Explore "Desire under the Elms" by Eugene O'Neill on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The exterior of the farmhouse, as in Part One -- a hot Sunday afternoon two months later. Abbie, dressed in her best, is discovered sitting in a rocker at the end of the porch. She rocks listlessly, enervated by the heat, staring in front of her with bored, half-closed eyes.
Eben sticks his head out of his bedroom window. He looks around furtively and tries to see -- or hear -- if anyone is on the porch, but although he has been careful to make no noise, Abbie has sensed his movement. She stops rocking, her face grows animated and eager, she waits attentively. Eben seems to feel her presence, he scowls back his thoughts of her and spits with exaggerated disdain -- then withdraws back into the room. Abbie waits, holding her breath as she listens with passionate eagerness for every sound within the house.