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!
MARTIN. Glad you recognized it. Some people don't recognize themselves in profile.
TED. It's a good profile. The face is good.--But why the uniform?