Class of 29 | Page 6

of a chance I'll get at them.
LAURA. There are going to be dozens of firms in the field, and they'll all want yearly models.
TIPPY. [Sticking his head in door.] Attention! Sergeant Holden, go at once to the nearest Commissary and requisition 454 grams of sucrose.
[KEN salutes and goes. The girls stare after him.]
KATE. Now what in the world!
TIPPY. Sugar, Katie. Sugar.
KATE. But how much?
TIPPY. One pound. He understood. A year in Paris, you know.
LAURA. Oh, I'm so sorry! I forgot sugar.
TIPPY. Sorry? It gives him a chance to buy something.--Your failure to understand the masculine nature is appalling.
KATE. I'll bet you had sugar.
TIPPY. Yes, we had no sugar.--Forget it. [Exits.]
LAURA. Oh these men!
KATE. You said it!
LAURA. [Turns on her suddenly.] Kate, what's the matter?
KATE. Matter? Why?
LAURA. You are grouched. Ken is touchy, he wants to quarrel. Tippy is too nonsensical, even for Tippy. Is something wrong?
KATE. Everything's wrong.
LAURA. Tell me.
KATE. Martin started it. He bawled Ted out for living off me.
LAURA. Oh, well--Martin!
KATE. It seems I gave Ted money for his share of the rent last month, and he bought a coat with it instead.
LAURA. Oh.
KATE. So Tippy had to pay again.
LAURA, Tippy didn't tell on him?
KATE. You know he wouldn't. Martin found out some way and told for him.
LAURA. Martin's a beast.
KATE. Maybe he was right. They all but told me to take Ted back and keep him with me.
LAURA. And you will, I suppose? [KATE is silent.] I'm sorry.
KATE. I don't mind your question.
LAURA. There's nothing else you can do, really.
KATE. Yes. There's one thing. There's another man.
LAURA. Are you serious?
KATE. He is. Serious, and rich, and--sixty.
LAURA. That beastly old man!
KATE. Every time he said "I'm an old man" I'd say, "Oh, no, Mr. Selden" till I convinced him.
LAURA. So what, Kate?
KATE. So he thinks he wants me for myself alone. He isn't the least bit vicarious.
LAURA. Kate, do be serious.
KATE. He wants to reduce his income tax by gifts to eleemosynary institutions. Don't I look eleemosynary?
LAURA. No. Nor mercenary, either.
KATE. Ah, but I am. And I've been buying love long enough to have learned the trade. So now I'm going to sell some.
LAURA. And Ted?
KATE. [Bitterly.] What about him?
LAURA. You love him.
KATE. No, I don't, I used to love him.... But I don't any more. You can't stay crazy about a man when you give him half your salary every week. You get to hate him.... Oh, it's worse than hate. It's contempt.
LAURA. You've stuck it out so long.
KATE. Too long.
LAURA. It'll be different as soon as he strikes something.
KATE. Strikes what? Gold or oil?
LAURA. He'll find something. It takes time.
KATE. Time is the only thing I haven't got to spare. Look, I'm twenty-seven.
LAURA. But you don't look it.
KATE. I do--I have wrinkles.
LAURA. Don't be silly.
KATE. Around the eyes.
LAURA. You're imagining.
KATE. And yesterday I found a gray hair.
LAURA. Girls of eighteen sometimes have gray hairs.
KATE. But I feel old! And if I don't look it now, I will soon. [Pause.] What am I to do, Laura? Keep on working at eighteen dollars a week till I'm forty?--I haven't a decent thing to wear. I haven't had a new coat in three years. [Feverishly.] And I'm frightened. Calendars frighten me.--I want to have some fun. I want a man to take me to the Ritz and--pay the check.
LAURA. I know how you feel. Don't you think that I ... What do you want me to say, Kate?
KATE. There is nothing to say.
LAURA. Look, dear. I don't say you should keep Ted. Drop him and go it alone a while. If you've been living on nine dollars a week, eighteen will seem a fortune.
KATE. And what will become of him?
LAURA. If you are leaving him you can't worry about that.
KATE. I do worry about it. That's one of the reasons I'll take the old man and his money.
LAURA. You're crazy!
KATE. Am I?
LAURA. That's something that--that just isn't done!
KATE. A lot you know.
LAURA. Kate ...
KATE. Oh, stop it! That just isn't done! You don't know anything. You don't even know how I feel ... week after week giving Ted money. You've been in love with a man whose fond papa's supported him so you haven't had to soil your lovely ethics with dirty money.
LAURA. Darling ...
KATE. Don't darling me. And don't tell me what's decent and proper--and what isn't done!
LAURA. I didn't mean ...
KATE. You didn't mean anything because you don't know anything. But maybe you're going to learn.--Maybe now you're going to learn because this gang is breaking up. Not only because my man is a dead-bent, but because yours is broke.--So now maybe you'll try keeping a man and see how it feels!
LAURA. Kate!
[KATE slams out, brushing KEN, who enters, violently aside.]
KEN. What's the matter with her?
LAURA. Nothing.
[KEN hands sugar to TIPPY and returns.]
KEN. She didn't act like