There is a fireplace in the back wall, bookcases, and upstage right double doors leading to another part of the house. Since there is no common room for the eight boys in this house, there is considerable leniency in letting the boys use the study whenever the door is left ajar.

 

 

The boy's bedroom is small, containing a bed, a chair and a bureau. It was meant to be Spartan, but the present occupant has given it a few touches to make it a little more homelike: an Indian print on the bed, India print curtains for the dormer window. There is a phonograph on the ledge of the window. The door to the room is presumed to lead to the sitting room which the roommates share. There is a door from the sitting room which leads to the stair landing. Thus, to get to the bedroom from the stairs, a person must go through the sitting room.

 

 

As the curtain rises, it is late afternoon of a day early in June. No lamps have been lighted yet so the study is in a sort of twilight.

 

 

Upstairs in his room, TOM LEE is sitting on his bed playing the guitar and singing softly and casually, the plaintive song, "The Joys of Love" . . . TOM is going on eighteen.

 

 

He is young and a little gangling, but intense. He is wearing faded khaki trousers, a white shirt open at the neck and white tennis sneakers.

 

 

Seated in the study listening to the singing are LAURA REYNOLDS and LILLY SEARS. LAURA is a lovely, sensitive woman in her mid to late twenties. Her essence is gentleness. She is compassionate and tender. She is wearing a cashmere sweater and a wool skirt. As she listens to TOM'S singing, she is sewing on what is obviously a period costume.

 

 

LILLY is in her late thirties, and in contrast to the simple effectiveness of LAURA'S clothes, she is dressed a little too flashily for her surroundings. . . . It would be in good taste on East 57th Street, but not in a small New England town. . . . A smart suit and hat and a fur piece. As she listens to TOM singing, she plays with the martini glass in her hand.

 

 

 

 

TOM (Singing)

 

 

The joys of love Are but a moment long . . . The pains of love Endure forever . . .

 

 

(When he has finished, he strums on over the same melody very casually, and hums to it intermittently.)

 

 

 

 

LILLY (While TOM is singing)

 

 

Tom Lee?

 

 

 

 

LAURA

 

 

Yes.

 

 

 

 

LILLY

 

 

Doesn't he have an afternoon class?

 

 

 

 

LAURA

 

 

No. He's the only one in the house that doesn't.

 

 

 

 

LILLY (When TOM has finished the song)

 

 

Do you know what he's thinking of?

 

 

 

 

LAURA (Bites off a thread and looks up)

 

 

What do you mean?

 

 

 

 

LILLY

 

 

What all the boys in this school are thinking about. Not only now in the spring, but all the time . .