Original subtitles

Tell Mr MacDonald to put that in the safe for me.

Yes, sir. I sure will, sir.

The gentlemen are starting a new game in the back, Mr Peake.

They told me to ask you. How about a little revenge?

That there's a lucky chance still waiting for you.

Tell them there's a beautiful lady also waiting.

Their cash will be just as good tomorrow.

Perhaps the cards won't be, Mr Peake? - That will be my hard luck, Jeff.

You ain't had none lately, sir.

I sure wish I had your rabbit's foot.

Well, Jeff.

How will this do as a substitute?

Thank you, Mr Peake.

A ten-dollar bill ain't ever brought me no bad luck yet.

Where is your mama, little girl?

I haven't any mama.

You poor lonely little dear.

Do you live in the hotel?

We do when father's business is good.

And I am not lonely.

Don't you want to come and play with my little girl?

She would like that. Wouldn't you, Agnes dear?

No thank you very much. I'm waiting for my father.

He would be disappointed not to find me here.

You precious pet.

Come along, dear.

Daddy.

Why do strange ladies always want to kiss me, father?

How could anyone help wanting to kiss my Celia?

That's how people catch mumps and measles, isn't it?

Sometimes.

But not generally from kind ladies.

Kind ladies always make me feel like an orphan in a play.

How would you like to see one .. tonight?

Fanny Davenport in Sappho.

Remember her in Camille? - I cried.

Afraid I did too, Selina.

I'd love to act like Fanny Davenport.

You can.

Play-acting through life is just living Selina.

I want you to realize this whole thing called 'life' ..

Is just a grand adventure.

The trick is to act in it and look down at the same time.

And remember.

No matter what happens.

Good or bad.

Is just so much velvet.

What is the new vegetable, father?

Shush.

It's called asparagus.

Aspa grass?

No, no.

Asparagus.

Asparagus.

Is it good? - Uhuh.

And good for you.

Look.

Yes. Look.

Selina, aren't we funny-looking?

I know I am.

And Julie Hempel, the size of your bustle.

It doesn't seem possible the styles have changed so.

Well.

I won't have to worry about the new styles for next season ..

With father's business as bad as it is.

I'm sorry to hear that, Selina.

I don't think you've ever told me just what your father's business is.

Oh.

Just business, Mrs Hempel. In the market.

My husband complains about the market too sometimes.

Why mother, Selina doesn't mean a meat market like father's.

It's stocks and that kind of thing.

Isn't it, Selina? - Uhuh.

I must hurry before father gets home. - Won't you stay for supper?

No thanks. I can't this evening.

We are having prairie chickens that a farmer west of town brought father.

Don't tempt me.

This is Monday.

And on Mondays we have cold mutton and cabbage at Mrs Tebbit's boarding house.

Well, silly. Why not stay?

If I'm not home, father is disappointed and Mrs Tebbit makes eyes at him.

I know just how it must be after that wonderful Palmer House Hotel.

We don't mind it for a change. You meet such interesting people.

Just like in a play.

Goodbye, Mrs Hempel. - Goodbye, Selina.

You know, the bustle did hide a multitude of sins.

What is it, Mary? What's the matter? - It is Mr Peake, ma'am.

He has been shot.

Shot?

Yes, ma'am. Shot dead in Mike MacDonald's gambling room.

It was an accident.

Easy there on the corner.

Mrs Tebbit, what's the matter?

What's the matter?

It ..

It's your father.

Father.

[ Door knocks ]

Yes?

Here is a letter for you, Miss Peake.

Thank you, Mrs Tebbit.

Mr Hempel brought it in his carriage.

Mr Hempel?

He is my butcher, you know.

I asked him point blank why his daughter hadn't called since your bereavement.

She used to come so often.

He said she had ..

Gone away for the winter.

To her aunt in Kansas City.

Without even seeing you.

I can't get over it.

But.

Some people are like that when you are in trouble.

Mr Pool, how beautiful everything is here.

Beautiful?

What is beautiful?

This. The cabbages.

Cabbages is beautiful?

Cabbages is beautiful.

Well, they are. They're beautiful.

They are like jade and burgundy.

Is .. is Mrs Pool expecting?

There is a Mrs Pool, isn't there?

Sure.

But my Maartje is through expecting.

Three children is enough for a farmer these hard times.

Oh yes. Of course.

It will be nice to have them for pupils.

You mean it won't be nice to have them for pupils, or they won't be, or ..

