HARRY: (_cordially to_ CLAIRE, _who stands apart_) So you've really put it over. Well, well,--congratulations. It's a good deal of novelty, I should say, and I've no doubt you'll have a considerable success with it--people always like something new. I'm mighty glad--after all your work, and I hope it will--set you up. CLAIRE: (_low--and like a machine_) Will you all--go away? (ANTHONY _goes--into the other room._) HARRY: Why--why, yes. But--oh, Claire! Can't you take some pleasure in your work? (_as she stands there very still_) Emmons says you need a good long rest--and I think he's right. TOM: Can't this help you, Claire? Let this be release. This--breath of the uncaptured. CLAIRE: (_and though speaking, she remains just as still_) Breath of the uncaptured? You are a novelty. Out? You have been brought in. A thousand years from now, when you are but a form too long repeated, Perhaps the madness that gave you birth will burst again, And from the prison that is you will leap pent queernesses To make a form that hasn't been-- To make a person new. And this we call creation, (_very low, her head not coming up_) Go away! (TOM _goes_; HARRY _hesitates, looking in anxiety at_ CLAIRE. _He starts to go, stops, looks at_ DICK, _from him to_ CLAIRE. _But goes. A moment later_ DICK _moves near_ CLAIRE; _stands uncertainly, then puts a hand upon her. She starts, only then knowing he is there._) CLAIRE: (_a slight shrinking away, but not really reached_) Um, um. (_He goes_. CLAIRE _steps nearer her creation. She looks into what hasn't been. With her breath, and by a gentle moving of her hands, she fans it to fuller openness. As she does this_ TOM _returns and from outside is looking in at her. Softly he opens the door and comes in. She does not know that he is there. In the way she looks at the flower he looks at her._) TOM: Claire, (_she lifts her head_) As you stood there, looking into the womb you breathed to life, you were beautiful to me beyond any other beauty. You were life and its reach and its anguish. I can't go away from you. I will never go away from you. It shall all be--as you wish. I can go with you where I could not go alone. If this is delusion, I want that delusion. It's more than any reality I could attain, (_as she does not move_) Speak to me, Claire. You--are glad? CLAIRE: (_from far_) Speak to you? (_pause_) Do I know who you are? TOM: I think you do. CLAIRE: Oh, yes. I love you. That's who you are. (_waits again_) But why are you something--very far away? TOM: Come nearer. CLAIRE: Nearer? (_feeling it with her voice_) Nearer. But I think I am going--the other way. TOM: No, Claire--come to me. Did you understand, dear? I am not going away. CLAIRE: You're not going away? TOM: Not without you, Claire. And you and I will be together. Is that--what you wanted?