Tea and Sympathy Read Free Page A

woman the way he did. She could have made him seem

awfully small if she'd wanted to.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
Well, I guess she wasn't that kind of woman. Now stand up. Let's see if

this fits.
     
     
(She rises with dress in her hands.)
     
     
     
     
TOM

(Gets up)
     
     
My Dad's going to hit the roof when he hears I'm playing another girl.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
I think you're a good sport not to mind. Besides, it's a good part.

Lady Teazle in The School For Scandal .
     
     
     
     
TOM

(Puts on top of dress)
     
     
It all started when I did Lady Macbeth last year. You weren't here yet

for that. Lucky you.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
I hear it was very good.
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
You should have read a letter I got from my father. They printed a picture

o{ me in the Alumni Bulletin , in costume. He was plenty peeved about it.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
He shouldn't have been.
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
He wrote me saying he might be up here today on Alumni Fund business.

If he comes over here, and you see him, don't tell him about this.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
I won't . . . What about your mother? Did she come up for the play?
     
     
(She helps him button the dress.)
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
I don't see my mother. Didn't you know?
     
     
(He starts to roll up pants legs.)
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
Why no. I didn't.
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
She and my father are divorced.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
I'm sorry.
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
You needn't be. They aren't. I was supposed to hold them together.

That was how I happened to come into the world. I didn't work. That's

a terrible thing, you know, to make a flop of the first job you've got

in life.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
Don't you ever see her?
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
Not since I was five. I was with her till five, and then my father took

me away. All I remember about my mother is that she was always telling me

to go outside and bounce a ball.
     
     
     
     
LAURA

(Handing him skirt of the d?ess)
     
     
You must have done something before Lady Macbeth. When did you play that

character named Grace?
     
     
     
     
TOM

(Stiffens)
     
     
I never played anyone called Grace.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
But I hear the boys sometimes calling you Grace. I thought . . .

(She notices that he's uncomfortable)

I'm sorry. Have I said something terrible?
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
No.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
But I have. I'm sorry.
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
It's all right. But it's a long story. Last year over at the movies, they

did a revival of Grace Moore in One Night of Love . I'd seen the revival

before the picture came. And I guess I oversold it, or something. But she

was wonderful! . . . Anyway, some of the guys started calling me Grace.

It was my own fault, I guess.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
Nicknames can be terrible. I remember at one time I was called "Beany." I

can't remember why, now, but I remember it made me mad.
     
     
(She adjusts the dress a little)
     
     
Hold still a moment. We'll have to let this out around here.
     
     
(She indicates the bosom)
     
     
What size do you want to be?
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
(He is embarrassed, but rather nicely, not obviously and farcically. In

his embarrassment he looks at LAURA's bosom, then quickly away)
     
     
I don't know. Whatever you think.
     
     
     
     
LAURA

(She indicates he is to stand on a small wooden footstool)
     
     
I should think you would have invited some girl up to see you act,

and then take her to the dance.
     
     
     
     
TOM

(Gets on stool)
     
     
There's nobody I could ask.
     
     
     
     
LAURA

(Working on hem of dress)
     
     
What do you mean?
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
I don't know any girls, really.
     
     
     
     
LAURA
     
     
Oh, certainly back home . . .
     
     
     
     
TOM
     
     
Last ten years I haven't been home, I mean really home. Summers my

father packs me off to camps, and the