Well, all won't be.

Dear me, why not? Which ones won't?

Katya goes to school. Jozina goes to school.

And Roelf, he helps by the farm. - How old is Roelf?

Twelve. - And not at school?

He helps by the farm.

Doesn't he like school? - But sure.

Then for pity's sake why doesn't he go?

Roelf helps by the farm.

Cabbages is beautiful.

Maartje.

Here is the schoolteacher.

How do you do, Mrs Pool.

Pleased to meet you.

Come and lay off your things.

This is Jacob Pogadunk.

He helps by the farm.

How do you do, mister ..

Mr Pogadunk.

Hello teacher.

Beautiful cabbages.

Oh.

Which is Jozina and which is Katya?

Now you two stay downstairs.

How neat and clean everything is.

Nobody has ever used it since my old Ma's funeral.

What a lovely old chest.

I had that when I was married fourteen years ago.

My wedding chest.

I was seventeen then.

You are only thirty-one?

Almost.

I'm not so young as you.

What on earth is this?

A drum. - A drum?

For heat your room. - Maartje.

Something is burning already.

You ain't ate nothing. Like you wasn't hungry.

I'm not very. Can I help you with anything?

No. You sit down and make yourself at home.

Katya, Jozina, you go to bed at once.

Goodnight.

You got to have rich bottom lands.

Even with regular fertilizer.

Else you get little, tough, stringy vegetables.

Regular fertilizer costs too much to put on our farm.

What's regular fertilizer, Mr Pool?

Regular fertilizer is ..

It's regular fertilizer.

What is in it?

What's in it?

Dried blood.

What does it mean, 'dried blood'?

Dried blood.

It is dried blood.

They put it on the fields to make the cabbages and onions and radishes grow.

Anyway.

Cabbages is beautiful.

I think I'll go up to my room. I am very tired.

It was the ride I suppose. - Sure. Go up.

I got my bread to set yet and whatnot.

Roelf.

Go and fetch the teacher's trunk.

Stop that reading all the time.

Why, he's been reading the dictionary.

Sure.

The last teacher gave it to him.

It has got more in it than a hundred thousand words.

And all different.

I want you to realize this whole thing called 'life'.

Is just a grand adventure.

The trick is to act in it and look down at the same time.

And remember.

No matter what happens.

Good or bad.

It is just so much velvet.

[ Door knocks ]

Come in.

Isn't that too heavy for you?

This is a good place for it, don't you think?

At the foot of the bed.

Thank you, Roelf.

Cabbages.

Fields of cabbages like you said.

They are beautiful.

Is it this cold every morning?

The stove heats good after you get it started.

Let's see. First you put in the kindling.

Then some kerosene and then corncob.

And then you light it.

Only sometimes it don't catch so easy.

I'd better come and do it for you.

I'm afraid I'm not a very good fireman.

I am.

I can see you are. It's getting warmer already.

Here's your schoolbooks.

Thank you, Roelf. And for the fire too.

What's this?

Just a picture.

For me?

How nice.

Did you make it?

I like to draw pictures.

Now I see why you said cabbages were beautiful.

In your picture they really are.

I must go now.

I'm sorry you can't stay to school, Roelf. Wouldn't you like to?

Pa needs me by the fields.

This time of year is the hardest.

Roelf.

I have a book called Ivanhoe.

Would you like to read it?

Well, I don't get much time.

You wouldn't have to hurry. Read it in the evenings in your house.

Instead of your dictionary.

Perhaps I can get all the chores done before supper.

Some night. - You will try, won't you?

And Roelf.

I have another book called the Three Musketeers.

Goodbye. I got a lot of work to do today.

Who is that?

The widow Paarlenberg.

She is rich like anything.

Look.

Look when she makes eyes at him.

At him? Who?

Pervus De Jong.

He is very good looking, isn't he.

Sure.

Widow Paarlenberg, she is stuck on him.

Shush.

The collection this Sabbath morning.

Is for our foreign missions among the ignorant heathen in China.

On Wednesday evening.

The regular weekly prayer meeting.

Will give place to the annual church social.

To be held in the Sunday school of this edifice.

In the basement.

The supper baskets.

To by contributed by the ladies of the congregation.

Will be raffled off as usual.

Proceeds this year.

Going towards the purchase of a new church organ.

The organist will now play hymn number 43.

Number 43.

What am I bid?

What am I bid? What am I bid?

