THE DAUGHTER. Why don't you smile?—I burned it because it ridiculed what is holy to me.
THE LAWYER. Which is unholy to me! Yah! [Strikes one clenched fist against the open palm of the other hand] I smile, I smile so that my wisdom teeth show—Of course, I am to be nice, and I am to swallow my own opinions, and say yes to everything, and cringe and dissemble! [Tidies the curtains around the bed] That's it! Now I am going to fix things until you get angry again—Agnes, this is simply impossible!
THE DAUGHTER. Of course it is!
THE LAWYER. And yet we must endure—not for the sake of our promises, but for the sake of the child!
THE DAUGHTER. You are right—for the sake of the child. Oh, oh—we have to endure!
THE LAWYER. And now I must go out to my clients. Listen to them—how they growl with impatience to tear each other, to get each other fined and jailed—Lost souls!
THE DAUGHTER. Poor, poor people! And this pasting!
[She drops her head forward in dumb despair.
CHRISTINE. I paste, I paste.
THE LAWYER stands at the door, twisting the door-knob nervously.