QUALITY STREET
A monologue from the
play by J.M. Barrie
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Quality Street. J.M. Barrie. London: Hodder &
Stoughton, 1913. |
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MISS SUSAN: Phoebe, I have a wedding gift for you.
It has been ready for a long time. I began it when you were not
ten years old and I was a young woman. I meant it for myself,
Phoebe. I had hoped that he -- his name was William -- but I
must have been too unattractive, my love. I always associate
it with a sprigged poplin I was wearing that summer, with a breadth
of coloured silk in it, being a naval officer; but something
happened, a Miss Cicely Pemberton, and they are quite big boys
now. So long ago, Phoebe -- he was very tall, with brown hair
-- it was most foolish of me, but I was always so fond of sewing
-- with long straight legs and such a pleasant expression. It
was a wedding gown, my dear. Even plain women, Phoebe, we can't
help it; when we are young we have romantic ideas just as if
we were pretty. And so the wedding-gown was never used. Long
before it was finished I knew he would not offer, but I finished
it, and then I put it away. I have always hidden it from you,
Phoebe, but of late I have brought it out again, and altered
it. You will wear it, my love ... won't you? And the tears it
was sewn with long ago will all turn into smiles on my Phoebe's
wedding day.
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