Heavenly from "Spring Storm" by Tennessee Williams

HEAVENLY: Oh--nothing. (She smiles almost mockingly and lowers her eyes.) Look. It's a bunny-rabbit. (She has twisted her white handkerchief into the semblance of a long-eared rabbit's head.) It's wiggling its ears at you. It says "Shame on Ahthuh fo' usin' such long words!" (She laughs.) It says, "If I went to school at Oxfo'd I'd be sma't too an' use big words, but I'm just a dumb little bunny that doesn't know anything but how to wiggle its ears an' eat grass!" (Slowly, dreamily she shakes the handkerchief out--she smiles sadly and shakes her head.) Poor bunny! He's all disappeared--he's just a little white hankie now. But he still smells nice. (She lifts it delicately to her nostrils, glancing provocatively at Arthur from under her dark lashes.) He smells like dead lose leaves. Mmmm. Aunt Lila makes your talisman roses into sachets when they're withered an' puts 'em in our handkerchief boxes--gives 'em such a sad, sweet smell. (She smiles.) Like old maids' memories, that's what it reminds me of! (She sniffs the cloth delicately once more, and then smooths it thoughtfully on her lap. Suddenly she raises her face to Arthur's with a look of startling intensity.) I'd rather die than be an old maid! (Pause for emphasis.)

ARTHUR: Surely that's not a possibility!

HEAVENLY (intensely): Oh, yes it is. All the boys go No'th or East to make a livin' unless they've got plantations. And that leaves a lot of girls sitting out on the front porch waitin' fo' the afte'noon mail. Sometimes it stops comin'. And they're still sitting out there on the swing in their best white dresses, smilin' so hard it's a wonder they don't crack their faces--so people across the street won't know what's happened! "Isn't it marvelous weather? The sky's so perfectly blue! Mother and I put up six quarts of blackberry jam last night!"--Oh, God!-- (She rises quickly and walks over to the French window.) That's why girls like me act so silly, Ahthuh, like music an' dancing instead of books and things, because we're scared inside, so scared it makes us feel sick at the stomach--

ARTHUR: Scared of what?

HEAVENLY: Of sitting out there forever on the front porch in our best dresses!