. . . All right. I'll see
you at the house then . . . Good-bye.
(LAURA looks at him, trying to understand him. BILL comes to her to speak
softly to her. Seeing him come, she holds out her arms to be embraced,
but he just takes her chin in his hand.)
BILL
Look, Laura, when I brought you here a year ago, I told you it was a
tough place for a woman with a heart like yours. I told you you'd run
across boys, big and little boys, full of problems, problems which for
the moment seem gigantic and heartbreaking. And you promised me then
you wouldn't get all taken up with them. Remember?
LAURA
Yes.
BILL
When I was a kid in school here, I had my problems too. There's a place
up by the golf course where I used to go off alone Sunday afternoons
and cry my eyes out. I used to lie on my bed just the way Tom does,
listening to phonograph records hour after hour.
(LAURA, touched by this, kneels at his side)
But I got over it, Laura. I learned how to take it.
(LAURA looks at him. This touches her)
When the headmaster's wife gave you this teapot, she told you what she
tells all the new masters' wives. You have to be an interested bystander.
LAURA
I know.
BILL
Just as she said, all you're supposed to do is every once in a while
give the boys a little tea and sympathy. Do you remember?
LAURA
Yes, I remember. It's just that . . .
BILL
What?
LAURA
This age -- seventeen, eighteen -- it's so . . .
BILL
I know.
LAURA
John was this age when I married him.
BILL
Look, Laura . . .
LAURA
I know. You don't like me to talk about John, but . . .
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