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BIFF: Gee, I don’t know—

WILLY: And don’t say “Gee.” “Gee” is a boy’s word. A man walking in for fifteen thousand dollars does not say “Gee”!

BIFF: Ten, I think, would be top though.

WILLY: Don’t be so modest. You always started too low. Walk in with a big laugh. Don’t look worried. Start off with a couple of your good stories to lighten things up. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it—because personality always wins the day.

LINDA: Oliver always thought the highest of him—

WILLY: Will you let me talk?

BIFF: Don’t yell at her, Pop, will ya?

WILLY [angrily]: I was talking, wasn’t I?

BIFF: I don’t like you yelling at her all the time, and I’m tellin’ you, that’s all.

WILLY: What’re you, takin’ over this house?

LINDA: Willy—

WILLY [turning on her]: Don’t take his side all the time, goddammit!

BIFF [ furiously]: Stop yelling at her!

WILLY [suddenly pulling on his cheek, beaten down, guilt ridden ]: Give my best to Bill Oliver—he may remember me. [He exits through the living-room doorway.]

LINDA [her voice subdued]: What’d you have to start that for? [BIFF turns away.] You see how sweet he was as soon as you talked hopefully? [She goes over to BIFF.] Come up and say good night to him. Don’t let him go to bed that way.

HAPPY: Come on, Biff, let’s buck him up.

LINDA: Please, dear. Just say good night. It takes so little to make him happy. Come. [She goes through the living-room doorway, calling upstairs from within the living-room.] Your pajamas are hanging in the bathroom, Willy!

HAPPY [looking toward where LINDA went out]: What a woman! They broke the mold when they made her. You know that, Biff?

BIFF: He’s off salary. My God, working on commission!

HAPPY: Well, let’s face it: he’s no hot-shot selling man. Except that sometimes, you have to admit, he’s a sweet personality.

BIFF [deciding]: Lend me ten bucks, will ya? I want to buy some new ties.

HAPPY: I’ll take you to a place I know. Beautiful stuff. Wear one of my striped shirts tomorrow.

BIFF: She got gray. Mom got awful old. Gee, I’m gonna go in to Oliver tomorrow and knock him for a—

HAPPY: Come on up. Tell that to Dad. Let’s give him a whirl. Come on.

BIFF [steamed up]: You know, with ten thousand bucks, boy!

HAPPY [as they go into the living-room]: That’s the talk, Biff, that’s the first time I’ve heard the old confidence out of you! [From within the living-room, fading off ] You’re gonna live with me, kid, and any babe you want just say the word . . . [The last lines are hardly heard. They are mounting the stairs to their parents’ bedroom.]

LINDA [entering her bedroom and addressing WILLY, who is in the bathroom. She is straightening the bed for him.] Can you do anything about the shower? It drips.

WILLY [ from the bathroom]: All of a sudden everything falls to pieces! Goddam plumbing, oughta be sued, those people. I hardly finished putting it in and the thing . . . [His words rumble off.]

LINDA: I’m just wondering if Oliver will remember him. You think he might?

WILLY [coming out of the bathroom in his pajamas]: Remember him? What’s the matter with you, you crazy? If he’d’ve stayed with Oliver he’d be on top by now! Wait’ll Oliver gets a look at him. You don’t know the average caliber any more. The average young man today—[he is getting into bed]—is got a caliber of zero. Greatest thing in the world for him was to bum around.

[BIFF and HAPPY enter the bedroom. Slight pause.]

WILLY [stops short, looking at BIFF]: Glad to hear it, boy.

HAPPY: He wanted to say good night to you, sport.

WILLY [to BIFF]: Yeah. Knock him dead, boy. What’d you want to tell me?

BIFF: Just take it easy, Pop. Good night. [He turns to go.]

WILLY [unable to resist]: And if anything falls off the desk while you’re talking to him—like a package or something —don’t you pick it up. They have office boys for that.

LINDA: I’ll make a big breakfast—

WILLY: Will you let me finish? [To BIFF] Tell him you were in the business in the West. Not farm work.

BIFF: All right, Dad.

LINDA: I think everything—

WILLY [ going right through her speech]: And