KEN. I don't think about you when I lie awake at night. I don't think how nice it would be to have you there in my arms. All I think about is a job. If it were a choice between you and a job I'd take the job.--What's the use of kidding ourselves any longer? [_She is silent. He goes on desperately._] I'm not the same fellow I was three years ago. People slam doors in my face. Do you understand? They look at me. They see my clothes, my eyes.... They're antagonized before they speak to me,--just as people are to a beggar. They say "no" before I ask for anything. No, no, no. They say it as if I were asking for charity instead of a job. "Nothing for you." "Sorry." "Nothing today."--It makes a beggar out of you! [TIPPY _enters, carrying tea tray_.] TIPPY. Hello! Where's the rest of the tea party? [_Neither answers._] Well, we'll have double portions, that's nice. LAURA. Tippy, doesn't your world ever fall out from under you? TIPPY. Certainly not! [_Pause._] LAURA. [_With forced gayety._] I say, where's Martin? TIPPY. Can it be that _you_ are asking for Martin! LAURA. Uh-huh. I'm ready for him to turn me into a Communist. TIPPY. That _is_ news!--Where did Kate go? LAURA. To make a date with her boss. He's sixty and rich--and serious. TIPPY. No kidding?--No, my world doesn't drop out from under me. It merely turns wrong side out in my hand.--Your tea, Ken. It contains teaffein, which stimulates the heart but quiets the nerves. Teaffein in tea is the same as caffein in coffee. But under the profit system we don't know that yet--because no one has invented a teaffeinless tea. [KEN _accepts sandwich and tea and tries to be a sport and make the party._] KEN. I wouldn't need Martin to turn me into a Communist. All I'd have to do would be to knock out the partition in the middle of my brains and let the left side mingle with the right. TIPPY. As if your brains weren't muddled enough already! [MARTIN _bursts in, carrying two Soviet posters. Leaves door ajar._] MARTIN. Hey, fellows, see what I've got! [_He hangs one up while the others are inspecting the first._] LAURA. It's ugly. KEN. I like them. Why can't Americans make ugly things look beautiful? TIPPY. [_To_ MARTIN.] Sow your seed now, Soviet sower. The powers of darkness have been fertilizing the ground. [TIPPY _takes thumb tacks and bottle of red ink and goes to kitchen._] KEN. A Soviet poster compared to an American lithograph is like a Soviet film compared with the stuff they grind out in Hollywood. MARTIN. By God, you're right.--It's the same in all the arts. LAURA. [_Hysterically jovial._] 'Fess up, Ken. Who's been taking you to American movies? KEN. I still remember some I saw during Hoover's administration. You don't mean they've changed them? MARTIN. Only the revolution will change that tripe. LAURA. Gently, Martin. I just told Tippy I was all ripe to turn Communist. But let's enter by the Socialist door. I don't like revolutzia. It's bloody.