[_Wistfully._] It would be beautiful to be a poet. [_Pause._] I will come back later. [_Picks up suit-case._ OSCAR Just leave that if you aren’t going to be using it in the meantime. THE WOMAN [_Putting it down near the door._] Oh, thank you. I see you are a kind young man. OSCAR That is not the general opinion. THE WOMAN I wonder why it is that the general opinion is so often wrong? [_Stands considering it for a moment, then goes out._ OSCAR I don’t quite understand that woman. [_TOM comes back._ TOM If this paper can’t go on, I ought to know it. I could get a job on the _Evening World_. [_Oscar continues writing._] Can it go on? OSCAR I don’t see how it can, but many a time I haven’t seen how it could--and it did. Doubtless it will go on, and will see days so much worse than these that we will say, “Ah, the good old days of March, 1917.” TOM But can it pay salaries? OSCAR [_Shocked._] Oh, no, I think not; but we must work because we love our work. TOM We must eat because we love our food. OSCAR You’ll know soon. There’s to be a meeting here this morning. [_Enter SARA. TOM goes into the other room. SARA has the appearance of a young business woman and the simple direct manner of a woman who is ready to work for a thing she believes in._ SARA Ed not here yet? OSCAR No. SARA Did he get any money? OSCAR Doesn’t look like it. He was snappish over the phone. Guess he’s for giving it up this time. SARA I don’t want to give it up. [_She takes a seat at the table where OSCAR is writing and unfolds a manuscript she has brought with her._ OSCAR Well, it’s not what we want, it’s what people want, and there aren’t enough of them who want us. SARA The fault must lie with us. OSCAR I don’t think so. The fault lies with the failure to-- [_THE ARTIST has entered._ ARTIST I’ll tell you where the fault lies. We should give more space to pictures and less to stupid reading matter. OSCAR We have given too much expensive white paper to pictures and too little to reading matter--especially to poetry. That’s where the fault lies. [_Enter EDWARD WILLS, editor._ ED I’ll tell you where the fault lies. [_Points first to THE ARTIST, then to OSCAR._] Here! Just this! Everybody plugging for his own thing. Nobody caring enough about the thing as a whole. OSCAR [_Rising._] I’ll tell you where the fault lies. [_Points to ED._] Here! This. The Editor-in-chief returning from a long trip and the first golden words that fall from his lips words of censure for his faithful subordinates. SARA How are you Ed? ED Rotten. I hate sleeping cars. I always catch cold. SARA Any luck? ED [_His hand around his ear._] What’s the word? [_Enter THE EARNEST APPROACH._ EARNEST APPROACH I have heard that you may have to discontinue. ED [_Sitting down at his desk, beginning to look through his mail._] It seems we might as well. EARNEST APPROACH