BIGELOW--[Displeased but trying to smile it off.] The past is never past for a dog with a bad name, eh, Lily? [LILY laughs. BIGELOW gets up.] If you want to reward me for my truthfulness, Mrs. Jayson, help me take the kids for an airing in the car. I know it's an imposition but they've grown to expect you. [Glancing at his watch.] By Jove, I'll have to run along. I'll get them and then pick you up here. Is that all right? MARTHA--Fine. BIGELOW--I'll run, then. Good-by, Lily. [She nods. BIGELOW goes out rear.] MARTHA--[Cordially.] Come on over here, Lily. LILY--[Sits on couch with MARTHA--after a pause--with a smile.] You were forgetting, weren't you? MARTHA--What? LILY--That you'd invited all the family over here to tea this afternoon. I'm the advance guard. MARTHA--[Embarrassed.] So I was! How stupid! LILY--[With an inquisitive glance at MARTHA'S face but with studied carelessness.] Do you like Bigelow? MARTHA--Yes, very much. And Curt thinks the world of him. LILY--Oh, Curt is the last one to be bothered by anyone's morals. Curt and I are the unconventional ones of the family. The trouble with Bigelow, Martha, is that he was too careless to conceal his sins--and that won't go down in this Philistine small town. You have to hide and be a fellow hypocrite or they revenge themselves on you. Bigelow didn't. He flaunted his love-affairs in everyone's face. I used to admire him for it. No one exactly blamed him, in their secret hearts. His wife was a terrible, straitlaced creature. No man could have endured her. [Disgustedly.] After her death he suddenly acquired a bad conscience. He'd never noticed the children before. I'll bet he didn't even know their names. And then, presto, he's about in our midst giving an imitation of a wet hen with a brood of ducks. It's a bore, if you ask me. MARTHA--[Flushing.] I think it's very fine of him. LILY--[Shaking her head.] His reform is too sudden. He's joined the hypocrites, I think. MARTHA--I'm sure he's no hypocrite. When you see him with the children-- LILY--Oh, I know he's a good actor. Lots of women have been in love with him. [Then suddenly.] You won't be furious if I'm very, very frank, will you, Martha? MARTHA--[Surprised.] No, of course not, Lily. LILY--Well, I'm the bearer of a message from the Jayson family. MARTHA--[Astonished.] A message? For me? LILY--Don't think that I have anything to do with it. I'm only a Victor record of their misgivings. Shall I switch it going? Well, then, father thinks, brother John and wife, sister Esther and husband all think that you are unwisely intimate with this same Bigelow. MARTHA--[Stunned.] I? Unwisely intimate--? [Suddenly laughing with amusement.] Well, you sure are funny people! LILY--No, we're not funny. We'd be all right if we were. On the contrary, we're very dull and deadly. Bigelow really has a villainous rep. for philandering. But, of course, you didn't know that.