Tea and Sympathy Page 2
LILLY (Pleased)
Really?
LAURA
Really.
LILLY
That's the sweetest thing you've said to me in days. Good-bye. (She goes out the door, and a moment later we hear the outside door close.)
LAURA (Sits for a moment, listening to TOM'S rather plaintive whistling. She rises and looks at the Canada vacation literature on the desk, and then, looking at her watch, goes to the door, opens it, and calls up the stairway)
Tom . . . Oh, Tom.
(The moment TOM hears his name, he jumps from the bed, and goes through the sitting room, and appears on the stairs.)
TOM
Yes?
LAURA
(She is very friendly with him, comradely)
If it won't spoil your supper, come on down for a cup of tea.
(TOM goes back into his room and brushes his hair, then he comes on down the stairs, and enters the study. He enters this room as though it were something rare and special. This is where LAURA lives.)
LAURA (Has gone out to the other part of the house. Comes to doorway for a moment pouring cream from bottle to pitcher)
I've iust about finished your costume for the play, and we can have a fitting.
TOM
Sure. That'd be great. Do you want the door open or shut?
LAURA (Goes off again)
It doesn't make any difference.
(TOM shuts the door. He is deeply in love with this woman, though he knows nothing can come of it. It is a sort of delayed puppy love. It is very touching and very intense. They are easy with each other, casual, though he is always trying in thinly veiled ways to tell her he loves her. LAURA enters with tea tray and sees him closing the door. She puts tray on table)
Perhaps you'd better leave it ajar, so that if some of the other boys get out of class early, they can come in too.
TOM (Is disappointed)
Oh, sure.
LAURA (Goes off for the plate of cookies, but pauses long enough to watch TOM open the door the merest crack. She is amused. In a moment, she re-enters with a plate of cookies)
Help yourself.
TOM
Thanks.
(He takes a cookie, and then sits on the floor, near her chair.)
LAURA
Are the boys warm enough in the rooms? They shut down the heat so early this spring, I guess they didn't expect this little chill.
TOM
We're fine. But this in nice. (He indicates low fire in fireplace.)
LAURA (Goes back to her sewing)
I heard you singing.
TOM
I'm sorry if it bothered you.
LAURA
It was very nice.
TOM
If it ever bothers you, just bang on the radiator.
LAURA
What was the name of the song? It's lovely.
TOM
It's an old French song . . . "The Joys of Love" . . .
(He speaks the lyric)
The joys of love Are but a moment long, The pain of love Endures forever.
LAURA
And is that true? (TOM shrugs his shoulders) You sang as, though you knew all about the pains of love.
TOM
And you don't think I do?
LAURA
Well . . .
TOM
You're right.
LAURA
Only the joys.
TOM
Neither, really. (Teapot whistles off stage.)
LAURA
Then you're a fake. Listening to you, one would think you knew everything there was to know. (Rises and goes to next room for tea) Anyway, I don't believe it. A boy like you.
TOM
It's true.
LAURA (Off stage)
Aren't you bringing someone to the dance after the play Saturday?
TOM
Yes.
LAURA
Well, there.
TOM
You.
LAURA (Reappears in doorway with teapot)
Me?
TOM
Yes, you're going to be a hostess, aren't you?
LAURA
Yes, of course, but . . .
TOM
As a member of the committee, I'm taking you. All the committee drew lots . . .
LAURA
And you lost.
TOM
I won.
LAURA (A little embarrassed by this)
Oh. My husband could have taken me.
(She sits down again in her chair.)
TOM
He's not going to be in town. Don't you remember, Mountain Climbing Club has its final outing this week-end.
LAURA
Oh, yes, of course. I'd forgotten.
TOM
He's out a lot on that kind of thing, isn't he? (LAURA ignores his probing) I hope you're not sorry that I'm to be your escort.
LAURA
Why, I'll be honored.
TOM
I'm supposed to find out tactfully and without your knowing it what color dress you'll be wearing.
LAURA
Why?
TOM
The committee will send you a corsage.
LAURA
Oh, how nice. Well, I don't have much to choose from, I guess my yellow.
TOM
The boy who's in charge of getting the flowers thinks a corsage should be something like a funeral decoration. So I'm taking personal charge of getting yours.
LAURA
Thank you.
TOM
You must have gotten lots of flowers when you were acting in the theater.
LAURA
Oh, now and then. Nothing spectacular.
TOM
I can't understand how a person would give up the theater to come and live in a school . . . I'm sorry. I mean, I'm glad you did, but, well . . .
LAURA
If you knew the statistics on unemployed actors, you might understand. Anyway, I was never any great shakes at it.
