The Children's Hour

Scene One begins in Mrs. Tilford’s living room, where Agatha, Mrs. Tilford’s maid, enters, interrogating Mary, who follows her in. Mary is disheveled, having traveled part of the way through the woods. Mary tells Agatha that she is home because she is sick. Mary whines as Agatha questions her skeptically, suggesting that if she is ill, she won’t want dinner. Agatha exits, and Mary practices looking sick in the mirror.

Mrs. Tilford enters with Agatha. She comforts her crying granddaughter, who complains that she was homesick. Mary confesses that she left the school without permission and begs Mrs. Tilford not to send her back. Desperately, Mary cries, “I can’t go back! I can’t! They’ll kill me!” (33). Mrs. Tilford, who is preparing to call the school, pauses. She asks why Mary would say such a thing. Mary tells her grandmother that she fainted at school. Mrs. Tilford becomes concerned until Mary admits that her cousin, Joe, gave her a clean bill of health. Mrs. Tilford tells Mary that she can stay for dinner, but then she will be driven back. Mary tries to convince her grandmother to let her stay, but Mrs. Tilford insists. Dramatically, Mary tells her that she is scared to go back, claiming, “They’ll do dreadful things to me” (36).

Mrs. Tilford is unimpressed, and believes Mary deserves punishment for running away. Mary claims that she is in trouble for overhearing Martha and Mrs. Mortar’s conversation. She tells Mrs. Tilford that she heard that Martha is jealous of Karen marrying Joe. Mary says, “She said there was something funny about it, and that Miss Dobie had always been like that, even when she was a little girl, and that it was unnatural” (37). Mrs. Tilford tries to dismiss Mary’s story, but Mary says she heard Martha crying in Karen’s room and Karen reassuring her that it might be a long time before she marries Joe. When Mrs. Tilford continues to brush Mary off, Mary adds that a lot of things happen that she doesn’t understand and “sometimes they fight and then they make up, and Miss Dobie cries and Miss Wright gets mad, and then they make up again, and there are funny noises and we get scared” (38-39). Mary says that there is more but she can’t say it out loud. She whispers in her grandmother’s ear, and Mrs. Tilford becomes very serious and distracted, agreeing immediately that Mary will not go back to school.

Scene Two takes place a few hours later, and also takes place in Mrs. Tilford’s living room. Irritably, Agatha is carrying bedding while Mary puts a puzzle together on the floor. She informs Mary that Rosalie Wells will be sleeping over, as Mrs. Wells asked Mrs. Tilford to let her stay the night. Agatha tells an annoyed Mary, “You’ll act like a lady for once in your life” (41).When Rosalie arrives, Mary, hidden by the couch, makes moaning noises and then jumps up, startling Rosalie. The two girls clearly do not like each other. Rosalie asks Mary why they have both been taken out of school. Mary agrees to tell her in exchange for a secret. Mary dismisses Rosalie’s secret—“Lois Fisher told Helen that you were very smart” (42)—as one she’s already heard, and Rosalie retorts that Mary probably doesn’t know any secrets anyway. Mary argues that she heard her grandmother on the phone with Rosalie’s mother, still withholding what she learned. Rosalie announces, “Never mind. Don’t bother telling me. I think curiosity is very unladylike anyhow” (42). Mary suggests that perhaps she should tell everyone that Rosalie was the one who told her the secret in the first place. When Rosalie threatens to go to Mrs. Tilford, Mary agrees, countering that she will tell her grandmother that Rosalie stole Helen Burton’s missing bracelet.

Rosalie cries, calling Mary a liar. Mary warns Rosalie that if Rosalie calls her a liar, Mary will tell her grandmother and Rosalie will go to prison. Rosalie admits that she borrowed the bracelet and meant to put it back. Rosalie begs Mary to keep her secret, and Mary agrees, as long as Rosalie apologizes for calling her a liar and promises to be Mary’s slave. Rosalie resists but then agrees. Mrs. Tilford enters and greets Rosalie, and then the doorbell rings. Mrs. Tilford comments that she is expecting Joe. Mrs. Tilford sends the girls to bed. After Rosalie exits, Mary cries that Joe will insist upon sending her back to school. Mary runs off as Joe enters. Joe is vaguely surprised to see Mary at home. Joe and Mrs. Tilford make small talk until Joe asks why she called him over. Mrs. Tilford attempts to prepare Joe for bad news and asks about Karen and their wedding. She insists that Joe cannot marry her, as “there’s something wrong with Karen—something horrible” (46). Joe demands clarification, but the doorbell rings again.

