You don’t know what you’re _telling_ me! You don’t know _what_ you’re doing. You do this _now_--after she can do nothing? [_Holding out her hands._] Abbie! Tell me it isn’t true! ABBIE It’s true. MARGARET You are telling me her life was _hate_? [_Stops, half turns to the room where CRAIG is with Bernice._] You are telling me she covered hate with--with the beauty that was like nothing else? Abbie! _You_ are telling me that as Bernice left life she _held out her hands_ and asked you to take _this_ back for her? ABBIE There are things we can’t understand. There’s no use trying. [_She turns to go._ MARGARET You can’t leave me like this! ABBIE [_More gently._] You shouldn’t have tried to know. But--if you have _got_ to know things--you have got to take them. [_CRAIG comes out; ABBIE goes._ CRAIG Go in there, Margaret. There’s something wonderful there. MARGARET [_Turned from him, her face buried in her hands._] Oh no--no--no. I can _never_ go in there. I--I never _was_--in there. [_Her other words are lost in wild sobbing. He stands regarding her in wonder, but not losing what he himself has found._ (CURTAIN) ACT THREE SCENE: _The same as in Acts One and Two; it is early afternoon of the next day; the door leading outdoors is a little open; when the curtain is drawn CRAIG is seen outside, just passing the window, as one who is walking back and forth in thinking. In the room are LAURA and the FATHER--the FATHER sitting at the table by the stairs--LAURA, standing, watches CRAIG pass the door; she has in her hand a paper on which are some memoranda. After watching CRAIG she sighs, looks at her notes, sits down._ LAURA I’m sorry to be troubling you, Mr. Allen. Certainly you should not be asked to discuss these matters about--arrangements. But really, you and I seem the only people who are capable of going on with things. I must say, I don’t know what to make of everyone else. They all seem to be trying to--keep away from one. I think that’s a little unnecessary. Of course I know what grief does, and I’m sure I have every consideration for that, but really--I’m sorry Craig keeps his own sister out. When I’m here to help him. And Abbie--why she seems to have lost her head. Just when it’s so important that she look after things. And as to Margaret Pierce--she certainly is worse than useless. I don’t see what she came for if she didn’t want to be helpful. FATHER Margaret and Bernice were very dear friends, Laura. LAURA Is that any reason for not being helpful in Bernice’s household at a time like this? Really I do like control. [_After looking at her notes._] Then the minister will come here at three, Mr. Allen. Why that will be little more than an hour! Think of things having been neglected like this! [_As CRAIG, having turned in his walk, is again passing the door._] Craig! [_He steps to the door._] The minister, Mr. Howe, will come here, Craig, at three. CRAIG What for? LAURA Craig! What _for_? CRAIG