Thirty cents? Thirty cents? - Thirty-five.

Thirty-five cents? Shame on you gentlemen.

Who will make it forty? Who will make it forty?

Forty cents. - Forty cents.

Remember.

The lucky gent gets the fair owner of this large basket as his supper partner.

Who will make it forty-five? Who will make it forty-five?

Sold.

To Gerrit Ponds.

Katrina Hinkledorf's basket for forty cents.

And there's mince pie in it, gentlemen.

Hey, what?

I am so sorry but there's such a crowd.

I can't get my lunchbox through.

That lunchbox?

Yes, for the raffle. I am the schoolteacher, Selina Peake.

Yes. I saw you on Sunday in church.

You did? I didn't think you ..

Did you?

Here, wait. I will be back.

Look what we have here.

The widow Paarlenberg's basket.

The widow Paarlenberg's basket, ladies and gentlemen.

I don't know what's in it.

Who has eaten the widow's chicken and cake don't have to know.

What am I bid?

What am I bid? What am I bid?

Come. Speak up young men of High Prairie.

Hey you. Pervus De Jong.

Pervus De Jong.

What am I bid?

What am I bid? What am I bid?

Thirty cents. - Fifty cents.

Johannes Ambulle bids fifty cents.

Did I hear you bid yet, Pervus De Jong?

Did I hear you bid yet?

Gents. I am going to whisper a secret.

It isn't chicken in this basket.

It is roast duck.

Eighty cents.

Eighty cents for a roast duck.

Pervus De Jong.

Did I hear you say a dollar?

And how goes it the school teaching?

It goes pretty well.

Did I hear you say a dollar, Pervus De Jong?

You are awful little to be a schoolteacher, ain't you?

Little?

I'm bigger than you are.

I did not.

So.

To Gores Von Buren.

For eighty cents.

Here's a dainty little titbit.

If you ain't feeling especially hungry.

But the lady herself goes with it, gents.

Miss Selina Peake. That's who.

Miss Selina Peake.

What am I bid?

What am I bid for this lovely little tooth bowl?

Five cents.

I am bid five cents.

Who will make it five and a half?

One dollar.

One dollar.

Pervus De Jong bids one dollar.

Gents.

You get the ribbon, the lunch and the girl to eat it with.

A dollar and a half.

One-sixty. - Three dollars.

No. He shouldn't do that. He's saving that money for a set of paints.

Five dollars.

Five.

Five. Five.

And ten cents.

Six.

Six-fifty.

Let him have it. It's only jelly sandwiches.

Ten dollars. - Ten dollars.

Gents, I am bid ten dollars.

Ten once.

Ten twice.

Gone.

To Pervus De Jong.

Whatever made you do that?

All that money when you might have been eating breast of duck.

Why did you?

I don't know.

But you looked so little and they were making fun of you. Laughing.

I think that's a very foolish reason for throwing away ten dollars.

I can make it easy on my next trip to Haymarket. If I can figure some.

But them fellows who buy vegetables are too smart for me.

They can do figures in their heads.

Just like that. So quick.

I'll teach you how. I'll teach you.

What do you mean, you will teach me? - Why, evenings.

What will you take for pay?

Pay?

I don't want any pay.

I tell you what.

My farm is just this side of the school.

I can start for you on the fire mornings and thaw the pump.

But Roelf Pool does that for me every morning.

But.

Couldn't you come to Pool's place for lessons say ..

Three evenings a week?

There is nobody home to stay in for.

And if you are sure .. - I'd love to do it.

I would love to.

Roelf, why don't you eat?

Look. It is pork.

Nice fat pork.

I cooked it myself.

[ Door knocks ]

That will be Pervus De Jong for his lesson from teacher.

Them lessons by schoolteacher.

Must go good by him.

Now then, we will parse this sentence.

'Bl�cher arrived on the field of Waterloo ..'

'Just as Wellington was receiving the last onslaught of Napoleon'.

'Just' may be treated as a modifier of the dependent clause.

That is ..

That is just ..

I have forgotten where we were. It was such a terrible clatter.

Excuse me.

Here.

Why, it's arbutus. How lovely.

I got them in Updike's woods.

You went way up there after them?

You said once you loved arbutus.

What's the matter?

Matter?

Nothing.

How do you mean?

You looked at me so funny then.

Your eyes.

And your face is all red like tomatoes.

Really?

I'm a little tired.

It must be spring fever.

