Jezebel Page #2

marrying a trader and going up North.

Pres is a banker, not a trader.

I'll thank you to remember that.

I keep forgetting there's a difference.

But you won't like it in the North,

Miss Julie, tell you what.

- I'll be happy anywhere Pres is.

- You won't like it at the North.

You know those little old white beans?

Horse-feed beans?

You know what they

do with them in Boston?

They eat them. Ladies and gentlemen

eat them, what I hear.

- Buck, you're...

- My dear.

Isn't Preston Dillard

ever going to arrive?

I'm sorry, Mrs. Kendrick,

I tried to persuade him...

...but he found it important

to meet with the directors of his bank.

Of course.

"Business before pleasure," I always say.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I give you a toast.

To the firm of Dillard and Sons,

a venerable institution...

...a financial colossus

with branches in New York...

...Boston, London and Paris.

I guess the one railroad we got

is not enough, huh?

Let's see what it does

before we finance another.

It's losing money by the fistful,

that's what.

Steam cars. Ten million dollars

to mess with another railroad.

Who's gonna ride on them?

All joggled up with any kind

of rag-tagging bobtail?

What's a gentleman

keep a carriage for?

What if a gentleman

ain't got a carriage?

He can borrow one.

What's he got friends for?

Gentlemen. Gentlemen.

We are here to listen

to Mr. Dillard's plans...

...to finance the Nashville Pacific.

Pacific, and build it east.

When they gonna ask you

to build a railroad to California?

Gentlemen, I'm a banker,

not a conjure man.

But I can tell you this:

New York and Boston are steadily

laying in rails to the Northwest.

They're tapping

the trade of that country.

Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati,

the whole Great Lakes country...

...beginning to ship east by rail.

- And New Orleans is missing the parade.

- The river's still there.

I reckon even those

Yankee sharpers aren't smart enough...

...to turn the Mississippi around.

Yankees sharpers are smart enough

to turn the traffic around.

The railroads are getting it.

Cussed, snorting, tin teakettles.

Scaring my horses.

Every time we get a colt, I look for him

to be foaled with a whale-oil headlight.

I do not think they're so healthy too.

All that smoke and...

Since when have you become so suddenly

concerned about what's healthy?

He's off again.

You're old enough to remember

the epidemic of '30.

- Or are you so old you've forgotten it?

- I knew it.

Quick as anybody said "health"...

...Doc Livingstone come surging out of

the cane-break, hollering, "Yellow jack."

And I'll keep on hollering

till you do something...

...about cleaning up this town,

getting the filth off the streets.

I've been trying to pound sense

into your knotheads for years.

Just the same as Pres is trying to do

right now, and with no better luck.

But I'm warning you,

and you, Jean La Cour...

...member of the City Counsel,

and all of you...

...if we get us another dose of

yellow fever like we had back in '30...

...when there wasn't enough men alive

to bury the dead...

...there just isn't going to be any town

to run a railroad into.

I'm telling you what's a fact.

Dr. Livingstone,

let us not confuse the issue.

We are here to discuss a railroad.

Mr. Dillard.

Gentlemen, I have here the figures

on the declining river freight.

These figures don't lie.

Last year, our riverboat...

- Yes?

- It's Miss Julie's boy, sir.

- He insists to see you, sir.

- What does he want?

He insists that Miss Julie told him

to see you personally, sir.

One moment, please, gentlemen.

The lady's waiting, sir.

- Is the party over?

- Yes, Mr. Pres.

Miss Julie tell me to ask you...

...would you most politely drop

what you're doing and come?

You tell her I'm in the middle

of something important.

Directors' meeting. I can't leave now.

She'll understand.

Yes, sir, Mr. Pres.

She'll understand, all right.

But liking it is gonna be different.

And expecting a man

to go to a dressmaker's with you.

I declare, I hope Pres doesn't come.

- He will.

- But, Julie...

Now, don't fret about Pres.

I've been training him for years.

Not with that man-killing

horse you bought.

Pres was outrageous.

He'd no right to tell me

what I could ride and couldn't.

Horse showed you

what you couldn't.

You broke your collarbone

and your engagement.

And they both mended,

so I was right after all.

- Miss Julie, ma'am.

- Ti Bat, did you tell him to hurry?

Yes, ma'am, Miss Julie. I tell him.

But he ain't come.

That is, not just exactly.

That is, he say,

will you please go along?

In the middle of some directions.

Causes some problems.

He can't see you later.

Did Mr. Pres say that?

Yes, ma'am, those his very words.

He says you'll understand.

- Yes. Yes, I understand perfectly.

- Julie.

Julie, in a bank.

I'll get him, Miss Julie. I'll get him.

- Thank you.

- Just a moment.

I'm not putting the bank

in a $ 10 million proposition...

...without knowing

what I'm talking about.

I haven't spent six months getting

these figures for my album.

- Give me a little...

- Mr. Dillard, sir.

- Yes, what is it?

- It's Miss Julie, sir. She's waiting.

- I'm sorry.

- Certainly, my boy.

Everything waits

where beauty's concerned.

- You shouldn't...

- Are you coming or aren't you?

- Try to understand.

- I only understand that you promised.

- But this is important.

- I don't suppose it's important...

...that I spent a whole month

having my ball dress made.

You promised to come and see it fitted.

I don't suppose it's important to you

what I wear to the Olympus ball.

It's only you that's so important.

I suppose Mr. La Cour and the others

couldn't possibly get on without you.

They'd love to, permanently.

- Now, Julie, you've got good sense.

- Thank you.

I'm having the fight of my life in there.

I've gotta get back.

Just run along, I'll see you later.

Don't trouble.

I'm sure you'll be too exhausted

from your terrific struggle.

- Julie, you must realize...

- I realize only too well.

Good day, Mr. Dillard.

I'm so sorry to have troubled you.

To Madame Poulard's.

- Julie, it's perfectly lovely.

- I don't like the color.

And does it have to be so tight here?

- It binds. And the skirt...

- But it's adorable, Julie. It really is.

- Pres has always loved you in white.

- Yes.

If he isn't bowled over,

I won't know what to think.

Wait a minute.

Bring that over here.

- Saucy, isn't it?

- And vulgar.

Yes, isn't it?

- Come on. Get me out of this.

- Julie, what are you doing?

If it fits me, I'm gonna wear it

to the Olympus ball.

A red dress to the Olympus ball?

Why, you're out of your senses.

That creature, Julie.

You heard what Madame Poulard said.

- That infamous Vickers woman.

- Marie Vickers couldn't do it justice.

Child, you're out of your mind.

You know you can't wear red

to the Olympus ball.

Can't I? I'm going to.

This is 1852, dumpling.

1852, not the Dark Ages.

Girls don't have to simper around

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