13INT. SARDI'S BAR - MAIN BAR AREA - CONTINUOUS

PT 1:

Hart leans forward to pull White more intimately into his story.

HART

Absolutely. It's important to me that I nail this down. It was a boiling hot summer weekend, and I asked, with all the casualness I could counterfeit, if she'd like to, you know, escape the heat of the city? Spend the weekend with me on Lake Dunmore in Vermont! And without a moment's hesitation she said, "I'd love to, Larry." Oh, I'm telling you, Andy, this is my type of girl. I'm sorry, excuse me, I'm babbling; but how else do you describe the actual present tense of falling in love?

ANDY WHITE

(gently)

Is that what this is?

HART

Maybe. I mean, I haven't done anything wrong, OK? I haven't violated the Mann Act or even the Middle-Aged Man Act. I bought her this painting of Lake Dunmore. Bought it off this old salt Vermonter. I bought it so that she might remember.

ANDY WHITE

I once did a little canoeing up around there.

LAWRENCE LANGNER, theatrical producer, passes by. We hear the RISING SOUND of the first-nighters entering the bar.

LANGNER

Hey, Larry.

ANDY WHITE

...And then?

HART

Act Three. Later that day. She's in the warmth of the cabin there's a pennant from Fort Ticonderoga pinned to the wall. She's wearing this blue men's work shirt with the sleeves rolled up: all of her suddenly available to me: this gift of youth and brain and clavicle...I touched her shoulder.... And as some hack once scribbled: "My heart stood still."

She took my hand and said, "Larry,

let's save this for another day."

And all I can tell you, my friend,

is there is a real possibility that

tonight is "another day."

PT 2:

The NOISE of the first-nighters has crescendoed with the appearance of the writers of