be together. Let's ...

KEN. It's too late for that. If that was what we'd wanted it would
have happened three years ago.

LAURA. I love you more now than I did then.

KEN. And I'm not saying I love you less.

LAURA. Then?

KEN. In the last three years I've seen a man I used to love and
respect degenerate under my eyes, become a lousy parasite, living
off a woman whose whole income isn't enough for her to live on
decently.

LAURA. How can you compare yourself to Ted?

KEN. Good God, I don't! Yet Ted was once all right.

LAURA. Ted expected the world to support him. He had nothing to
give it. You have ability and ambition. You want to give things to
the world.

KEN. [_Flatly._] I want a job.

LAURA. Of course you do, darling!

KEN. [_Fiercely._] That's all I want. A job. I lay awake nights,
saying over and over, "I want a job, a job, a job ..."

LAURA. Oh, I know!

KEN. I don't think about you when I lie awake at night. I don't
think how nice it would be to have you there in my arms. All I
think about is a job. If it were a choice between you and a job I'd
take the job.--What's the use of kidding ourselves any longer?
[_She is silent. He goes on desperately._] I'm not the same fellow
I was three years ago. People slam doors in my face. Do you
understand? They look at me. They see my clothes, my eyes....
They're antagonized before they speak to me,--just as people are to
a beggar. They say "no" before I ask for anything. No, no, no. They
say it as if I were asking for charity instead of a job. "Nothing
for you." "Sorry." "Nothing today."--It makes a beggar out of you!

[TIPPY _enters, carrying tea tray_.]

TIPPY. Hello! Where's the rest of the tea party? [_Neither
answers._] Well, we'll have double portions, that's nice.

LAURA. Tippy, doesn't your world ever fall out from under you?

TIPPY. Certainly not! [_Pause._]

LAURA. [_With forced gayety._] I say, where's Martin?

TIPPY. Can it be that _you_ are asking for Martin!

LAURA. Uh-huh. I'm ready for him to turn me into a Communist.

TIPPY. That _is_ news!--Where did Kate go?

LAURA. To make a date with her boss. He's sixty and rich--and
serious.

TIPPY. No kidding?--No, my world doesn't drop out from under me. It
merely turns wrong side out in my hand.--Your tea, Ken. It contains
teaffein, which stimulates the heart but quiets the nerves.
Teaffein in tea is the same as caffein in coffee. But under the
profit system we don't know that yet