Karen and Martha enter, upset. Martha confronts Mrs. Tilford: “We’ve come to find out what you are doing” (46). Joe is confused, and Martha informs them that the parents of the girls at the school have been sending for their children. None of the parents would tell them why until one finally admitted that it was because they learned that Karen and Martha are in love with each other. Appalled, Joe asks Mrs. Tilford why she would spread such a rumor, and Mrs. Tilford insists, “Because it’s true” (48). Furiously, Martha emphasizes, “Try to understand this: you’re not playing with paper dolls. We’re human beings, see? It’s our lives you’re fooling with. Our lives. That’s serious business for us” (48). Unshaken, Mrs. Tilford accuses them of “playing with a lot of children’s lives” (48) and adamantly states that they are not welcome in her house. Mrs. Tilford says, “I have done what I had to do. What they are may possibly be their own business. It becomes a great deal more than that when children are involved” (49).

Karen and Martha deny the claims, and Mrs. Tilford tells them that she has no desire to be involved. Mrs. Tilford says that the two women won’t be punished but that she refuses to be punished, either. Mrs. Tilford suggests that this is their problem, and they should simply “go away with it” (49). Joe calls her “old” and “irresponsible” (49), which hurts Mrs. Tilford’s feelings. Joe reminds Mrs. Tilford that Martha and Karen saved for eight years to buy the farm on which the school is situated, demanding to know why Mrs. Tilford has taken it away. Mrs. Tilford refuses to be swayed, and Martha tells her that if she wants to stand by a lie, they will force her to say it in court: “Tomorrow, Mrs. Tilford, you will have a libel suit on your hands” (50). Mrs. Tilford calls that “unwise” and claims, “It is you I am thinking of. I am frightened for you. It was wrong of you to brazen it out here tonight; it would be criminally foolish for you to brazen it out in public” (50).

Joe reveals that Mrs. Tilford has leaped into action based on the word of a child. Incredulous, Karen and Martha point out that Mary has been hateful since she arrived at school. Karen says, “Your Mary’s a strange girl, a bad girl. There’s something very awful the matter with her” (51). They demand to confront Mary, and Mrs. Tilford refuses, responding, “You attack me, you attack Mary. I’ve told you I didn’t mean you any harm. I still don’t. You claim that it isn’t true; it may be natural that you should say that, but I know that it is true. No matter what you say, you know very well I wouldn’t have acted until I was absolutely sure” (51). She tells Karen and Martha to “get out” (51) of her house. Karen stands to leave, but Joe insists that Mrs. Tilford cannot ruin their lives without giving them a chance to defend themselves. He calls for Mary, who then appears, acting “shy and afraid” (52).

Joe tells Mary that everyone lies, but it’s important to come clean when given the chance. Mary doesn’t hesitate to swear that she is telling the truth. Joe comments, “All right, Mary, that was your chance; you passed it up” (52). He questions Mary, who claims that Karen and Martha punish her unfairly, even punishing her because Evelyn and Peggy eavesdropped. Mary restates Mrs. Mortar’s accusation, and Martha replies that her aunt was only trying to make her angry and that her statement didn’t mean anything more than that. Mary repeats her earlier claim that the two women spend time together at night (which Karen defends as entirely innocent) and that the two women made “funny sounds” that the children “couldn’t help hearing” (54). Karen and Joe press her to continue, and Mary claims that, concerned about the noises, she looked into Karen’s keyhole and saw Martha and Karen kissing. Karen reveals that her door has no keyhole, and Mary quickly changes her story to claim that they were in Martha’s room. Martha tells Mrs. Tilford that her room, which she shares with her aunt, is on the other side of the house, where Mary couldn’t have heard any noises.

Mrs. Tilford begins to doubt Mary, and Mary cries, exclaiming, “Everybody is yelling at me, I don’t know what I’m saying with everybody mixing me all up! I did see it!” (55). Mrs. Tilford orders Mary to stop crying and tell the truth. Mary tells them that Rosalie actually saw them kissing and Mary was protecting Rosalie. Mrs. Tilford then calls for Rosalie. She enters, and the adults ask Rosalie if she told Mary she saw Martha and Karen kissing. Rosalie quickly denies that she ever said anything like that, but Mary tells her she remembers Rosalie saying it because it was the same day Helen Burton’s bracelet disappeared. Rosalie continues to deny it, but Mary insists that she did, reminding her that the bracelet thief would go to jail. Mary starts to tell her grandmother that Rosalie stole the bracelet. Sobbing, Rosalie interrupts, claiming she did see the women kissing and that Mary is telling the truth.