KATE. Oh, stop it! That just isn't done! You don't know anything. You don't even know how I feel ... week after week giving Ted money. You've been in love with a man whose fond papa's supported him so you haven't had to soil your lovely ethics with dirty money. LAURA. Darling ... KATE. Don't darling me. And don't tell me what's decent and proper--and what isn't done! LAURA. I didn't mean ... KATE. You didn't mean anything because you don't know anything. But maybe you're going to learn.--Maybe now you're going to learn because this gang is breaking up. Not only because my man is a dead-bent, but because yours is broke.--So now maybe you'll try keeping a man and see how it feels! LAURA. Kate! [KATE _slams out, brushing_ KEN, _who enters, violently aside._] KEN. What's the matter with her? LAURA. Nothing. [KEN _hands sugar to_ TIPPY _and returns._] KEN. She didn't act like it was nothing. LAURA. She's going to leave Ted. KEN. Good! The man's a leech. LAURA. But he is so helpless. KEN. He won't starve. We have no jobs in America, but we don't starve. LAURA. Ken, are you in trouble? KEN. In trouble? LAURA. With your father? KEN. No. No, indeed--I merely sent dad's check back. It's time, don't you think? [_With elaborate unconcern._] And as for this arrangement here ... we're getting on each other's nerves. And Tippy ought to get out on his own. LAURA. And you? KEN. I, too. On my own. LAURA. But how? KEN. I don't know. But I'll manage somehow. LAURA. Oh, Ken ... KEN. Why don't you clear out like Kate? Forget me. I'm no good to you. I never will be. LAURA. Don't talk like that. KEN. It's true, Laura. Face it. [_She puts her arms around him._] LAURA. Ken, let's get married.--We've put it off too long. KEN. Married! LAURA. Not married then. But let's be together. Let's ... KEN. It's too late for that. If that was what we'd wanted it would have happened three years ago. LAURA. I love you more now than I did then. KEN. And I'm not saying I love you less. LAURA. Then? KEN. In the last three years I've seen a man I used to love and respect degenerate under my eyes, become a lousy parasite, living off a woman whose whole income isn't enough for her to live on decently. LAURA. How can you compare yourself to Ted? KEN. Good God, I don't! Yet Ted was once all right. LAURA. Ted expected the world to support him. He had nothing to give it. You have ability and ambition. You want to give things to the world. KEN. [_Flatly._] I want a job. LAURA. Of course you do, darling! KEN. [_Fiercely._] That's all I want. A job. I lay awake nights, saying over and over, "I want a job, a job, a job ..." LAURA. Oh, I know!