The Gay Old Dog
by Edna FerberGenre: Drama
Setting:
Format of Original Source: Short Story
Recommended Adaptation Length: Two Hours
Candidate for Adaptation? Not Reviewed
EXCERPT:
She tried to imagine herself taking the household affairs and the housekeeping pocketbook out of Eva’s expert hands. Eva had once displayed to her a sheaf of aigrettes she had bought with what she saved out of the housekeeping money. So then she tried to picture herself allowing the reins of Jo’s house to remain in Eva’s hands. And everything feminine and normal in her rebelled. Emily knew she’d want to put away her own freshly laundered linen, and smooth it, and pat it. She was that kind of woman. She knew she’d want to do her own delightful haggling with butcher and vegetable peddler. She knew she’d want to muss Jo’s hair, and sit on his knee, and even quarrel with him, if necessary, without the awareness of three ever-present pairs of maiden eyes and ears.
“No! No! We’d only be miserable. I know. Even if they didn’t object. And they would, Jo. Wouldn’t they?”
His silence was miserable assent. Then, “But you do love me, don’t you, Emily?”
“I do, Jo. I love you–and love you–and love you. But, Jo, I–can’t.”
“I know it, dear. I knew it all the time, really. I just thought, maybe, somehow–“
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