Jane McDowell Scene

MRS. MCDOWELL: Jane, darling, you must sleep. It’s after twelve o’clock. Oh, I was nervous like this, too, before I married your father.

I go to bed, and I don’t sleep. I get so jumpy, I have to get up again.

MRS. MCDOWELL: That’s normal. Go back to sleep. Rest. Dudley will be here early in the morning and we’ve got so much to do!

Good night, Mama.

STEPHEN: Jeanie!

Stephen! No! No! Please, you must go away!

STEPHEN: I can’t go away. The only place I have to go is where you are!

Oh Stephen! Why do you sing to me like this?

STEPHEN: I see you there, I hear your voice again. And you fill all the world for me. I am lost without you.

Hush, Stephen, hush! It’s wrong to think of you. But I can’t help it…

STEPHEN: You love me, Jeanie, you do!

Night after night I lie on my bed and downstairs Mama is sewing away on my wedding dress and she is happy and…I am miserable. All the while, feeling something pulling at my heart - making it ache. It’s there all the time: feeling you want me, feeling you need me.

STEPHEN: Yes! Jeanie, I do need you.

And that’s it. A woman has to be needed. Dudley doesn’t need me. He says he will give me everything, provide everything, but that’s not right. I want to give, too. And because you need me so, my heart goes to you and then…

STEPHEN: Jeanie! Come down a little while. Let me hold you. I love you so. I need you so…I long for…Jeanie! Jeanie?

Stephen? I love you.