CLAIRE:  (the first resentment she has shown) You two feel very superior, don’t you?

ADELAIDE:  I don’t think we are the ones who are feeling superior.

CLAIRE:  Oh, yes, you are.  Very superior to what you think is my feeling of superiority, comparing my—­isolation with your ‘heart of humanity’.  Soon we will speak of the beauty of common experiences, of the—­Oh, I could say it all before we come to it.

HARRY:  Adelaide came up here to help you, Claire.

CLAIRE:  Adelaide came up here to lock me in.  Well, she can’t do it.

ADELAIDE:  (gently) But can’t you see that one may do that to one’s self?

CLAIRE:  (thinks of this, looks suddenly tired—­then smiles) Well, at least I’ve changed the keys.

HARRY:  ‘Locked in.’  Bunkum.  Get that our of your head, Claire.  Who’s locked in?  Nobody that I know of, we’re all free Americans.  Free as air.

ADELAIDE:  I wish you’d come and hear one of Mr Morley’s sermons, Claire.  You’re very old-fashioned if you think sermons are what they used to be.

CLAIRE:  (with interest) And do they still sing ’Nearer, my God, to Thee’?

ADELAIDE:  They do, and a noble old hymn it is.  It would do you no harm at all to sing it.

CLAIRE:  (eagerly) Sing it to me, Adelaide.  I’d like to hear you sing it.

ADELAIDE:  It would be sacrilege to sing it to you in this mood.

CLAIRE:  (falling back) Oh, I don’t know.  I’m not so sure God would agree with you.  That would be one on you, wouldn’t it?

ADELAIDE:  It’s easy to feel one’s self set apart!

CLAIRE:  No, it isn’t.

ADELAIDE:  (beginning anew) It’s a new age, Claire.  Spiritual values—­

CLAIRE:  Spiritual values! (in her brooding way) So you have pulled that up. (with cunning) Don’t think I don’t know what it is you do.

ADELAIDE:  Well, what do I do?  I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.

HARRY:  (affectionately, as CLAIRE is looking with intentness at what he does not see) What does she do, Claire?

CLAIRE:  It’s rather clever, what she does.  Snatching the phrase—­(a movement as if pulling something up) standing it up between her and—­the life that’s there.  And by saying it enough—­’We have life!  We have life!  We have life!’ Very good come-back at one who would really be—­’Just so! We are that.  Right this way, please—­’That, I suppose is what we mean by needing each other.  All join in the chorus, ’This is it!  This is it!  This is it!’ And anyone who won’t join is to be—­visited by relatives, (regarding ADELAIDE with curiosity) Do you really think that anything is going on in you?

ADELAIDE:  (stiffly) I am not one to hold myself up as a perfect example of what the human race may be.

CLAIRE:  (brightly) Well, that’s good.