Summary

The action is continuous from the previous section of the scene. As he opens the suitcase, Public finds a piece of a newspaper, which Private recognizes as having been published while S.B. and Gar’s mother were on their honeymoon. As Private says a prayer for his mother Maire, Private recalls what Madge told Gar about her, i.e. that she was pretty, twenty years younger than S.B., and that she longed so hard for the youthful life she had lost that when she died, three years after giving birth to Gar, it might have been “good of God to take her away” (12). Stage directions suggest that “Public puts the newspaper carefully inside the folds of a shirt” (12) and then, as Private suddenly changes mood into playfulness, Public again starts singing the “Philadelphia Here I Come” song (12).

As Public searches...