I never got
through a book yet.... But I'll read you all right.... (_Crossing to
her, leaning over the table, and smiling at her intently_) You
haven't had a drop to drink, and yet you feel as if you had. You never
knew there was such a secret part inside of you. All that book-learnin'
and moral-me-eye here and social-me-eye there--you took that off on the
edge of the wood same as if it was an overcoat ... and you left it
there!
OLIVIA: I hate you. I ... hate you!
DAN (_urgently_): And same as anybody out for the first time
without their overcoats, you feel as light as air! Same as I feel,
sometimes--only I never had no overcoat--(_Excited_) Why--this is
my big chance! You're the one I can tell about meself! Oh, I'm sick o'
hearin' how clever everybody else is--I want to tell 'em how clever
_I_ am for a change!... Money I'm goin' to have, and people doin'
what they're told, and _me_ tellin' them to do it! There was a
'oman at the Tallboys, wasn't there? She wouldn't be told, would she?
She thought she was up 'gainst a soft fellow in a uniform, didn't she?
She never knew it was _me_ she was dealin' with--(_striking his
chest in a paroxysm of elation_)--_me!_ And this old girl
treatin' me like a son 'cause I made her think she was a chronic
invalid--ha! She's been more use to me to-night (_tapping the notes
in his jacket pocket, smartly_) than she has to any other body all
her life.
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