"Arthur's been very reasonable about any suggestions thus far," Stuart said, "so I can't imagine…"
"That's right," Oscar said.
"… him refusing to make a few minor changes now, when we're so close to getting the play on at last."
'That's right."
"We're dealing with a professional writer here," Stuart said, and smiled at Arthur.
"Well, thank you," Arthur said. He started to put his hand on Hester's knee, and then changed his mind. She looked very lovely, with her blond hair still arranged in its careless coiffure, and wearing a blue sheath scooped low in the front, a string of pearls around her throat. She smiled at Arthur assuringly, and he lifted his glass and sipped at it and began to feel a warmth spreading through him, a genuine feeling of fondness for all the people at the table, including fat Mitzi, who had put down her drink and was blowing her nose into a tiny handkerchief. She had still not removed the mink coat, and she still seemed to be suffering from exposure.
"Well now," she said, giving her nose a final wipe and putting the handkerchief back into her pocket, "I think we should start with the age of the girl, don't you think so, Hester?"
"Yes," Hester said, "I think that's important."
"Important, but minor. Hester's twenty-five, you know, and whereas she comes off a bit younger onstage, we think we'd be asking for trouble if she tried to pass for nineteen."
"Well. " Arthur said.
"That's right, we don't want the critics to start picking on stupid little things," Oscar said. "They'll find enough anyway, without any help from us."
"So we thought the girl's age might be raised to twenty-two or twenty-three," Mitzi said. "That would be more reasonable, in terms of Hester playing the part."
"Well, there's a lot of stuff in the play about her nineteenth birthday coming up," Arthur said. "I'd have to…"
"So it'll be her twenty-third birthday coming up," Oscar said. "That's no problem."
"No, but she's supposed to be leaving for college in the fall."
"Yes, we—"
"In fact, the conflict, you know, is between this girl who wants to go to college and…"
"Yes, that's a problem, admittedly."
"… her uneducated father, a Bronx mailman who, you know, wants her to marry this guy and settle down. That's the conflict."
"Yes, we know."
"So she'd have to be a college girl, you see."
"Well, she can be a college girl at twenty-two," Stuart said.
"That's right."
"She can just be graduating college maybe," Stuart said, "and she wants to go to graduate school or something, and her father objects. That could be exactly the same."
"Well. " Arthur said.
"Of course, Hester played a college girl in the last thing she did at the Rep," Mitzi said.
"Mmm," Stuart said.
"If she keeps playing college girls. " Mitzi said, and shrugged.
"Well, Carol is a college girl," Arthur said. "That's the part. I mean, that's the part."
"The way it is now, yes," Mitzi said.
"But we'd have to make her older," Hester said. "Don't you think so, Arthur?"
"I don't know. I think you could pass for nineteen," he said, and decided to squeeze her knee after all, which he did.
"That's very sweet of you, Arthur," she said, and smiled, "but I think the girl has to be older."
"She's supposed to be a virgin," Arthur said. "Do you know any twenty-two-year-old virgins?"
"I don't even know any seven-year-old virgins," Oscar said, and laughed.
Mitzi laughed too, and then said, "Actually, she doesn't have to be a virgin, does she? That really doesn't add anything to the play."
"Well, there's an entire scene where…"
"Yes, with the boy…"
"Yes, the one her father wants her to marry…"
"That's right."
"And he tries to, well, to lay her, you know, and this is another thing that adds to the conflict of this girl trying to lead her own life without interference from her father or from the people her father has chosen for her."
"The boy, you mean?"
"Yes. So the scene has meaning only if she's a virgin, you know, and is, well, saving herself for… for the person she chooses."
"Well, do you think girls actually save themselves anymore, Arthur?" Mitzi asked, and smiled.
"I don't know, but Carol is supposed to be…"
"I mean, you said yourself not three minutes ago that you didn't know any twenty-two-year-old virgins."
"Carol's only eighteen, going on nineteen. I think…"
"There's a difference, certainly," Stuart said. "But, Arthur, is it really that important that she be a virgin?"
"Or even a college girl?" Hester asked.
"What?"
"Is it important that she plans to leave for college in the fall?"
"Sure it is."
"Why?"
"Because that's the conflict."
"Yes, but the conflict can be any conflict, isn't that true? So long as it's between the girl and her father."
"I think we all need another drink," Oscar said, and signaled to the waiter. "Mitzi? Hester?"
"Yes, I'm still cold," Mitzi said.
"I'd love another," Hester said, and smiled at Arthur.
"The same all around," Oscar said to the waiter.
"Double for the lady?"
"Yes, a double," Mitzi said.
"We ought to think about ordering," Stuart said.
"Oh, we've got plenty of time. Let's thrash this out, shall we?" Mitzi said. "I know Mr. Constantine is anxious to hear our views, and we're certainly anxious to know his reactions to them. I can't make a move with the Rep, you know, until…"
"Certainly," Stuart said. "What do you think, Arthur?"
"Well… about changing Carol's age, do you mean?"
"About having her a little more experienced," Stuart said.
"A nice girl," Mitzi said, "but a little more experienced."
"So she's been to bed with one or two guys already," Oscar said. "That doesn't make her a slut."
"A dozen guys wouldn't make her a slut," Stuart said.
"A dozen?" Arthur asked.
"Well, I don't think that's exactly the image we want for Hester," Mitzi said. "Arthur's right in that respect. We want Carol to be a sweet and confused young girl. If we have her sleeping around with half the men in the city…"
"I was only trying to indicate…"
"I think she may have had one affair," Hester said. "She is twenty-two, you know, going on twenty-three. It would seem implausible otherwise."
"One affair sounds reasonable," Stuart said. "What do you think, Arthur?"
"I'm trying to think of the whole," Arthur said. "We've got to think of what any revisions would do to the whole of the play. I really feel it's important that she be a virgin."
"Here're the drinks," Stuart said.
The waiter put their glasses on the table, and they all drank silently for a moment. Mitzi blew her nose again, and then said, "It's just that a girl like Carol who has, after all, been around a little…"
"But she hasn't," Arthur said. "Her father's kept her cooped up in—"
"Well, a social worker would get to meet a great many people," Mitzi said. "Isn't that so?"
"A great many people," Hester said.
"What do you mean?"
"A social worker."
"I still don't get you."
"If Carol were a social worker," Mitzi said.
"Instead of a college girl," Hester said. "Working for a state agency, you see. Or even a private agency."