CLAIRE: I'm putting them on certain plants.

ELIZABETH: (weakly) Oh, I thought you took them off.

CLAIRE: (calling) Anthony! (he comes) The lice. (he takes them from her) (CLAIRE, who has not fully ascended, looks at ELIZABETH, hesitates, then suddenly starts back down the stairs.)

HARRY: (outraged) Claire! (slowly she re-ascends—sits on the top step. After a long pause in which he has waited for CLAIRE to open a conversation with her daughter.) Well, and what have you been doing at school all this time?

ELIZABETH: Oh—studying.

CLAIRE: Studying what?

ELIZABETH: Why—the things one studies, mother.

CLAIRE: Oh! The things one studies. (looks down cellar again)

DICK: (after another wait) And what have you been doing besides studying?

ELIZABETH: Oh—the things one does. Tennis and skating and dancing and—