all.
-Can't be done, Mr. Birnam.
-Can't?
Let me guess why.
My brother was here, undermining my financial structure.
I didn't tell him nothing about the wrist watch
you left here, or your cuff links.
Today, you'll be glad to know,
we can barter on a cash basis.
-One straight rye.
-That was the idea.
Don't wipe it away, Nat.
Let me have my little vicious circle.
You know the circle is the perfect geometric figure.
No end, no beginning...
-What time is it?
-Quarter of four.
Good. We have the whole afternoon together.
Will you let me know when it's a quarter of six.
It's very important.
I'm going to the country for a weekend with my brother.
You better take this along, Don. It's going to be cold on the farm.
Hello, Mr. Birnam.
Happy to have you back with the organization.
Hello, Gloria.
I wish I could take you along, Nat.
You...and all that goes with you.
Not that I'm cutting myself off from civilization altogether.
Now of course there arises the problem
of transportation into the country.
How to smuggle these two time bombs past the royal guard.
I'll roll one bottle in a copy of the Saturday Evening Post,
so my brother can discover it like that.
And I want him to discover it,
because that'll set his mind at ease.
The other bottle...Come here.
That one I'm tucking into my brother's suitcase.
He shall transport it himself,
without knowing it, of course.
Then, while he's greeting the caretaker,
I'll slide it out
and hide it in a hollow of the old apple tree.
Aw, Mr. Birnam, why don't you lay off
the stuff for a while?
Well, I may never touch it
while I'm there. Not a drop.
What you don't understand, all you you...
is that I've got to know it's around.
That I can have it if I need it. .
I can't be cut off completely. That's the devil.
That's what drives you crazy
Yeah. I know. I know a lot of guys like that.
They take a bottle and put it on the shelf.
All they want is just to look at it.
They won't even carry a corkscrew along,
just to make sure.
Then, all of a sudden...
they grab the bottle and bite off the neck.
Nat, one more reproving word
and I shall consult our lawyer about a divorce.
Now don't forget, quarter of six.
My brother must find me home, ready and packed.
Shall we dance?
-You're awfully pretty, Mr. Birnam.
-I bet you tell that to all the boys.
Why, natch. Only with you it's on the level.
-Yeah. Sit down.
-No thanks. Thanks a lot, but no thanks.
-There's somebody waiting.
-Him?
I bet he wears arch supporters.
Oh. He's just an old friend of the folks.
Lovely gentleman.
He buys me dimpled Scotch.
He sould buy you Indian rubies,
and a villa in Calcutta overlooking the Ganges.
Don't be ridic.
Gloria, please...
why imperil our friendship
with these loathsome abbreviations.
I could make myself free for later on, if you want.
No Gloria, I'm going away for the weekend.
Some other time.
Any time.
Just crazy about the back of your hair.
Nat, weave me another.
You'd better take it easy.
Oh. Don't worry about me.
Just let me know when it's a quarter of six.
Come on, Nat. Join me. Just one little jigger of dreams.
No thanks.
You don't approve of drinking?
Not the way you drink.
It shrinks my liver, doesn't it, Nat?
It pickles my kidNeys.
Yes. But what does it do to my mind?
It tosses the sandbags overboard
so the balloon can soar.
Suddenly, I'm above the ordinary.
I'm competent, supremely competent.
I'm walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls.
I'm one of the great ones.
I'm Michelangelo molding the beard of Moses.
I'm Van Gogh, painting pure sunlight.
I'm Horowitz, playing the Emperor Concerto.
I'm John Barrymore before the movies got him by the throat.
I'm Jesse James and his two brothers, all three of them.
I'm W. Shakespeare.
And out there it's not Third Avenue any longer.
It's the Nile, Nat.
The Nile and down it moves the barge of Cleopatra.
Come here.
Purple the sails, and so perfumed
that the winds were love-sick