Laura offers to clear the table but Amanda tells her to go study her typewriter chart or practice her shorthand. She must stay fresh and pretty, Amanda says gaily, for the callers who will no doubt be arriving soon. Tom groans. Laura opines that none will come. She's simply not as popular as her mother once was. Tom groans again at this humiliating exchange. Laura tells Tom that their mother is afraid that she (Laura) will end up an old maid. The lights dim as the "Glass Menagerie" theme music plays.
An image of blue roses appears on the screen as the scene begins. Laura is polishing her collection of glass as Amanda mounts the steps outside. Amanda's face shows the evidence that something has happened. When Laura hears Amanda, she hides her ornaments and plants herself in front of a diagram of a keyboard.
Amanda goes through a melodramatic routine of tearing up the keyboard diagram and speaking vaguely about deception before Laura can extract what exactly has happened. Amanda did not go to her Daughters of the American Revolution meeting because she stopped by Rubicam Business College to speak to Laura's teachers. The teachers there informed her that Laura had not come to class since the first day, when she had some sort of nervous breakdown and became physically ill. What, Amanda wants to know, has Laura been doing from half past five till after seven every day this winter. Walking, says Laura, going to the zoo, to the tropical plant house, occasionally to the movies. Amanda wants to know why Laura has done all this to deceive her. Laura replies that she can't endure the suffering look Amanda wears when she is disappointed.
Amanda wonders in a hopeless tone what will become of them if Laura refuses a "business career"; will they play with the glass menagerie and listen to Father's old records all day? Will they become begrudged spinsters dependent on some in-law? The alternative is marriage.
