Four hundred boys from the ages of thirteen to nineteen.
That's the age, Laura. (Restless, getting up) Doesn't it give
you the willies sometimes, having all these boys around?
LAURA
Of course not. I never think of it that way.
LILLY
Harry tells me they put saltpeter in their food to quiet them down.
But the way they look at you, I can't believe it.
LAURA
At me?
LILLY
At any woman worth looking at. When I first came here ten years ago,
I didn't think I could stand it. Now I love it. I love watching them
look and suffer.
LAURA
Lilly.
LILLY
This is your first spring here, Laura. You wait.
LAURA
They're just boys.
LILLY
The authorities say the ages from thirteen to nineteen . . .
LAURA
Lilly, honestly!
LILLY
You sound as though you were in the grave. How old are you?
LAURA
(Smiling)
Over twenty-one.
LILLY
They come here ignorant as all get out about women, and then spend
the next four years exchanging misinformation. They're so cute, and so
damned intense.
(She shudders again.)
LAURA
Most of them seem very casual to me.
LILLY
That's just an air they put on. This is the age Romeo should be played.
You'd believe him! So intense! These kids would die for love, or almost
anything else. Harry says all their themes end in death.
LAURA
That's boys.
LILLY
Failure; death! Dishonor; death! Lose their girls; death! It's gruesome.
LAURA
But rather touching too, don't you think?
LILLY
You won't tell your husband the way I was talking?
LAURA
Of course not.
LILLY
Though I don't know why I should care. All the boys talk about me. They
have me in and out of bed with every single master in the school --
and some married ones, too.
LAURA
(Kidding her)
Maybe I'd better listen to them.
LILLY
Oh, never with your husband, of course.
LAURA
Thanks.
LILLY
Even before he met you, Bill never gave me a second glance. He was all
the time organizing teams, planning Mountain Club outings.
LAURA
Bill's good at that sort of thing; he likes it.
LILLY
And you?
(LAURA looks up at LILLY and smiles)
Not a very co-operative witness, are you? I know, mind my own business.
But watch out he doesn't drag his usual quota of boys to the lodge in
Maine this summer.
LAURA
I've got my own plans for him.
(She picks up some vacation folders.)
LILLY
Oh really? What?
LAURA
"Come to Canada" . . . I want to get him off on a trip alone.
LILLY
I don't blame you.
LAURA
(Reflecting)
Of course I'd really like to go back to Italy. We had a good time there
last summer. It was wonderful then. You should have seen Bill.
LILLY
Look, honey, you married Bill last year on his sabbatical leave, and
abroad to boot. Teachers on sabbatical leave abroad are like men in
uniform during the war. They never look so good again.
LAURA
Bill looks all right to me.
LILLY
Did Bill ever tell you about the party we gave him before his sabbatical?
LAURA
Yes. I have a souvenir from it.
(She is wearing a rather large Woolworth's diamond ring on a gold chain
around her neck . . . She now pulls it out from her sweater.)
LILLY
I never thought he'd use that Five-and-Dime engagement ring we gave him
that night. Even though we gave him an awful ribbing, we all expected him
to come back a bachelor.
LAURA
You make it sound as though you kidded him into marrying.
LILLY
Oh, no, honey, it wasn't that.
LAURA
(With meaning)
No, it wasn't.
(LAURA laughs at LILLY.)
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