SIGNORA CINI. Not a sufficient reason, if I may say so, Signorina. SIGNORA SIRELLI. Quite insufficient! There's more to it than that! SIRELLI. I have a new item for you, fresh, right off the ice: he keeps her locked up at home! AMALIA. His mother-in-law? SIRELLI. No, no, his wife! SIGNORA CINI. Under lock and key! DINA. There, Nunky, what have you to say to that? And you've been trying to defend him all along! SIRELLI (_staring in astonishment at Laudisi_). Trying to defend that man? Really.... LAUDISI. Defending him? No! I am not defending anybody. All I'm saying, if you ladies will excuse me, is that all this gossip is not worthy of you. More than that, you are just wasting your breath; because, so far as I can see, you're not getting anywhere at all. SIRELLI. I don't follow you, sir! LAUDISI. You're getting nowhere, my charming ladies! SIGNORA CINI. But we're trying to get somewhere--we are trying to find out! LAUDISI. Excuse me, what can you find out? What can we really know about other people--who they are--what they are--what they are doing, and why they are doing it? SIGNORA SIRELLI. How can we know? Why not? By asking, of course! You tell me what you know, and I tell you what I know. LAUDISI. In that case, madam, you ought to be the best informed person in the world. Why, your husband knows more about what others are doing than any other man--or woman, for that matter--in this neighborhood. SIRELLI (_deprecatingly but pleased_). Oh I say, I say.... SIGNORA SIRELLI (_to her husband_). No dear, he's right, he's right. (_Then turning to Amalia_): The real truth, Amalia, is this: for all my husband says he knows, I never manage to keep posted on anything! SIRELLI. And no wonder! The trouble is--that woman never trusts me! The moment I tell her something she is convinced it is not _quite_ as I say. Then, sooner or later, she claims that it _can't_ be as I say. And at last she is certain it is the exact opposite of what I say! SIGNORA SIRELLI. Well, you ought to hear all he tells me! LAUDISI (_laughing aloud_). Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! May I speak, madam? Let me answer your husband. My dear Sirelli, how do you expect your wife to be satisfied with things as you explain them to her, if you, as is natural, represent them as they seem to you? SIGNORA SIRELLI. And that means--as they cannot possibly be! LAUDISI. Why no, Signora, now you are wrong. From your husband's point of view things are, I assure you, exactly as he represents them. SIRELLI. As they are in reality! SIGNORA SIRELLI. Not at all! You are always wrong. SIRELLI. No, not a bit of it! It is you who are always wrong. I am always right.