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Who on earth was that you spoke to, George?
    ANTROBUS:
    Complacent; mock-modest.
    Hm . . . m . . . just a . . . solambaka keray.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    What? I can’t understand you.
    GLADYS:
    Mama, wasn’t she beautiful?
    HENRY:
    Papa, introduce her to me.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Children, will you be quiet while I ask your father a simple question?—Who did you say it was, George?
    ANTROBUS:
    Why-uh . . . a friend of mine. Very nice refined girl.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    I’m waiting.
    ANTROBUS:
    Maggie, that’s the girl I gave the prize to in the beauty contest,—that’s Miss Atlantic City 1942.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Hm! She looked like Sabina to me.
    HENRY:
    At the railing.
    Mama, the life-guard knows her, too. Mama, he knows her well.
    ANTROBUS:
    Henry, come here.—She’s a very nice girl in every way and the sole support of her aged mother.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    So was Sabina, so was Sabina; and it took a wall of ice to open your eyes about Sabina.—Henry, come over and sit down on this bench.
    ANTROBUS:
    She’s a very different matter from Sabina. Miss Fairweather is a college graduate, Phi Beta Kappa.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Henry, you sit here by mama. Gladys—
    ANTROBUS:
    Sitting.
    Reduced circumstances have required her taking a position as hostess in a Bingo Parlor; but there isn’t a girl with higher principles in the country.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Well, let’s not talk about it.—Henry, I haven’t seen a whale yet.
    ANTROBUS:
    She speaks seven languages and has more culture in her little finger than you’ve acquired in a lifetime.
    MRS. ANTROBUS:
    Assumed amiability.
    All right, all