TOM
I can't believe that.
LAURA
Then take my word for it.
TOM (After a moment, looking into the fire, pretending to be casual, but actually touching on his love for LAURA)
Did you ever do any of Shaw's plays?
LAURA
Yes.
TOM
We got an assignment to read any Shaw play we wanted. I picked Candida .
LAURA
Because it was the shortest?
TOM (Laughs)
No . . . because it sounded like the one I'd like the best, one I could understand. Did you ever play Candida?
LAURA
In stock -- a very small stock company, way up in Northern Vermont.
TOM
Do you think she did right to send Marchbanks away?
LAURA
Well, Shaw made it seem right. Don't you think?
TOM (Really talking about himself)
That Marchbanks sure sounded off a lot. I could never sound off like that, even if I loved a woman the way he did. She could have made him seem awfully small if she'd wanted to.
LAURA
Well, I guess she wasn't that kind of woman. Now stand up. Let's see if this fits.
(She rises with dress in her hands.)
TOM (Gets up)
My Dad's going to hit the roof when he hears I'm playing another girl.
LAURA
I think you're a good sport not to mind. Besides, it's a good part. Lady Teazle in The School For Scandal .
TOM (Puts on top of dress)
It all started when I did Lady Macbeth last year. You weren't here yet for that. Lucky you.
LAURA
I hear it was very good.
TOM
You should have read a letter I got from my father. They printed a picture o{ me in the Alumni Bulletin , in costume. He was plenty peeved about it.
LAURA
He shouldn't have been.
TOM
He wrote me saying he might be up here today on Alumni Fund business. If he comes over here, and you see him, don't tell him about this.
LAURA
I won't . . . What about your mother? Did she come up for the play?
(She helps him button the dress.)
TOM
I don't see my mother. Didn't you know?
(He starts to roll up pants legs.)
LAURA
Why no. I didn't.
TOM
She and my father are divorced.
LAURA
I'm sorry.
TOM
You needn't be. They aren't. I was supposed to hold them together. That was how I happened to come into the world. I didn't work. That's a terrible thing, you know, to make a flop of the first job you've got in life.
LAURA
Don't you ever see her?
TOM
Not since I was five. I was with her till five, and then my father took me away. All I remember about my mother is that she was always telling me to go outside and bounce a ball.
LAURA (Handing him skirt of the d?ess)
You must have done something before Lady Macbeth. When did you play that character named Grace?
TOM (Stiffens)
I never played anyone called Grace.
LAURA
But I hear the boys sometimes calling you Grace. I thought . . . (She notices that he's uncomfortable) I'm sorry. Have I said something terrible?
TOM
No.
LAURA
But I have. I'm sorry.
TOM
It's all right. But it's a long story. Last year over at the movies, they did a revival of Grace Moore in One Night of Love . I'd seen the revival before the picture came. And I guess I oversold it, or something. But she was wonderful! . . . Anyway, some of the guys started calling me Grace. It was my own fault, I guess.
LAURA
Nicknames can be terrible. I remember at one time I was called "Beany." I can't remember why, now, but I remember it made me mad.
(She adjusts the dress a little)
Hold still a moment. We'll have to let this out around here.
(She indicates the bosom)
What size do you want to be?
TOM
(He is embarrassed, but rather nicely, not obviously and farcically. In his embarrassment he looks at LAURA's bosom, then quickly away)
I don't know. Whatever you think.
LAURA (She indicates he is to stand on a small wooden footstool)
I should think you would have invited some girl up to see you act, and then take her to the dance.
TOM (Gets on stool)
There's nobody I could ask.
LAURA (Working on hem of dress)
What do you mean?
TOM
I don't know any girls, really.
LAURA
Oh, certainly back home . . .
TOM
Last ten years I haven't been home, I mean really home. Summers my father packs me off to camps, and the rest of the time I've been at boarding schools.
LAURA
What about Christmas vacation, and Easter?
TOM
My father gets a raft of tickets to plays and concerts, and sends me and my aunt.
LAURA
I see.
TOM
So I mean it when I say I don't know any girls.
LAURA
Your roommate, Al, knows a lot of girls. Why not ask him to fix you up with a blind date?
TOM
I don't know . . . I can't even dance. I'm telling you this so you won't expect anything of me Saturday night.
LAURA
We'll sit out and talk.
TOM
Okay.
LAURA
Or I could teach you how to dance. It's quite simple.
TOM (Flustered)
You?
LAURA
Why not?
TOM
I mean, isn't a person supposed to go to some sort of dancing class or something?