Spring Byington

Mrs. Marshall: You haven't changed, Mary. Not at all.
Mary Marshall: Thank you, Aunt Sarah. Oh, it's so good to be here.
Mrs. Marshall: I'm so glad to have you with us, dear. Awfully glad. Barbara, come on down! You can share Barbara's room.
Mary Marshall: Oh, dear, I don't want to disturb anybody. I, don't ...
Mrs. Marshall: Oh, nonsense. Barbara will love to have you. Here, for heaven's sake, give me your coat. Anyway, it's the guest room, or it was before Barbara was born. Besides, I think it would be a very good thing for Barbara. She's seventeen.
Mary Marshall: Seventeen?
Mrs. Marshall: And she's pretty, spoiled, and at an age, oh, you know. I think an older girl will be a very good thing for her right now. Like you. Yes, like you. Now, there's a million things to talk about, but first you want to wash up.
Barbara Marshall: [coming downstairs] Hello, Mary. I'm awfully glad to see you.
Mary Marshall: Hello, Barbara. Why, I never would have known you. She's grown into a beauty.
Barbara Marshall: Welcome home.
Mrs. Marshall: Take Mary up to your room, dear.
Barbara Marshall: Follow me, lady, to my boudoir. Although it's small, not much bigger than a cell. Oh, I'm sorry, Mary.
Mary Marshall: Look, there's just one thing. We all know that I've been in prison, and I'm going back in eight days. And there's no use pretending it isn't so. It just won't be any good unless everybody says what he thinks, and doesn't try to cover up.
Mrs. Marshall: Oh, you're a fine girl, Mary. Now go up and see your room.

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Zachary Morgan: [Mrs. Marshall comes in with a flaming plum pudding] I never could figure out why the pudding never gets burned.
Mary Marshall: I've never been able to figure that out either. Must be the alcohol in the brandy.
Zachary Morgan: I think.
Mr. Marshall: Personally, I think it's a shame to burn good brandy. That quart I brought home last week was imported cognac.
Mrs. Marshall: Oh, don't worry, Henry, I didn't burn up the whole quart.
Barbara Marshall: Oh, I wouldn't trust Mom with it, Dad.
Mr. Marshall: Maybe you're right. Remember last year, how Mom got going on just a glass of sherry?
Mrs. Marshall: Now I'm not going to listen to that again!
Barbara Marshall: You may not believe this about your dear Aunt Sarah, but last year she got high as a kite.
Zachary Morgan: If they're trying to drag out a family skeleton, Mrs. Marshall, I won't listen to them.
Mrs. Marshall: Oh, it's just one of those little things that happen, people start exaggerating.
Mr. Marshall: Exaggerate, my eye! It's as true as I sit here. Last year, Mother and I had a glass of sherry to bring in the new year. And then we went to a little gathering, all the way across town, it was. Mother had her skirt on backwards!
Mrs. Marshall: See here, Henry, if you're in such good voice, how about a Christmas carol?

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Mrs. Marshall: You must have been looking forward to it, Mary.
Mary Marshall: I was looking forward to seeing you, Aunt Sarah.
Mrs. Marshall: Oh, that's sweet of you, dear.
Mary Marshall: As a matter of fact, selfish. I've been doing a lot of thinking in the past three years, Aunt Sarah, and...
Mrs. Marshall: What sort of things were you thinking, Mary?
Mary Marshall: Coming out into the world and... Even coming here, I had a feeling that ...
Mrs. Marshall: Honey, you've got to stop being afraid. You've got to stop feeling that you're branded like people were in the old days. You've done something. You're paying your debt to society. Most people are willing to let it go at that.
Mary Marshall: I know, Aunt Sarah, but coming out into the world and seeing everybody in uniform, everybody doing something... I just don't belong. I don't fit in. And dreams that I've had for the future are just impossible.
Mrs. Marshall: Well, most dreams are, Mary. It's just the dreaming that counts. Nobody gets exactly what he wants out of life. One of the first things you learn is to make compromises with your dreams.
Mary Marshall: But I'm not talking about palaces and rainbows, Aunt Sarah. I'm talking about a home. A home like this with a kitchen and a stove and an icebox, and a husband, and a child.
Mrs. Marshall: Yes, I have all that. Yet I used to dream about palaces and rainbows.
Mary Marshall: But you're happy.
Mrs. Marshall: Of course. Because I didn't hold out for too much. I accepted what I thought was second best and made that do. Oh, it's something that everybody learns sooner or later. You have to get used to accepting what you think is second best, and then you find out it's first best after all.

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