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Really I don’t. We just get along somehow. Oh, you needn’t feel so terribly sorry for me. I’ve changed. I’m not the girl that I used to be. Something has happened to me since I’ve been with Jim. Something terribly funny.
    MITCH : I can see that!
    LINDA : There’s something mysterious about this little place of ours—we call it our magic tower—when we’re in it together we’re perfectly happy. We haven’t a care in the world. You’d think that we were millionaires!
    MITCH : Poor Duchess! She’s gone off her nut!
    LINDA : You think I’m crazy?
    MITCH : Crazy? I’ll say so! Bergmann’s little pet she was! He pays her fifty a week and like that [
Snaps his fingers
.] she walks out on the show! Marries a poor punk in a red beret. . . .
    LINDA [
rising indignantly
]: He doesn’t wear a red beret!
    MITCH : Marries a poor punk that stands up naked for thirty cents an hour. . . .
    LINDA : He doesn’t stand up naked!
    MITCH : Well, anyway, you married him, didn’t you?
    LINDA : Yes, I married him! I was
crazy
about him!
    BABE : Hear that, Mitch? She WAS crazy about him, but she ain’t any more!
    LINDA [
smiling and walking over to window
]: Was, am, and always will be! [
She looks out
.] Still raining—my heavens! Jim will be drowned!
    BABE [
winking at Mitch while Linda’s back is turned
]: Honey, if you’re so
crazy
about this artist guy, why don’t you give him an even break?
    LINDA : What do you mean, an even break? I do everything that I can do to help Jim out! I wash his clothes, pose for him, mix his paints. . . .
    BABE : I don’t mean that. You know what I mean—he’ll never get nowhere tied to your apron strings!
    LINDA [
her face darkening
]: Tied to my apron strings?
    BABE : These artists never get married, honey, until they’ve made a success. They can’t afford to. It ruins their ca-
reer
!
    MITCH : Funny she ain’t thought of that herself! The Babe is right, Duchess! You gotta look at it that way—you don’t want to be a rock around this guy’s neck!
    LINDA : A rock around Jim’s neck? [
There is a minute of silence. Babe and Mitch eagerly studying the gathering darkness on Linda’s face
.]
    LINDA [
as if to herself
]: A rock—No , I couldn’t be that! [
She walks distractedly about the room
.]
    BABE [
harshly
]: That’s what you’ll be! Mark my word!
    MITCH [
following Linda
]: Babe’s right about it, Duchess! That’s the way you got to look at it! If you really love this guy . . .
    BABE [
eagerly
]: You don’t want to spoil his chances!
    LINDA [
clasping her ears
]: Stop! I won’t listen to any more of it! You’re just trying to ruin everything!
    BABE : Think of the future, Duchess!
    MITCH : Yeah, the future!
    BABE : You’re making an awful mistake, Honey, if you don’t consider . . .
    MITCH : You’ve got too much sense—
    LINDA : Oh, stop! Please. . . .
    BABE : Just think! If he wasn’t tied up what he could do!
    LINDA : Tied up? No!
    BABE : If he wasn’t tied up like this he could go to Europe and study in one of them fancy schools over there! That’s where all the real artists go!
    MITCH : Sure! They ain’t got a chance if they don’t!
    BABE : How old is he, Duchess? I bet he’s just a kid!
    MITCH : Listen! A smart young feller who ain’t tied up with no dame—
    BABE : He can always make his own way!
    LINDA : No, no! I couldn’t go on without Jim!
    BABE : Yes, you could, and you will. The show’s pulling out tonight. You’re going with us!
    LINDA : Oh, please—you’re making me dizzy!
    MITCH : We open tomorrow in Chicago. Play there one week. Then South to St. Louis. New Orleans for Mardi Gras time. After that we go West. A coast-to-coast tour!
    BABE : We play the Palace in Los Angeles. That’s just a couple of hops from Hollywood, kid! Say, with your talent and brains—
    MITCH : And her good looks!
    BABE : Bergmann always said—
    MITCH : She’ll
wow
them!
    BABE : You bet she will. Good old Duchess. She always did. You should’ve