ACT II SCENE 2

 

[Aimée’s bedroom/The Happier Hunting Ground office. AIMÉE sits at her dressing table preparing for her evening out. She turns off her portable transistor radio when the phone rings.]

 

AIMÉE: Burbank 897.

[Lights up on DENNIS at The Happier Hunting Ground. He is alone]

 

DENNIS: Sweetheart.
AIMÉE: I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me.
DENNIS: Oh, come on now. It’s only been four days. I’ve been awfully busy, you know.
AIMÉE: So busy, you missed our date.
DENNIS: I’ll make it up to you. How about tonight?
AIMÉE: I’m going out to supper.
DENNIS: Who with?
AIMÉE: It’s a kind of celebration. Someone from work.
DENNIS: The Joyboy?
AIMÉE: Yes. I’ve been promoted. [SCHULTZ enters]

SCHULTZ: Dennis, have you seen the tapers? [DENNIS signals to him to keep quiet. SCHULTZ tiptoes out]
AIMÉE: Is there somebody with you? Dennis?
DENNIS: No – no. I’m still here. So, promotion and supper with the Joyboy. That should be amusing. How much is it worth?
AIMÉE: I don’t know. I didn’t go into the question.
DENNIS: It’s bound to be worth a hundred a week. 

AIMÉE: Oh, I don’t suppose anyone except Mr Joyboy gets that.

DENNIS: Well, fifty anyway. Fifty is pretty good. We could get married on that.
AIMÉE: What did you say?
DENNIS: Well, it can’t be less than fifty, can it?
AIMÉE: What makes you think I should suddenly marry you?
DENNIS: Aimee, darling, it’s only the money that’s been holding me back. Now you can keep me, there’s nothing to stop us.
AIMÉE: An American would despise himself for living off his wife.

DENNIS: Yes, but I’m European. There’s a difference. We have none of these prejudices in the older civilisations.
AIMÉE: I think you’re utterly contemptible!

 

[AIMÉE slams down the receiver. Blackout on DENNIS]

 

 

 

 

 

SONG: DECISION TIME

 

AIMÉE: Just who does he think he is? “It’s only the money that’s been holding me back”.

I SEE I’VE BEEN DUPED
A PUSH-OVER BRIDE
I MAY BE SIMPLE-MINDED
BUT I'VE NOTHING TO HIDE
WHAT'S IN IT FOR HIM
I HAVEN'T A DIME

TO MARRY JUST FOR MONEY

IS A TERRIBLE CRIME

 

[Furious now, she gets out pen and paper. Sitar motif returns]

 

GURU I’M WRITING A FINAL REPORT

THIS MÉNAGE À TROIS IS FAR WORSE THAN I THOUGHT
AND NOW I’VE AT LAST SEEN THE WOLF THROUGH THE TREES

I WOULDN'T SAY YES WOULD HE DO AS HE PLEASE

 

[Lights down on AIMÉE. Cross-fade to DENNIS and SCHULTZ]

 

SCHULTZ:

YOU’RE LEFT ON THE SHELF

A TWO-TIMING DAME
I'D LIKE TO FAULT MYSELF
IF YOU WEREN'T CLEARLY TO BLAME

 

SO SEND ROUND A NOTE

AND TELL HER FROM ME

SHE’S TOTALLY BEREFT YOU

OF YOUR DIGNITY

 

[SCHULTZ EXITS. DENNIS ponders it over. He rises from the desk and removes The Oxford Book of Verse from its hiding place. He thumbs through the pages]

DENNIS: [reading]

“How shall ever one like me / Win thee back again?”

“God set her brave eyes wide apart”

“So now my summer task is ended, Mary” – Aimee?

“With buttocks broad and – ” definitely not.

“Laid was she upon a sack / Strike soft, she said / Hurt not my back”

 

[DENNIS finds another poem, begins to type, speaking in rhythm to the music]

 

WHO – IS SYLVIA – WHAT – IS SHE

THAT ALL – OUR SWAINS – COMMEND HER –

HOLY FAIR – AND WISE – IS SHE

THE HEAVEN SUCH GRACE – DID LEND HER –

 

[He rips the sheet from the typewriter]

 

WHO THEN IS AIMÉE OH WHAT THEN IS SHE
THAT ALL HER ADMIRERS COMMEND HER TO ME
HOLIER FAIRER AND WISER IS SHE
THE HEAVEN DID LEND HER ADMIRÈD TO BE

 

[Slowly fade on DENNIS as he begins to copy it out in his own handwriting]