(Pepang glances round the room, her eyes stopping at PORTRAIT. Looking at it, she comes forward and stands before it, with a half-wistful, half-mocking smile.)
When the 1940s came along, I had become a finished product of my Age. I accepted it completely, and I believed in it. It was a hard world but it was the truth—and I wanted nothing but the truth.
(ENTER MANOLO MARASIGAN from the doorway at right. He glances towards Pepang as he goes to table and helps himself to her cigarettes. Having lighted one, he comes forward too, and stands beside her, gazing up at PORTRAIT.)
I had rejected the past and I believed in no future—only the present tense was practical. That was the way I thought—until that October afternoon—that afternoon I first went back to the Marasigan house, the afternoon I
