The final act of The Little Foxes opens with Alexandra and Birdie playing a duet at the piano, while Horace and Addie listen. When the song is over, Addie hands each of them cake and elderberry wine. Alexandra takes a bit and says, “Good cakes, Addie. It’s nice here. Just us. Be nice if it could always be this way” (56). Birdie agrees, then Addie reminds them they don’t have long. Soon, the cotton mill will be going up, and everything will change.

All the while, Birdie has been drinking multiple glasses of wine. She reminisces on playing music with Horace the first night she met him, and says that Oscar didn’t want her playing the piano after that. She tells Alexandra that Horace has always been kind to her, and stood up to Oscar for her.

Cal, one of the workers, arrives. Horace needs him to run an errand for him. He tells Cal to go to the bank and slip in the back, where he’ll find the men still doing the end-of-day business. He says Cal is to thank Mr. Mander for sending

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