r_ stuff.

TIPPY. Sensitive?

MARTIN. Don't be an ass. It's unimportant, that's all.

TIPPY. Eighty dollars--unimportant?

MARTIN. [_Lays aside drawing, removes eyeshade and rises._] You've
got me wrong if you think I've any qualms about a reunion with our
blissfully-wed bourgeois comrades. Where I doubt your horse sense
is in inviting Kate.

TIPPY. You can't ask a bride to attend a stag party with four men!

MARTIN. I could have dug up some other female as a shock-absorber.

TIPPY. Listen, son: a man can be a revolutionist and still mix
socially with the White Guard. But a female revolutionist must
either assassinate them or seduce them.

MARTIN. [_Good-naturedly._] Go to hell.

TIPPY. I invited Kate because she is Laura's friend.

MARTIN. She was Laura's friend.

TIPPY. Rats!

MARTIN. In view of recent changes in social status, are you sure
that Kate is still on the calling list of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth
Holden?

TIPPY. You're talking awful rot.

MARTIN. Maybe you know Ken better than I do.

TIPPY. Hell, he isn't a prig.

MARTIN. Another thing: What makes you so sure Ted will enjoy being
put on social display in his frayed clothes alongside a lady
gorgeously arrayed in the price of her shame?

TIPPY. The very fact that Ted is so shabby will make it less
obvious that Kate is still--[_Pause._]--helping him.

MARTIN. Kate is really showing remarkable restraint. I'd have
expected her to squeeze enough out of a mink coat to dress Ted up a
bit.

[_All this time_ TIPPY _has been wiping dog with one towel after
another. He now gets up and leads dog to yard._]

TIPPY. Now I must hang Itzy out to dry.

MARTIN. God, haven't you dried that cur enough?

TIPPY. Him must be ventilated so him will smell sweet. Him's mama
rubs her nose in him and her is very particular. [_He goes out with
dog_. MARTIN _begins picking up the strewn array of used towels_,
TIPPY _comes back._] Thanks, old man. [_Takes the towels._] Want to
dump the tub for me? [MARTIN _carries tub into kitchen,_ TIPPY
_continues cleaning up_. TED _enters with_ KATE. _She is richly
dressed and has the mink coat_, TED _has on a complete new outfit:
suit, hat shoes, topcoat. Everything. The coat is gray; suit
brown; hat gray. And there is a price tag on tail of overcoat._
TIPPY _stares in astonishment._] Do my eyes deceive me?

KATE. Hello, flea-killer.--How do you like it?

TIPPY. I must have slept a few years.

[TED _removes coat and lays