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(
singing
) I know what you’re going through … and I want to take care of you.
    Wife bursts into Daughter’s space.
    DAUGHTER    (
cont.
) Doobedoobedoo … doobedoobedoo … take care of you … we never have to worry … we never have to pine … you’ve got to trust me (
really loud
) trust me … trust me.
    WIFE    Brandy.
    Daughter ignores her and goes on with her solo.
    DAUGHTER    (
singing
) Without a woman … without a girl … without a woman … (
speaking voice
) what town is it … (
singing
) without a woman without a woman.
    Wife turns to Henry as if he is there.
    WIFE    (
loudly
) You see what your fornicating has done to this family, this child.
    Daughter takes off fur coat. She is wearing a skimpy slip.
    DAUGHTER    (
coy voice
) Daddy … Daddy did I tell you I lost it … my cherry was popped … it was with Nathan … itwas so (
searching
) nothing. I kept saying to him, “Is it over, is it over?” … now we do it wherever we get the chance … I’m very good at it … sex is not all it’s cracked up to be but it’s terrific not to be a virgin … virgin sucks. Sucks.
    WIFE    Jesus.
    S CENE E IGHTEEN
    MISTRESS    I was asked to do a reading of his play—
The Winter Maze.
Very grand apartment. I played the older woman and Rebecca played my rival … There were two males, the nice guy and the shit. People sat on chairs and cushions, the cream, the cognoscenti … Pauline, on a high throne, very relaxed, the sphinx. Afterward people said such adoring things to him, people gloated over him, women were gushing, telling him how great he was, how deep, how moving. He had thrown me the odd bashful smile and then he came over and said, “What did you think?” and I said, “It was good Henry … but it doesn’t cut the mustard.” He was appalled. I knew it was curtains because I knew that above and beyond what the shits and the cognoscenti said, that he had his own doubts about it. People were watching us, nudging, and Pauline the sphinx was sitting up commanding. I tried to make amends. I tried to give him back to himself, but it was too late. He did something ugly. A poodle kept sniffing around his ankle, just would not abstain, and he called across and said, “Pauline, can you get this bitch off me?”
    WIFE    (
commandingly
) What’s going on between you two?
    MISTRESS    He told her, said, “Clarissa thinks it doesn’t cut the mustard.”
    WIFE    (
going to her
) Oh really … and how do you come to that conclusion?
    MISTRESS    I can’t lie to him … I don’t lie to him about his work.
    WIFE    You think I do. You think he would have stayed with me all these years if I lied to him about what matters most to him in this world? You do us a disservice, my dear. Henry weighs every single word, a master jeweler, weighing his precious golds and his precious gems. Moreover, in case you think he stays with me because of my money you are also mistaken: Henry is a very independent man and I am not his purse. (
goes toward Mistress gloatingly
) You do know he does a real fine imitation of you for after-dinner guests. (
miming
) Your dying fall, the little flick of your wrists, your nasal sensitivity.
    Mistress cowers.
    S CENE N INETEEN
    MISTRESS    I had to come out of
As You Like It
.
    WIFE    Struck poor Celia across the cheek, a hard nasty blow.
    MISTRESS    Her acting was false, mincing … the director took …
    WIFE    … Took you aside, sat you down …
    MISTRESS    Said I needed time off. Time off … I who dreaded leisure. What to do. I walked …
    WIFE    She walked.
    MISTRESS    Got to know Manhattan … the smells, the heat belching up out of the grids … trumpet, trombone, theghost hands of the homeless