As the curtain rises, we see Laura still lying huddled on the sofa. Just as the others are finishing dinner, the lights go out, but Amanda calmly lights the candles and asks Jim if he would check on the fuses. She realizes that Tom probably didn’t pay the light bill, so as punishment she makes him help with the dishes while Mr. O’Connor keeps Laura company. She asks him to take Laura a little wine to drink.
As Jim O’Connor approaches Laura, she sits up nervously. But Jim casually sits on the floor and asks Laura if she doesn’t like to sit on the floor. He then chews some gum and offers her some. He asks her frankly why she is shy and refers to her as “an old-fashioned type of girl.” When Laura asks him if he has kept up with his singing, Jim then remembers that they knew each other in high school. When Laura mentions that she was always late for their singing class because she was crippled and her brace clumped so loudly, Jim maintains that he never noticed it. He thinks that Laura was too self-conscious.
Laura brings out the high school year book which has pictures of Jim singing the lead role in an operetta. Laura tells Jim that she always wanted to ask him to autograph her book, but he was so terribly popular. Jim gallantly signs it for her now. When Laura asks Jim about his high school girl friend, he tells her that it was just rumor. Jim wonders what Laura has done since high school. She tells him about the business college and begins to tell about her glass collection; then Jim interrupts her and explains how she has an inferiority complex. When he finishes, Laura shows him her glass collection. Even though Jim is afraid that he will break one, Laura tells him that he can handle them. She even shows him her prize—her glass unicorn which is thirteen years old. Jim wonders if the unicorn doesn’t feel strange since it is so different. Laura tells him that the unicorn doesn’t complain and seems to get along nicely with the other animals.
Jim hears some music from the neighboring dance hall and asks Laura to dance. Even though she protests that she can’t, Jim insists and during the dance, they stumble against the table and they break the horn off the unicorn. Laura maintains now that it is like the other horses. Jim tries to tell Laura how different she is—that she has a charm that is as different as “blue roses.” He then says that someone should kiss Laura, and he leans over and kisses her. Almost immediately he knows that he has done the wrong thing, and he tells her that he shouldn’t have kissed her because he is engaged to be married in the next month. After he finishes with his explanation, Laura gives him the broken unicorn. At this point Amanda enters with a pitcher of lemonade. After flitting about and chattering, she is about to leave when Jim explains that he has to go because he is engaged. Amanda is surprised and says that Tom didn’t tell them that Jim was engaged. Jim explains that no one knows it yet, and then he leaves.
Amanda then calls Tom and accuses him of playing a joke on them by bringing home an engaged man. Even though Tom protests that he didn’t know Jim was engaged, Amanda refuses to believe him. She holds Tom responsible for all of the expense involved in entertaining the gentleman caller and tells Tom that he is a selfish dreamer who never thinks about his “mother deserted and an unmarried sister who’s crippled and has no job.” So Tom does leave. But as the scene closes, Tom says that even though he left, he could never forget his sister. Wherever he goes, he still thinks about her.