Already I saw a robin.

Spring comes quick this year.

Perhaps we had better let the rest of the lesson go until next time.

Maybe I can't come next time.

What with planting and plowing and such.

You think I've done pretty good?

So far?

That is correct, isn't it?

I keep forgetting.

Do you think I have done pretty well?

Very well.

Especially with your arithmetic.

I get through too late in the fields to come again until the crops are well up.

I am sorry.

So am I.

It will seem kind of lonely at nights.

Sometimes I keep wishing.

I mean sometimes, I have .. - We had ..

We'd better finish the rest of this lesson as you can't come for a while.

But if you are tired .. - No. I'm not really.

Let's see. Where were we?

By them fellows you call Napoleon and Wellington.

Oh yes.

Oh yes.

'Just as Wellington was receiving the last onslaught of Napoleon'.

We'll go on from there.

'Just' may be treated as a modifier of the dependent clause.

That is .. - Selina.

Wake up.

Little sleepyhead.

Wake up.

You are a farmer's wife now.

Is it morning?

It is still dark.

Already it's 4 o'clock.

Breakfast, little Selina. Breakfast.

Just think.

We've been married eight hours.

Yep.

Time goes quick.

All yesterday's work, I got to do.

And all today's.

I know.

There is really such a lot of work to do, isn't there.

Of course, you know your kitchen is a sight with those blotchy grey walls.

That hanging lamp the Pools gave us can go over the kitchen table.

We must fix up the porch. It'll be nice to sit out there when summer comes.

And your wagon, Pervus.

You must have your wagon painted. You will, won't you?

Yep. Sometime.

Now we have breakfast. - I'll hurry and dress.

Pervus.

Yeah?

You haven't said good morning. - Good morning.

Pervus.

Kiss me.

And Pervus.

Huh?

Keep your back turned.

Oh.

Selina.

Selina.

Come here at once.

Pervus.

Pervus.

Pervus.

Pervus!

What can be the matter, doctor? Maartje ain't been sick before in her life.

A farmer's wife don't have time maybe.

Oh well. Maybe a good night's rest. - A year wouldn't be enough.

Your wife is run down, Klass. That's all.

Maybe she needs a tonic like I read in the almanac.

I get some when I go to Haymarket.

When the machine's run down it don't need tonic.

It needs new parts.

We can't give your wife those.

But rest will help.

Keep her off her feet.

Keep my Maartje off her feet?

And out of the fields if it isn't too late.

Goodbye.

I got to get along.

They are expecting a baby up at Pervus's place.

It might be here any time now.

It's been a great year for the stork.

Come on, Molly. Your oats are waiting.

You should be ashamed to sit on the porch with your Ma on her back upstairs.

Get inside. There is housework to be done yet.

It's a ten-pound boy.

My wife. Is she alright?

Stood it like a soldier.

Go in. She has been asking for you.

He is awful red, ain't he?

Your Ma is dead.

It kills everybody.

That's what it does.

Everybody that touches it.

I hate radishes, I hate onions.

And I hate cabbages and I hate the ugly ground they grow in.

Roelf.

Go outside, once.

You ought to be ashamed with your Ma upstairs dead.

I do, I tell you.

I hate farmers. All of them.

And I hate you.

How big is my baby?

How big is my man?

So .. big!

Mother's little So-Big.

Is getting to be a great big man.

Hello, Roelf. How are you?

Alright.

You haven't been over lately.

So-Big has missed you.

Isn't he getting to be a great big boy?

Uhuh.

I suppose you'll be making a farmer out of him.

A farmer of my baby?

No, Roelf.

Dirk is going out in the world and do things.

So am I.

I've come to tell you goodbye.

Goodbye?

I'm going away.

I understand.

I heard your father was marrying the widow Paarlenberg.

It's not that so much.

It's everything.

I've been wanting to get away for a long time.

Where are you going?

Just away.

Anywhere.

Chicago maybe.

Here's the books that belong to you.

No. Keep them please. I want you to.

And Roelf. You'll need money, won't you?

Wait here a minute.

So long.

Roelf.

Roelf.

What, another?

Now, Pervus.

Oh no. - Come on.

You remember. Once you say ..

Farm work is grand.

Oh, I did.

It could be.

You won't listen to me.

Farm work is slave work.

All night.

We load wagons with carrots.

At 4 o'clock I drive.

To make enough that we buy tomato plants for summer.

