[Then comes the heavy banjo whang of the guns firing from Garabitas Hill. It whishes in with a roar and bursts in the street outside the window, making a bright flash through the window]

DOROTHY. Oh darling, darling, darling.

PHILIP. [Holding her] Couldn’t you use some other term? I’ve heard you call so many people that.

[You hear the clanging of an ambulance. Then in the quiet the phonograph goes on playing the Mazurka as the——]

CURTAIN COMES DOWN

Act One  •  Scene Three

Rooms 109 and 110 in the Hotel Florida. The windows are open and sunlight is pouring in. There is an open door between them and over this door has been tacked, to the framework of the door, a large war poster so that when the door opens the open doorway is blocked by this poster. Still the door can open. It is open now, and the poster is like a large paper screen between the two rooms. There is a space perhaps two feet high between the bottom of the poster and the floor. In the bed in 109DOROTHY BRIDGESis asleep. In the bed in 110PHILIP RAWLINGSis sitting up looking out of the window. Through the window comes the sound of a man crying the daily papers. “El Sol! Libertad! El A.B.C. de Hoy!” There is a sound of a motor horn passing and then the distant clatter of machine-gun fire.PHILIPreaches for the telephone.

PHILIP. Send up the morning papers, please. Yes. All of them.

[He looks around the room and then out of the window. He looks at the war poster which shows transparent across the doorway in the bright morning sunlight.]

No.

[Shakes his head]

Don’t like it. Too early in the morning.

[There is a knock at the door]

Adelante.

[There is another knock]

Come in. Come in!

[The door opens. It is the MANAGER holding the papers in his hands]

MANAGER. Good morning, Mr. Philip. Thank you very much. Good morning to you all right. Terrible things last night, eh?

PHILIP. Terrible things every night. Frightful.

[He grins]

Let’s see the papers.

MANAGER. They tell me the bad news from the Asturias. Is almost finish there.

PHILIP. [Looking at the papers] Not in here though.

MANAGER. No, but I know you know.

PHILIP. Quite. I say, when did I get this room?

MANAGER. You don’t remember, Mr. Philip? You don’t remember last night?

PHILIP. No. Can’t say I do. Mention something and see if I recall it.

MANAGER. [In really horrified tones] You don’t remember, really?

PHILIP. [Cheerily] Not a thing. Little bombardment early in the evening. Chicote’s. Yes. Brought Anita around for a little spot of good clean fun. No difficulty with her, I hope?

MANAGER. [Shaking his head] No. No. Not with Anita. Mr. Philip, you don’t remember about Mr. Preston?

PHILIP. No. What was the gloomy beggar up to? Not suicide, I hope.