o the street.

Upon the walls are several posters, one showing "The Gibson
Upright"--a happy family, including children and a grandparent,
exclaiming with joy at sight of this instrument. Another shows
a concert singer singing widely beside "The Gibson Upright,"
with an accompanist seated. Another shows a semi-colossal
millionaire, and a workingman of similar size in paper cap and
apron, shaking hands across "The Gibson Upright," and, printed:
"$188.00--The Price for the Millionaire, the Same for Plain
John Smith--$188.00." This poster and the others all show the
slogan: "How Cheap, BUT How Good!"

Nothing is new in this room, but everything is clean and
accurately in order. The arrangement is symmetrical.

As the curtain rises_ NORA GORODNA _is seen at work on the
sample "Gibson Upright." The front is not removed; but through
the top of the piano she is adjusting something with a small
wrench._ NORA _is a fine-looking young woman, not over
twenty-six; she wears a plain smock over a dark dress. As she
is a piano tester in the factory she is dressed neither so
roughly as a working woman nor perhaps so fashionably as a
stenographer. She is serious and somewhat preoccupied. From
somewhere come the sounds of several pianos being tuned. After
a moment_ NORA _goes thoughtfully to the desk and looks at the
rose in the glass; then lifts the glass as if to inhale the
odour of the rose, but abruptly alters her decision and sets
the glass down without doing so. She returns quickly and
decisively to her work at the piano, as if she had made a
determination.

A bell at the door on our left rings._ NORA _goes to the door
and opens it._

NORA: Good morning, Mr. Mifflin.

MIFFLIN [_entering_]: Good morning, Miss Gorodna.

[MIFFLIN _is a beaming man of forty, with gold-rimmed
eyeglasses and a somewhat grizzled beard which has been, a week
or so ago, a neatly trimmed Vandyke. He wears a "cutaway suit,"
not much pressed, not new; a derby hat, a standing collar, and
a "four-in-hand" dark tie; hard, round cuffs, not link cuffs.
He carries a folded umbrella, not a fashionable one; wears no
gloves; and has two or three old magazines and a newspaper
under his arm._]

MIFFLIN: I believe I'm here just to the hour, Miss Gorodna.

NORA: Mr. Gibson has b