BLANCHE: In him, that man that you live with! Mr. Jack Kiefaber! Don’t you think I realize what happened? He went to George and told him that I could be had without marriage! Do you know why he did that? Because he didn’t want me to marry George! And do you know why he didn’t want me to marry George? Because he wanted to have intimate relations with me himself. Yes, while you’re in the hospital having a baby, that is the horrible plan in the back of his mind! We’ll be alone here together, only those loose portieres separating our beds. And he’ll come stalking through them in his pajamas! [Throws back her head with a peal of wild laughter.] He’ll come marching through them in his red silk pajamas!—while you are being delivered of a new life . . . And I always wanted so badly—to keep myself—straight . . . [There is a long pause.]

GRACE: Blanche, you’re going to have to see a doctor.

BLANCHE: Yes. I knew you’d say that.

GRACE: I’ve been wondering for some time. Now I know.

BLANCHE: That lunacy has descended upon our house?

GRACE: That you’re in a very dangerous condition.

BLANCHE: Lunacy, Grace? Is it lunacy I’m charged with?

GRACE: I want to put my arms around you and cry but when you look at me like that I can’t come near you.

BLANCHE: It’s better you don’t. Lunatics do awful things. And there are several objects on this dresser with fairly sharp points. I’m driven beyond the point of desperation. To it and beyond it, my dear, sweet sister! I’ve lived in a nest of snakes for the past few weeks! I hear the whisperings going on at night between you and my sweet brother-in-law! The plots, the conspiracies, the plans! Machiavelli and Lucrezia Borgia in the outward and visible form of Mr. and Mrs. Kiefaber of 232 Esplanade!

GRACE: If you go on like this I am going to call an ambulance to come for you right this minute, so you sit down in that chair and hold your tongue, Blanche Shannon!

BLANCHE: Oh, yes, you’re not in the dark. You’re fully aware of all that’s been going on. You provided him with the information.

GRACE: What information?

BLANCHE: That I was asked to leave the high school in Blue Mountain!

GRACE: I had no idea that you were asked to leave it. Were you?