HILDEGARDE. What am I to do?

CULVER. I don't know. ( With meaning .) Think what the sagacious Sampson Straight would do, and do that.

(Hildegarde gives a sharp look first at Culver, and then at Tranto, and exit, back .)

CULVER ( turning to Tranto). My dear fellow, the war is practically over.

TRANTO. Good heavens! There was nothing on the tape when I left the Club.

CULVER. Oh! I don't mean your war. I mean the twenty-two years' war.

TRANTO. The twenty-two years' war?

CULVER. My married life. Over! Finished! Napoo!

TRANTO. Do you know what you're saying?

CULVER. Look here, Tranto. You and I don't belong to the same generation. In fact, if I'd started early enough I might have been your father. But we got so damned intimate last night, and I'm in such a damned hole, and you're so damned wise, that I feel I must talk to you. Not that it'll be any use.