HARRY: Claire! This is going a little too-- CLAIRE: Far? But you have to go far to--(_clinging to_ DICK) Only a place to hide your head--what else is there to hope for? I can't stay with them--piling it up! Always--piling it up! I can't get through to--he won't let me through to--what I don't know is there! (DICK _would help her regain herself_) Don't push me away! Don't--don't stand me up, I will go back--to the worst we ever were! Go back--and remember--what we've tried to forget! ADELAIDE: It's time to stop this by force--if there's no other way. (_the doctor shakes his head_) CLAIRE: All I ask is to die in the gutter with everyone spitting on me. (_changes to a curious weary smiling quiet_) Still, why should they bother to do that? HARRY: (_brokenly_) You're sick, Claire. There's no denying it. (_looks at_ EMMONS, _who nods_) ADELAIDE: Something to quiet her--to stop it. CLAIRE: (_throwing her arms around_ DICK) You, Dick. Not them. Not--any of them. DICK: Claire, you are overwrought. You must-- HARRY: (_to_ DICK, _as if only now realizing that phase of it_) I'll tell you one thing, you'll answer to me for this! (_he starts for_ DICK--_is restrained by_ EMMONS, _chiefly by his grave shake of the head. With_ HARRY_'s move to them,_ DICK _has shielded_ CLAIRE) CLAIRE: Yes--hold me. Keep me. You have mercy! You will have mercy. Anything--everything--that will let me be nothing! CURTAIN ACT III _In the greenhouse, the same as Act I._ ANTHONY _is bedding small plants where the Edge Vine grew. In the inner room the plant like caught motion glows as from a light within._ HATTIE, _the Maid, rushes in from outside._ ANTHONY: (_turning angrily_) You are not what this place-- HATTIE: Anthony, come in the house. I'm afraid. Mr Archer, I never saw him like this. He's talking to Mr Demming--something about Mrs Archer. ANTHONY: (_who in spite of himself is disturbed by her agitation_) And if it is, it's no business of yours. HATTIE: You don't know how he _is_. I went in the room and-- ANTHONY: Well, he won't hurt you, will he? HATTIE: How do I know who he'll hurt--a person's whose--(_seeing how to get him_) Maybe he'll hurt Mrs Archer. ANTHONY: (_startled, then smiles_) No; he won't hurt Miss Claire. HATTIE: What do you know about it?--out here in the plant house? ANTHONY: And I don't want to know about it. This is a very important day for me. It's Breath of Life I'm thinking of today--not you and Mr Archer. HATTIE: Well, suppose he does something to Mr Demming? ANTHONY: Mr Demming will have to look out for himself, I am at work. (_resuming work_) HATTIE: Don't you think I ought to tell Mrs Archer that-- ANTHONY: You let her alone! This is no day for her to be bothered by you. At eleven o'clock (_looks at watch_) she comes out here--to Breath of Life. HATTIE: (_with greed for gossip_) Did you see any of them when they came downstairs last night? ANTHONY: I was attending to my own affairs.