SIGNORA SIRELLI (_literally writhing with curiosity_). Yes, of course, since they saw you all alone by yourself, and yet ... excuse me, Signora Frola ... if the question doesn't seem impertinent ... how is it that when you have a daughter here in town and after a disaster like the one you have been through ... I should think you people would all stand together, that you would need one another. SIGNORA FROLA. Whereas I am left here all by myself? SIRELLI. Yes, exactly. If does seem strange, to tell the honest truth. SIGNORA FROLA. Oh, I understand--of course! But you know, I have a feeling that a young man and a young woman who have married should be left a good deal to themselves. LAUDISI. Quite so, quite so! They should be left to themselves. They are beginning a life of their own, a life different from anything they have led before. One should not interfere in these relations between a husband and a wife! SIGNORA SIRELLI. But there are limits to everything, Laudisi, if you will excuse me! And when it comes to shutting one's own mother out of one's life.... LAUDISI. Who is shutting her out of the girl's life? Here, if I have understood the lady, we see a mother who understands that her daughter cannot and must not remain so closely associated with her as she was before, for now the young woman must begin a new life on her own account. SIGNORA FROLA (_with evidence of keen gratitude and relief_). You have hit the point exactly, sir. You have said what I would like to have said. You are exactly right! Thank you! SIGNORA CINI. But your daughter, I imagine, often comes to see you.... SIGNORA FROLA (_hesitating, and manifestly ill at ease_). Why yes ... I ... I ... we do see each other, of course! SIRELLI (_quickly pressing the advantage_). But your daughter never goes out of her house! At least no one in town has ever seen her. SIGNORA CINI. Oh, she probably has her little ones to take care of. SIGNORA FROLA (_speaking up quickly_). No, there are no children yet, and perhaps there won't be any, now. You see, she has been married seven years. Oh, of course, she has a lot to do about the house; but that is not the reason, really. You know, we women who come from the little towns in the country--we are used to staying indoors much of the time. AGAZZI. Even when your mothers are living in the same town, but not in your house? You prefer staying indoors to going and visiting your mothers? AMALIA. But it's Signora Frola probably who visits her daughter. SIGNORA FROLA (_quickly_). Of course, of course, why not! I go there once or twice a day. SIRELLI. And once or twice a day you climb all those stairs up to the fifth story of that tenement, eh?