LAURA. All right, it's true. What he told you about yourself you
already knew. Everybody knew it. It was nothing but words and made
no real difference in your life. But you told him something about
himself that makes all the difference in the world--and has ruined
his life and mine. [_She rises._]

TED. I admit all that.

LAURA. [_Near hysteria._] Well, then, shut up! [_To escape from him
she goes into kitchen._]

MARTIN. [_Dryly, as he shades drawing._] The lady, it seems, would
have been quite satisfied if you had merely called her husband a
traitor to his country, a robber of blind widows, a bombastic
egotist, a thieving son-of-a-'bitch and a cock-eyed liar.

TED. [_Humorlessly._] It wasn't what I called him. It was what I
told him.

MARTIN. Precisely. The greater the truth the greater the libel. Ken
Holden, you see, wanted to be an adult lion among the little
monkeys, and you informed him that he was still an infant drawing
sustenance from parental sources.

TED. [_Sensing_ MARTIN'S _friendliness approaches him like a
friendless dog._] You understand, don't you, how he provoked me?

MARTIN. Perfectly.

TED. [_Sees sketch._] Why, that's me you're drawing!