Why won't you put in asparagus? - Asparagus?

And wait three years for a crop?

But one planting lasts for ten years once it's started.

You plant it in rows instead of beds.

Over four of five acres. - Four or five acres? Where?

In the clay lands maybe? In west 16?

We can under-drain and use fertiliser. - Fertilizer costs money.

You sold your father's ring for potash and drainage.

Did it help?

I think maybe we stick by cabbages and potatoes.

Don't you see if you don't give the soil something it won't give you anything.

It just takes from you the same as you take from it.

Until it's drained every bit of strength from your body.

If we talk all night my body will be no good for a big day's work tomorrow.

But Pervus, I've tried so long to show you the new way.

You are running this farm the same way your father ran it seventy years ago.

If it's good enough for my father it's good enough for me.

Good afternoon, Reverend Dekker.

What's this I hear about you going to Haymarket with the garden stuff?

A woman. Alone.

No. Not alone. Dirk is going with me.

Mrs De Jong.

The Haymarket is no place for a decent woman.

There is drinking. Card playing.

All manner of wickedness.

The daughters of Jezebel on the streets going among the wagons.

Really?

People all over High Prairie are talking about it.

You must not go.

I am sorry if they talk.

But Dirk and I must live.

What you doing, kid? Playing leapfrog?

I had to pick this up.

It's all dirty now.

Does your mama know you are out?

Sure. She brought me out here.

She's just putting the horses in the stable.

Yeah?

What's your name, cute-trick? - Dirk.

Huh? What's that again?

Dirk.

I can't make any sense of it. Can you, Mabel?

It sounds like 'dirt' to me.

Stands to reason nobody will name a kid that.

No.

We were just talking to the kid.

Asking him his name and like that. You know.

His name is Dirk. D-I-R-K. It's a Dutch name.

We're from out High Prairie way.

I am Mrs De Jong.

I am Elsie. Elsie from Chelsea.

She is Mabel. Mabel from the stable.

Come on, kid. Let's quit gabbing.

Wait a minute now, Elsie. - Alright.

What you doing down here anyway?

I'm here to sell my vegetables tomorrow morning from the farm.

Where is your man?

My husband died a week ago.

Say. You and the kid ain't going to sleep out here, are you?

Why not?

For the love of Mike.

Here. Take this and get the kid a decent roost.

Oh.

We don't mind sleeping here.

But thanks just the same.

Mabel.

Go on. Take it.

Really, I ..

I couldn't.

Say.

I always thought I'd had a tough break.

But gee, I ain't never had to sleep in no wagon yet.

Goodnight to you. - Goodnight.

Goodnight, Mabel.

Gee, you are a darling.

Goodbye.

Come on, Dirk. Bedtime.

Up he goes.

Are we going to sleep here all night, Mumsie?

Right here. Just as snug as a bug in a rug.

Come on, Dirk.

Right there.

That's it.

I liked Mabel the best. Didn't you?

She was the nicest.

Yes, dear.

How big is my boy?

How big is my son?

So ..

Big.

Your first short dress.

At it again.

What a sentimental generation yours must have been, mother.

Sure it was.

Your father gave me these.

Pressed flowers.

They went out with the tandem bicycle, didn't they.

I suppose they did.

Your college diploma.

I had to slave and sweat four years for that.

And going to an architects office at $35 a week.

Architecture is the most thrilling thing in the world, Dirk.

Steel and stone and brick.

With engines throbbing like a heart inside.

People flowing in and out.

Part of a city. A piece of actual beauty.

Yeah.

I've spent the past week drawing wash-rooms.

For a glue factory. - But ten years from now ..

If I'm a good boy and keep my nose clean.

Maybe they'll let me design a building that looks like a big vanilla sundae.

That's not my idea of success.

What is, So-Big? - To be rich.

To make a lot of money while I'm young. So I can enjoy it while I'm older.

No. Believe me, Dirk. That isn't success.

This is success.

The thing Roelf Pool did. He drew this when he was just a little boy.

Very promising.

Roelf made good on the promise. He's now one of the greatest sculptors in Europe.

Why, only yesterday I saw a photograph of his latest work in a German gallery.

He won first prize. Same as last year.

But if you are rich you can buy the things Roelf does.

That's almost as good as creating them, isn't it?

[ Telephone ]

I'll get it, mother.

Hello?

Hello.

Yes. I can be there in about an hour.

Alright, dear.

Goodbye.

