ACT I

A large old-fashioned room in Matthew Bee/er's farm-house,
  near a small town in the Middle WVest. The room is used
  for dining andfor general living purposes.  It suggests, in
  architecture and furnishings, a past of considerable pros-
  perity, which has now given place to mnore humble living.
  The house is, in fact, the ancestral home of Mr. Bee/er's
  wife, Mary, born Beardsley, a family of the local farming
  aristocracy, now decayed. At the rear is a large double
  window, set in a broad alcove. To the right of the window
  is the entrance door, which opens upon the side yard, show-
  ing bushes, trees, andfarm buildings.
In the right wall of the room a door and covered stairway
  lead to the upper story. Farther forward is a wall cup-
  board, and a door leading into the kitchen.  Opposite this
  cupboard, in the left-hand wall of the room, is a mantel-
  piece andgrate; farther back a double door, leading to a
  hall.  Off th e hall open two bedrooms (not seen), one be-
  longing to Mr. and Mrs. Bee/er, the other to Rhoda
  Williams, a niece of Airs. Bee/er, child of her dead sister.
The room contains, among other articles offurniture, a dining
  table (with detachable leaves to reduce its bulk when not
  in use for eating purposes), an invalid's wheel-chair, a low
  sofa of generous size, and a book-shelf, upon which are
  arranged the scientific books which AMr. Bee/er takes a
  somewhat untutored but genuine delight in. Tacked upon
  the wall near by are portraits of scientific men, Darwin
  and Spcer conspicuous among them, cutfrom periodicals.