SIGNORA FROLA (_growing pale and trying to conceal under a laugh the torture of that cross-examination_). Why ... er ... to tell the truth, I don't go up. You're right, five flights would be quite too much for me. No, I don't go up. My daughter comes out on the balcony in the courtyard and ... well ... we see each other ... and we talk! SIGNORA SIRELLI. And that's all, eh? How terrible! You never see each other more intimately than that? DINA. I have a mama and certainly I wouldn't expect her to go up five flights of stairs to see me, either; but at the same time I could never stand talking to her that way, shouting at the top of my lungs from a balcony on the fifth story. I am sure I should want a kiss from her occasionally, and feel her near me, at least. SIGNORA FROLA (_with evident signs of embarrassment and confusion_). And you're right! Yes, exactly ... quite right! I must explain. Yes ... I hope you people are not going to think that my daughter is something she really is not. You must not suspect her of having so little regard for me and for my years, and you mustn't believe that I, her mother, am ... well ... five, six, even more stories to climb would never prevent a real mother, even if she were as old and infirm as I am, from going to her daughter's side and pressing her to her heart with a real mother's love ... oh no! SIGNORA SIRELLI (_triumphantly_). There you have it, there you have it, just as we were saying! SIGNORA CINI. But there must be a reason, there must be a reason! AMALIA (_pointedly to her brother_). Aha, Lamberto, now you see, there _is_ a reason, after all! SIRELLI (_insisting_). Your son-in-law, I suppose? SIGNORA FROLA. Oh please, please, please, don't think badly of _him_. He is such a very good boy. Good is no name for it, my dear sir. You can't imagine all he does for me! Kind, attentive, solicitous for my comfort, everything! And as for my daughter--I doubt if any girl ever had a more affectionate and well-intentioned husband. No, on that point I am proud of myself! I could not have found a better man for her. SIGNORA SIRELLI. Well then.... What? What? _What?_ SIGNORA CINI. So your son-in-law is not the reason? AGAZZI. I never thought it was his fault. Can you imagine a man forbidding his wife to call on her mother, or preventing the mother from paying an occasional visit to her daughter? SIGNORA FROLA. Oh, it's not a case of forbidding! Who ever dreamed of such a thing! No, it's we, Commendatore, I and my daughter, that is. Oh, please, believe me! We refrain from visiting each other of our own accord, out of consideration for him, you understand.