Mother, I am awfully sorry. I won't be able to have dinner with you tonight.

They .. they want me at the office right away.

I understand, dear.

You run along.

A farmer's hands are never very decorative.

Honey. I'll be late if I don't hurry.

Goodbye, dear.

Goodbye, So-Big.

The duck.

Lyonnaise potatoes.

Yes, madam.

And the De Jong asparagus.

Yes, madam.

Don't tell me. You grow asparagus in window boxes outside your office?

My desk isn't near a window.

No, really.

Are you any relation to these asparagus people?

Why ..

Of course not.

The name De Jong is as common in Holland as Smith is in America.

What show would you like to see?

I would rather go somewhere and dance.

The Casino?

That's too expensive for a poor architect's clerk.

I will treat you. - No you won't, Paula.

You are a proud, stubborn Dutchman. But I like you, Dirk.

That makes it mutual, Paula.

How much do they pay you at Hollis and Sprague?

If I'm not being impertinent.

You are being very impertinent.

$35 a week.

You know, Dirk.

You have all the earmarks of a successful man.

The way you stand, talk.

And don't talk.

The way you look at people.

All the earmarks.

Except money. - You could have that too.

If you would only stop dobbing around as an architect's office boy.

And get into a real business.

For instance?

Well.

My husband has made a fortune in the bond business.

And no-one ever accused him of being a mental giant.

Nor me.

But you have youth, energy.

And plenty of charm.

Is that all?

I am serious, dear.

Five years in the bond business with the right connections.

And you would clean up.

I wonder.

Why not try it and find out?

You mean, go to your husband with my hat in my hand and ask him for a job?

Oh no, darling.

Come to me.

With your hat off.

My personal recommendation might carry a lot of weight with my husband.

It always has.

Lovely weather we are having, Mrs Storm.

Yes, Mr De Jong.

And I think it's going to be even lovelier.

[ Buzzer ]

Yes?

Miss O'Mara is here.

Alright, Send her in.

Just sit down, Miss O'Mara. I'll be with you in a second.

Please sit down. - Sure.

Now, Miss O'Mara.

This drawing we want is for a national advertising campaign.

To get women interested in bonds.

To make women bond-conscious. - I see.

Now, my idea was something like this.

A little old lady sitting in front of a fireplace and ..

Aren't you trying to do my job?

What?

You hire me to get an idea for a drawing and to draw it.

I was just ..

Just giving you my ..

I think you will like mine better.

After I've had a day or two to work it out.

How much do you ..

What do you expect to get for this drawing?

Fifteen hundred dollars.

Nonsense. We're not prepared to pay anything like that.

Sorry. That happens to be my price.

Anyhow, it's been nice meeting you.

Goodbye, Mr De Jong. - Wait a minute.

I suppose if that's your regular charge ..

We could afford to pay it.

Could you?

But I must say you top-notchers get crazy prices for your work.

They aren't any crazier than the prizes you top-notchers get.

But still, fifteen hundred dollars is quite a lot of money.

I think so too.

Anything over nine dollars seems quite a lot of money to me.

I used to get 25 cents a piece for sketching hats.

Epstein Brothers.

But now you have arrived. You are successful.

Arrived? Heavens, no. I haven't started.

Who gets more money than you do for a drawing?

Nobody, I suppose. - Well then.

Well then ..

In a minute I will be telling you the story of my life.

Goodbye, Mr De Jong.

When you get something definite worked out ..

May I see it? - Sure.

Drop around to my studio in a week or so.

[ Door knocks ]

Dirk, is that you?

Come in. I'm not sleeping. I am just reading.

I'm awfully glad you came.

I haven't seen you in over a week.

I'm a slave to big business, darling.

Just a slave.

Sit down here the way you used to.

I'm all in.

The fellows at the club are trying to make a polo player out of me.

I know. You ache all over, but a nice kind of ache.

I used to feel that way after I worked in the fields all day.

You didn't like my mentioning that, did you. I am sorry.

I didn't say it to annoy you.

I know you didn't, mother.

Dirk.

Do you know what the society editor of The Tribune called you today?

No. What?

She said you were one of the jeunesse dor�e.

Gosh.

I remember enough of my French at school to know it means 'gilded youth'.

Who me?

Say, I'm not even spangled yet.

Dirk.

I don't want you to be one of those gilded youth.

That isn't what I worked in the sun and cold for.

I'm not reproaching you.

