TIPPY.  Look here, Kate, you’ll take care of Ted, won’t you?

KATE.  Why should I?

TIPPY. [Snappily.] As an investment.  Business is picking up.  Stocks are going up.  Culture is coming back.  More dogs are being washed.  Rare books will come next.

KATE.  So what?

TIPPY.  Ted was born a gentleman.  The rest of us merely went to
Harvard.

KATE.  Believe it or not.

TIPPY.  Katie, the coming revolution is poppycock.  What’s coming is the same damn thing we used to have.  And when it gets back it’ll take its old darlings back into its lap.  Ted is one of them.  So hold his hand a little longer.

[There is a hanging against the door with a foot. TIPPY opens door, and LAURA enters with a tall sack of groceries, which she shoves into TIPPY’S arms.]

LAURA.  Hello.  Where’s the gang?

TIPPY.  Some are in and some are out.

KATE.  We speak of Fortune and Dame Fortune walks in.

LAURA.  Bringing her own tea.

TIPPY.  Fortune.  Tea.  Ceres.  Cornucopia. [Drops bag on arm, posing as Goddess with the horn of plenty, and spewing groceries over the table, fruit rolling to floor.]

KEN. [Entering from bedroom.] What in ...?

TIPPY.  Tea.

KATE.  Thank God it wasn’t eggs.

LAURA. [To KEN.] Hello, darling.

[TIPPY retrieves groceries.]

KEN. [Severely.] What’s the idea, Laura?

LAURA.  What idea, honey?

KEN.  You promised to quit it.  There’s plenty of grub here.

LAURA.  But darling, I can’t eat canned baked beans.  My ulcer, you know.

KEN.  You haven’t any ulcer.

LAURA.  Nor any baby.  But doctors say nervous girls must be careful, or they’ll have both.

KEN.  Don’t be a fool.

[TIPPY starts with bag to kitchen, KATE following.  At door he warns her back.]

TIPPY.  The preparing of this tea must be a strictly masculine affair, [KATE gestures toward KEN and LAURA.] I’m sorry, but I want tea.  If a woman enters that kitchen, there won’t be tea.  There’ll be house-cleaning. [He goes in and bolts door behind him.  She tries it and finds it locked.  She pretends to be interested in drawings, KEN has turned away from LAURA and there is a pause.]

LAURA. [Casually.] Anything new, dear?

KEN. [Savagely.] No.  You always ask me that.

LAURA.  It doesn’t mean anything.  Just a little light conversation to kill that first awkward moment.

KEN.  It means, have I got a job.

LAURA.  Have you?

KEN.  No.

LAURA.  Well, you will have one.  And more than a job.  Some day somebody will accept your plans for fabricated houses.  And you’ll be rich and famous.

KEN.  If I kid myself, you needn’t.