Summary

When the lights come back up, Public and Private are alone in the bedroom. As Public finishes packing and closes up his suitcase, Private again taunts him. As he makes sarcastic comments about the kind of over-fussy care Lizzy is going to give him, Public sings the “Philadelphia” song to drown him out. As Private accuses him of agreeing to go “on account of the day it was” and “because she said you were an O’Donnell – ‘cold like’” (52), Public becomes increasingly angry, telling him to shut up. Private mimics a child calling for its mother.

Public storms out of the bedroom and shouts for Madge. Private urges Public to admit that he does not really want to go. Public asks Madge for his coat, which he says he has misplaced. Madge takes it down from where it has been hanging in...