I didn't mind the work. Forgive my even mentioning it.

I don't want my son to be one of those jeunesse dor�es.

Not my son.

Listen dear. That's foolish.

You talk like a mother in a melodrama whose son has gone wrong.

Gilded youth.

I work like a dog. Earn every cent I get.

What is it you sell in that big mahogany office of yours, Dirk?

I never did understand it.

Bonds, mother. You know perfectly well.

Bonds?

Are they hard to sell? Who buys them?

That depends.

Everybody buys them.

I don't.

Mainly because when I had spare money it went back in the farm for improvements.

Dirk De Jong.

In the bond business.

The way you say it, it sounds like some low criminal pursuit.

Not at all, my dear.

Only, I was just thinking.

It doesn't sound very thrilling.

I make more in a month than I made in a year as an architect.

That's thrilling enough for me.

What are you going to do with all this money, Dirk?

Why don't you marry?

Well.

There is nobody I want to marry.

No-one who's free to marry, you mean.

I mean.

No-one.

Not even the woman who made you change jobs and go into her husband's firm?

I don't know what you are talking about.

I gave up architecture because I didn't like it.

Oh.

I see.

And you are never going back to architecture?

Your profession? - No, mother.

Dirk.

You can't desert her like that.

Desert who?

Beauty.

Self-expression. Call it whatever you like.

You wait.

Someday you will want her.

And she will turn her back on you.

She won't be there.

What a solemn face.

Yes. It must be.

Is that better?

Sure.

How big is my boy?

How big is my son?

So-Big.

Goodnight, mother.

Sleep tight.

Goodnight.

So that's what we get for fifteen hundred dollars.

A picture of a pretty girl.

I hope you didn't expect me to draw a picture of a woman buying bonds.

No. Dumb as I am, I realized that the very first time I came to your studio.

I'm getting punch drunk.

I guess I'll knock off. - You're losing your light anyhow.

School is over, Ruth.

See you in the morning. - Yes, Miss O'Mara.

Gee, I must look like the end of a hard winter.

That's my cue to say something complimentary.

Uhuh.

I am waiting.

How is this?

You are just about the most attractive girl I have ever met.

Very good. Kind-of a stereotype, but ..

Still effective.

Time out while I work up a maidenly blush.

Now, this is your last chance.

I'm not going to ask you this question anymore.

How about having dinner with me some night?

I'd love to. - When?

Sometime in the distant future.

Say tonight?

Perfect.

Where would you like to go, the casino? - Let's not go, but say we did.

Those upper crust places make me jitter.

How about Thompson's Lunch?

I am still a hunchback from sitting in those one-armed chairs.

Let's go to a hotel.

Full of all sorts of people.

Actors, gamblers, thieves.

Bootleggers, ladies and ..

Women. That's my dish.

Name your hotel.

It must be sufficiently from Texas.

The Blackstone. The last word in elegance.

We're practically there. - No we're not.

You must excuse me for a minute. I have got some work to do on myself.

I don't think that's necessary. - Matter of opinion.

Dallas, how about some clams or a fruit supreme?

Then the breast of a guinea hen under glass and ..

Suppose you take that.

Me.

I'd like.

Steak.

A baked potato.

And some of that special De Jong asparagus.

I'll go for that too.

Don't tell me you spend your idle moments growing asparagus?

Not me.

My mother grows that stuff.

Well, good for her.

There is a woman I'd like to meet.

You know, you seem like much too nice a fellow to sit behind a desk.

Punching buttons.

I haven't been a high-powered executive for long.

I used to be an architect.

Why did you give it up?

Nothing in it.

What do you mean?

Nothing in it? - No money.

Who cares?

Gee.

I would rather plan the back door of a beautiful building than ..

Than sell all the bonds ever engraved.

Listen, Dallas.

What do you think of me anyway?

You are a nice young man.

That's like telling a fellow he means well.

Sorry. But you asked for it.

What happens to men who fall in love with you?

What do they do?

They usually tell me about it.

Then what?

They seem to feel better and we become great friends.

Don't you ever fall in love with them?

I almost always do.

But it never takes.

I could give you a lot of things you haven't got.

Even if I am just a nice young man.

You'll have to send them by express.

I'm going to Paris in a few weeks.

To Paris? What for?

To study.

I want to do portraits.

Oils.

Can't you do them here?

Nope.

Is it because I'm a successful businessman that you don't like me?

But I do like you.

