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WILLY: I’m so lonely.

THE WOMAN: You know you ruined me, Willy? From now on, whenever you come to the office, I’ll see that you go right through to the buyers. No waiting at my desk any more, Willy. You ruined me.

WILLY: That’s nice of you to say that.

THE WOMAN: Gee, you are self-centered! Why so sad? You are the saddest, self-centeredest soul I ever did see-saw. [She laughs. He kisses her.] Come on inside, drummer boy. It’s silly to be dressing in the middle of the night. [As knocking is heard] Aren’t you going to answer the door?

WILLY: They’re knocking on the wrong door.

THE WOMAN: But I felt the knocking. And he heard us talking in here. Maybe the hotel’s on fire!

WILLY [his terror rising]: It’s a mistake.

THE WOMAN: Then tell him to go away!

WILLY: There’s nobody there.

THE WOMAN: It’s getting on my nerves, Willy. There’s somebody standing out there and it’s getting on my nerves!

WILLY [pushing her away from him]: All right, stay in the bathroom here, and don’t come out. I think there’s a law in Massachusetts about it, so don’t come out. It may be that new room clerk. He looked very mean. So don’t come out. It’s a mistake, there’s no fire.

[The knocking is heard again. He takes a few steps away from her, and she vanishes into the wing. The light follows him, and now he is facing YOUNG BIFF, who carries a suitcase. BIFF steps toward him. The music is gone.]

BIFF: Why didn’t you answer?

WILLY: Biff! What are you doing in Boston?

BIFF: Why didn’t you answer? I’ve been knocking for five minutes, I called you on the phone—

WILLY: I just heard you. I was in the bathroom and had the door shut. Did anything happen home?

BIFF: Dad—I let you down.

WILLY: What do you mean?

BIFF: Dad . . .

WILLY: Biffo, what’s this about? [Putting his arm around BIFF] Come on, let’s go downstairs and get you a malted.

BIFF: Dad, I flunked math.

WILLY: Not for the term?

BIFF: The term. I haven’t got enough credits to graduate.

WILLY: You mean to say Bernard wouldn’t give you the answers?

BIFF: He did, he tried, but I only got a sixty-one.

WILLY: And they wouldn’t give you four points?

BIFF: Birnbaum refused absolutely. I begged him, Pop, but he won’t give me those points. You gotta talk to him before they close the school. Because if he saw the kind of man you are, and you just talked to him in your way, I’m sure he’d come through for me. The class came right before practice, see, and I didn’t go enough. Would you talk to him? He’d like you, Pop. You know the way you could talk.

WILLY: You’re on. We’ll drive right back.

BIFF: Oh, Dad, good work! I’m sure he’ll change it for you!

WILLY: Go downstairs and tell the clerk I’m checkin’ out. Go right down.

BIFF: Yes, sir! See, the reason he hates me, Pop—one day he was late for class so I got up at the blackboard and imitated him. I crossed my eyes and talked with a lithp.

WILLY [laughing]: You did? The kids like it?

BIFF: They nearly died laughing!

WILLY: Yeah? What’d you do?

BIFF: The thquare root of thixthy twee is . . . [WILLY bursts out laughing; BIFF joins him.] And in the middle of it he walked in!

[WILLY laughs and THE WOMAN joins in offstage.]

WILLY [without hesitation]: Hurry downstairs and—

BIFF: Somebody in there?

WILLY: No, that was next door.

[THE WOMAN laughs offstage.]

BIFF: Somebody got in your bathroom!

WILLY: No, it’s the next room, there’s a party—

THE WOMAN [enters, laughing. She lisps this]: Can I come in? There’s something in the bathtub, Willy, and it’s moving!

[WILLY looks at BIFF, who is staring open-mouthed and horrified at THE WOMAN.]

WILLY: Ah—you better go back to your room. They must be finished painting by now. They’re painting her room so I let her take a shower here. Go back, go back . . . [He pushes her.]

THE WOMAN [resisting]: But I’ve got to get dressed, Willy, I can’t—

WILLY: Get out of here! Go back, go back . . . [Suddenly striving for the ordinary] This is Miss Francis, Biff, she’s a buyer. They’re painting her room. Go back, Miss Francis, go back . . .

THE WOMAN: But my clothes, I can’t go out naked in the