HARRY: Well, what is there to trouble Claire? Now I ask you. It seems to me she has everything. TOM: She's left so--open. Too exposed, (_as_ HARRY _moves impatiently_) Please don't be annoyed with me. I'm doing my best at saying it. You see Claire isn't hardened into one of those forms she talks about. She's too--aware. Always pulled toward what could be--tormented by the lost adventure. HARRY: Well, there's danger in all that. Of course there's danger. TOM: But you can't help that. HARRY: Claire was the best fun a woman could be. Is yet--at times. TOM: Let her be--at times. As much as she can and will. She does need that. Don't keep her from it by making her feel you're holding her in it. Above all, don't try to stop what she's doing here. If she can do it with plants, perhaps she won't have to do it with herself. HARRY: Do what? TOM: (_low, after a pause_) Break up what exists. Open the door to destruction in the hope of--a door on the far side of destruction. HARRY: Well, you give me the willies, (_moves around in irritation, troubled. To_ ANTHONY, _who is passing through with a sprayer_) Anthony, have any arrangements been made about Miss Claire's daughter? ANTHONY: I haven't heard of any arrangements. HARRY: Well, she'll have to have some heat in her room. We can't all live out here. ANTHONY: Indeed you cannot. It is not good for the plants. HARRY: I'm going where I can _smoke_, (_goes out_) DICK: (_lightly, but fascinated by the idea_) You think there is a door on the--hinter side of destruction? TOM: How can one tell--where a door may be? One thing I want to say to you--for it is about you. (_regards_ DICK _and not with his usual impersonal contemplation_) I don't think Claire should have--any door closed to her. (_pause_) You know, I think, what I mean. And perhaps you can guess how it hurts to say it. Whether it's--mere escape within,--rather shameful escape within, or the wild hope of that door through, it's--(_suddenly all human_) Be good to her! (_after a difficult moment, smiles_) Going away for ever is like dying, so one can say things. DICK: Why do you do it--go away for ever? TOM: I haven't succeeded here. DICK: But you've tried the going away before. TOM: Never knowing I would not come back. So that wasn't going away. My hope is that this will be like looking at life from outside life. DICK: But then you'll not be in it. TOM: I haven't been able to look at it while in it. DICK: Isn't it more important to be in it than to look at it? TOM: Not what I mean by look. DICK: It's hard for me to conceive of--loving Claire and going away from her for ever. TOM: Perhaps it's harder to do than to conceive of. DICK: Then why do it? TOM: It's my only way of keeping her. DICK: I'm afraid I'm like Harry now. I don't get you. TOM: I suppose not. Your way is different, (_with calm, with sadness--not with malice_) But I shall have her longer. And from deeper. DICK: I know that.