Though you don't find me attractive. - You're an awfully attractive man.

Dangerous, that's what. - Don't be the wide-eyed ing�nue.

You know very well what I mean. You've got me and you don't want me.

If I were a successful architect instead of a successful businessman ..

Would it make any difference? Is that it?

Or must a man be an artist to interest you?

Good Lord, no.

I'll probably marry some horny-handed son of toil.

And if I do.

The horny hands will win me.

I like them with their scars on them.

There is something about a man who has fought for it.

The look in his eye.

The feel of his hands.

You haven't a mark on you, Dirk.

Not a mark.

You gave up being an architect as it was an uphill disheartening job at the time.

I don't say you should have kept on.

For all I know you were a terrible architect.

But if you had kept on.

If you'd loved it enough to keep on fighting and struggling.

Why, that fight would show in your face today.

In your eyes and your whole being.

In the name of heaven, Dallas. - Listen. I'm not criticising.

But you are all smooth and ..

And I like them bumpy.

That sounds terrible.

It isn't what I mean at all.

It isn't .. - Never mind.

I think I know what you mean.

Dallas, if I thought you ..

If I thought you would ..

I'd go back to Hollis and Sprague and begin all over again at $35 a week.

Don't.

You know, all Pool's work has such noble simplicity.

Such a feeling of power.

I can't understand why he hasn't turned up yet.

He'll be here.

No real artist ever knows what time it is.

So true. - Pardon me.

Smith. - Yes, madam?

Tell Mr De Jong I'd like to speak to him.

Mr De Jong left about ten minutes ago.

Thank you.

[ Door knocks ]

Could I interest you in Fuller brushes, lady?

Nope. I use a comb.

Come on in.

Shouldn't you be at Roelf Pool's reception?

Yes. But I started thinking of you and sneaked out.

Come and meet a chap who never got there.

I don't want to butt in if you have company.

I want you to meet him.

Mr Pool.

Mr Dirk De Jong.

How do you do, sir?

Dirk De Jong.

Not ..

Say, don't you know me?

I am Roelf Pool.

Gee, I ought to know you.

I don't mean that.

I say, I knew you when you were almost a baby.

You are Selina's Dirk, aren't you?

Yes. That's right.

See.

Just a little girl who fixes up surprises for her friends.

Where did you two meet each other?

In Paris.

Roelf and I took the town apart and put it together again.

Say, isn't this fine.

I was just taking Dallas out to meet your mother.

Come on along.

I would like to if you're sure I'm not intruding.

Don't be silly. We'd love to have you. - Sure.

You know, your mother is my chief reason for this first trip back to America.

I am as excited as a boy about seeing her.

This is the grandest place I have ever seen.

It's like a painting. - Yes. It's nice.

It smells clean and earthy.

Hello, Mina.

Where is mother?

By the fields.

You want I should fetch her? - Please.

This bring her.

That bring her.

Somehow this place makes me feel ..

As if I were in church.

Look.

Two lumps, Dirk?

Three.

And you have done all the famous men of Europe, haven't you Roelf.

Think of it.

You have seen the world and you have got it in your hands.

Little Roelf Pool.

And you did it all by yourself in spite of everything.

Why are you smiling?

I just remembered.

Cabbages are beautiful.

What a fine life you've had too, Selina.

A full life.

A rich one and successful.

I?

Why, Roelf.

I've been right here all these years.

Just where you left me when you were a little boy.

I think the very dress I have on might be the same I was wearing then.

I have been nowhere.

Done nothing.

Seen nothing.

And when I think of all the places I was going to see.

And all the things I was going to do.

You have been everywhere in the world, Selina.

Seen all the places of great beauty and light.

Remember, you told me ..

That your father once said when you were a little girl.

There are only two kinds of people in the world who really matter.

One kind is wheat.

And the other kind is emeralds.

You are wheat, Selina.

And you are emerald.

And you are the reason for it all.

There.

That's what I mean when I say I want to do portraits.

Not portraits of ladies with pearls.

And a lily hand half-hidden in the folds of a satin skirt.

But portraits of men and women who are really distinguished-looking.

Distinguishably American.

Like your mother.

A fine, splendid face.

All lit up with a light that comes from inside.

Her jawline.

Like that of the women who came over on the Mayflower, or ..

Crossed the continent in a covered wagon.

And her eyes.

And that gorgeous battered old hat of hers.

And her hands.

She is beautiful.

..t-g..