JIM [laughing and returning to the couch with his magazine]: Poor old Linda! It’s all just make-believe, isn’t it?

LINDA: Make-believe? Of course it isn’t! It’s absolutely real.

JIM: You can’t tell me you don’t find this life pretty dull after the excitement of the show business. Moving around from place to place all the time. . . .

LINDA: What makes you think I found moving around from place to place exciting?

JIM: Didn’t you? I should think you’d have found it terribly exciting!

LINDA: Terribly is right. Just like being tied to the tail of a runaway horse.

JIM: Hmmm. I’d have liked it. Do you know, I’ve never been outside this city. I’ve grown up in the middle of it. All this ugliness. Mmmm. I’d give anything to have been the places you’ve been. At least you’ve got that. Memories. Things to look back on. . . .

LINDA: Memories. Yes. I have lots of those. Some of them aren’t so swell.

JIM: And now it’s all narrowed down to just this one little room. You must get awfully tired of it. . . .

LINDA: If I tell you something very seriously will you promise to take my word for it?

JIM: What?

LINDA: In this little room I’ve been completely happy for the first and only time in my life! [She sets the iron on its end.] Pull the cord out, will you, Jim. The iron’s getting too hot.

JIM [obeying this direction]: Hmmm. You really mean that, Linda?

LINDA: Of course I mean it. I’m completely happy here.

JIM [stretching out on the couch]: Why?

LINDA: I don’t know.

JIM: It isn’t a very handsome room.

LINDA: No.

JIM: The wallpaper is atrocious.

LINDA: Yes.

JIM: Nothing very grand about the furnishings.

LINDA: No.

JIM: Too hot in summer. Too cold in winter. The roof leaks in— [counting wet spots on floor] —one, two, three places!

LINDA: Yes.

JIM [filling his pipe]: What is it then?

LINDA [smiling to herself]: I think you know.

JIM: Something very supernatural I suppose.

LINDA: No. Something very natural. [She places more ironed pieces in bureau drawers.]

JIM [laughing]: Well, I give up.

LINDA: I’m surprised at your stupidity. What else could make me completely happy but just—our being here together like this. You and I. A few feet of space between us, that’s all!

JIM: So that’s why you’re happy!

LINDA: Yes. That’s why I’m happy. So you see it wasn’t just make-believe about the magic tower. When two people make their own world there is something rather magical about it, don’t you think?

JIM: And did you mean it about the tower falling to pieces when I go out?

LINDA: Yes, I meant that, too. When you go out—when you just go out of this room for a moment—something happens.

JIM [laughing]: The spell is broken!

LINDA: Yes. The spell is broken. I begin to look around me and I say to myself, “What atrocious wall paper! How damp the air is! If the roof continues to leak at this rate I shall have to learn how to swim before dark!”