The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond

- You up mighty early, Miss Willow.

I haven't been to bed yet.

Stay in there. Stay.

Hey.

- I noticed your car was headed in.

- Yes, I'm still in my party dress.

See?

Let me out.

Ow!

Come on out, Mr. Dobyne.

Don't let him bully you that way.

- Come on out here, Dad. Fisher wants to see you.

Okay, okay.

Careful, careful.

Good morning.

- Miss Willow, you know my father,

Mr. James Dobyne.

He's in charge of your father's commissary.

Held the job nearly two weeks now,

and that's a record for him.

That's the longest he's held a job

since the Spanish-American War.

- Well, here he is bright and early on a Monday.

Yes, ma'am.

This here's my boy,

a Mr. James Dobyne V.

- I know your son, Mr. Dobyne.

That's good, Dad.

Blow your stinkin' hooch breath in her face

so she can give a complete description

of your condition at 8:00 this morning

to her father, Mr. Alex Willow.

That'll fix everything up real good.

- Mr. Dobyne, I think your condition is fine.

I wish my condition this morning was half as good.

Jimmy, get in the car

and drive up to the house with me.

I want you to do something for me.

Will you let him go, Mr. Dobyne?

I'll bring him back in one hour.

Why, sure, sure, Fisher.

Yeah, okay.

What I want tell you is that I think

that I found out why small planters in this country

don't like your daddy.

It's 'cause last spring,

he blown up the south end of his levee

so the rest wouldn't break, and consequently,

all the planters south of his place were underwater.

Whew.

Your father's not popular with them.

In fact, they hold him personally responsible

for the drowning of two white men

and one old crippled white lady

and five or six negroes.

- Mr. Dobyne, my father knows about that,

but he didn't dynamite that levee

without a telephone warning to every place south of here.

Jimmy, come on. Get in the car.

- Oh, I can't go car riding now, Fisher.

Just up to the house.

Will you, please?

I've got to ask you something.

Let's stop here.

I can't smoke in the house.

Apparently, my father's selfish action last spring

with its...

tragic consequences

to a number of helpless persons south of here

is very well known in Memphis.

I wonder if their moral objections

are as strong as mine.

I barely speak to my father anymore.

But they find it convenient to hold it against me, you see.

Oh, I'm sure they also resent other things about me

probably even more:

my foreign education,

my tendency to make sharp remarks

about things that strike me as stupidly provincial.

I'm considered sarcastic.

I want to escape,

but since I have now supposedly completed my education,

Aunt Fisher's determined that I have this...

debut,

even though I am older than most of the other debutantes,

who would never dream of going to college.

And I have to go through with it to please Aunt Fisher

so she won't leave $5 million to the Episcopal Church

when she dies but to me.

- Don't you have enough money already?

- A person of my kind never has enough money.

- Well, you don't mean you're greedy, do you?

- No, I just know that I'll have to buy

most everything that I want.

Why don't you look at me?

I don't know what you want.

You.

Me?

Yes.

Why?

To take me out in Memphis,

to escort me to these agonizing parties.

- How can I take you to these agonizing parties

and run the commissary and watch out for Dad?

- I just need you nights, two or three nights a week.

The rest of the time, Aunt Fisher's lawyer will do.

- Well, surely he's not your only prospect, Fisher.

- Auntie Fisher would never permit me

to be seriously involved with anyone outside

her circle of acquaintances, either direct

or by reputation, Jimmy.

I could have married a titled Italian in Venice.

When I intimated my infatuation with him,

Aunt Fisher cabled me, "Come home at once. "

I started not to, but, um...

practical considerations seem to run in my blood

as well as...

sensual.

I hope you've listened to me and understood me.

Oh, yes.

I had a scholarship to Ole Miss.

I know.

Now, drive us up to the house.

Jimmy.

Up here.

Who's gonna measure me?

- I shall, with your assistance.

Hold your arms out for the tape.

Oh, take off that sloppy old shirt.

Of course, you're gonna need shirts,

evening shirts.

And, Jimmy, don't hold your arms over your head

like this was a holdup.

Hold them straight out to your sides like a cross.

Only don't suffer on it so much.

- Fisher, there's one thing I want you to know

about my old man.

He's a sincere, honest person,

a stinker, yeah, a real stinker,

but what he told you about the local attitude

towards your father was meant- it was meant good.

- Jimmy, will you please help me measure your legs?

Hold the end of the tape

at the inside top of your thigh while I-

Yeah.

Were you listening to me, Fisher, about my old man?

Yes.

You said that he was a stinker.

- Well, I said he was a stinker,

but I said he was a sincere, honest man.

Know what she done?

Measured me for clothes to take her to Memphis parties.

Garden pilgrims.

Garden pilgrims with dogs not admitted.

No dogs can enter the gardens.

Excuse me.

I am very sorry, madam,

but Miss Cornelia Fisher cannot allow dogs

to enter her gardens, because last fall,

a dog was very, um...

destructive.

I'm so sorry.

Susie,

will you please take this beast upstairs,

and will you please bring me up a steaming-hot glass of milk

and a hot water bottle

and tell Auntie Fisher I'm gonna sleep for hours

and to get Miss Grace to cancel any engagements

on my list for today?

Say I'm dead or something else to amuse them.

- You've still got your party dress on.

Fisher.

Was that Fisher?

Fisher.

Hello, Mama.

How are they treating you?

I need to talk to you.

It's about a girl.

She made this proposition,

and I just wanted to know what you would think.

Mama, it's Jimmy.

- A young man just arrived in a truck,

says he's expected by you.

Fisher.

In here, Jimmy.

I nearly despaired of your arrival.

The party's been on for an hour.

Look, all of your dress clothes are laid out on the bed.

Please, get into them lickety-split.

Jimmy, you look dazed. Is something wrong?

I visited mother today.

She didn't know who I was.

- Jimmy, she'll soon be out.

Mama was committed.

There are better places.

Arrangements can be made.

It's just a question of time.

Get out of those wet things.

Susie, bring Jimmy a brandy, or would you like champagne?

You've had a shock.