of the guests arrive. Marge Moore is the life of the party, enjoying the food and company while making jokes about her heavyset figure. When no one immediately volunteers for Fitzgerald's "party game," he picks Marge as the first to listen to the piano. As the piano plays Debussy's "Clair de lune", Marge goes into a trance, identifying herself as a little girl named Tina who loves to dance ballet. Fitzgerald encourages her to demonstrate, and she does so, prompting laughter from all of the party guests except Esther and Gregory. With further prompting, Marge speaks dreamily about her desire to be a tiny, "perfectly formed" snowflake, melting in the hand of a man who loves her. The guests stop laughing while Fortune continues to roar with glee. The song ends, and a humiliated Marge takes her seat. Fitzgerald has Esther insert a new roll, which he claims will "bring out the devil" among them. He hands her a roll for the song "Melody in F," but she secretly switches rolls. The piano begins to play Brahms's Lullaby. The music makes Fitzgerald speak in a petulant, frightened voice. At the guests' prompting, he admits that, deep down, he is a selfish and spoiled child who is terrified of everything and everyone. Lashing out at everyone and hurting them because it's the only means of expressing himself he knows and fearing they will hurt him first if he doesn't. He confesses that he humiliated Marge because he is jealous of her eagerness for life despite her insecurities and deliberately wrote bad reviews of Gregory's plays out of pure spite when he should have praised them because he's jealous of his talent. Feeling pity for him, the guests leave without comment. Fitzgerald makes his final confession: he treated Esther with coldness and cruelty because he lacks the emotional maturity to receive and reciprocate her love. Gregory asks Esther to leave with him, and she does so, leaving Fitzgerald alone. Fitzgerald, distraught at being abandoned, feels insulted and throws a tantrum, destroying furniture and decorations in the room. He ends his tirade by ripping the roll from the piano, ending the piano's spell on him. As he kneels on the ground, Marvin enters; remembering his earlier confession, Fitzgerald orders Marvin not to laugh at him. A somber Marvin replies, "I'm not laughing, Mr. Fortune. You're not funny anymore." Closing narration Cast Barry Morse