Chapter 5 - Page 2

chorus.)
ALEC: So that's where you all are! Amory Blaine is here.

CECELIA: (Quickly) Take him down-stairs.

ALEC: Oh, he is down-stairs.

MRS. CONNAGE
Well, you can show him where his room is. Tell him I'm sorry that I can't meet him now. ALEC: He's heard a lot about you all. I wish you'd hurry. Father's telling him all about the war and he's restless. He's sort of temperamental. (This last suffices to draw CECELIA into the room.)
CECELIA
(Seating herself high upon lingerie) How do you meantemperamental? You used to say that about him in letters. ALEC: Oh, he writes stuff. CECELIA: Does he play the piano? ALEC: Don't think so. CECELIA: (Speculatively) Drink? ALEC: Yesnothing queer about him. CECELIA: Money? ALEC: Good Lordask him, he used to have a lot, and he's got some income now. (MRS. CONNAGE appears.) MRS. CONNAGE: Alec, of course we're glad to have any friend of yours ALEC: You certainly ought to meet Amory. MRS. CONNAGE: Of course, I want to. But I think it's so childish of you to leave a perfectly good home to go and live with two other boys in some impossible apartment. I hope it isn't in order that you can all drink as much as you want. (She pauses.) He'll be a little neglected to-night. This is Rosalind's week, you see. When a girl comes out, she needs all the attention. ROSALIND: (Outside) Well, then, prove it by coming here and hooking me. (MRS. CONNAGE goes.)
ALEC: Rosalind hasn't changed a bit.

CECELIA: (In a lower tone) She's awfully spoiled.

ALEC: She'll meet her match to-night.

CECELIA
WhoMr. Amory Blaine?
(ALEC nods.)
CECELIA
Well, Rosalind has still to meet the man she can't outdistance. Honestly, Alec, she treats men terribly. She abuses them and cuts them and breaks dates with them and yawns in their facesand they come back for more. ALEC: They love it. CECELIA: They hate it. She's ashe's a sort of vampire, I thinkand she can make girls do what she wants usuallyonly she hates girls.
ALEC: Personality runs in our family.

CECELIA: (Resignedly) I guess it ran out before it got to me.

ALEC: Does Rosalind behave herself?

CECELIA
Not particularly well. Oh, she's averagesmokes sometimes, drinks punch, frequently kissedOh, yescommon knowledgeone of the effects of the war, you know. (Emerges MRS. CONNAGE.) MRS. CONNAGE: Rosalind's almost finished so I can go down and meet your friend. (ALEC and his mother go out.)
ROSALIND: (Outside) Oh, mother

CECELIA
Mothers gone down.
(And now ROSALIND enters. ROSALIND isutterly ROSALIND. She is one of those girls who need never make the slightest effort to have men fall in love with them. Two types of men seldom do: dull men are usually afraid of her cleverness and intellectual men are usually afraid of her beauty. All others are hers by natural prerogative. If ROSALIND could be spoiled the process would have