there,
I've never pulled the mantle of my fears around me
And called it loneliness--And called it God.
Only with life that waits have I kept faith.

(_with effort raising her eyes to the man_)

And only you have ever threatened me.

TOM: (_coming to her, and with strength now_) And I will threaten you.
I'm here to hold you from where I know you cannot go. You're trying what
we can't do.

CLAIRE: What else is there worth trying?

TOM: I love you, and I will keep you--from fartherness--from harm. You
are mine, and you will stay with me! (_roughly_) You hear me? You will
stay with me!

CLAIRE: (_her head on his breast, in ecstasy of rest. Drowsily_) You can
keep me?

TOM: Darling! I can keep you. I will keep you--safe.

CLAIRE: (_troubled by the word, but barely able to raise her head_)
Safe?

TOM: (_bringing her to rest again_) Trust me, Claire.

CLAIRE: (_not lifting her head, but turning it so she sees Breath of
Life_) Now can I trust--what is? (_suddenly pushing him roughly away_)
No! I will beat my life to pieces in the struggle to--

TOM: To _what_, Claire?

CLAIRE: Not to stop it by seeming to have it. (_with fury_) I will keep
my life low--low--that I may never stop myself--or anyone--with the
thought it's what _I_ have. I'd rather be the steam rising from the
manure than be a thing called beautiful! (_with sight too clear_) Now I
know who you are. It is you puts out the breath of life. Image of
beauty--_You fill the place--should be a gate._ (_in agony_) Oh, that it
is _you_--fill the place--should be a gate! My darling! That it should
be you who--(_her hands moving on him_) Let me tell you something. Never
was loving strong as my loving of you! Do you know that? Oh, know that!
Know it now! (_her arms go around his neck_) Hours with you--I'd give my
life to have! That it should be you--(_he would loosen her hands, for he
cannot breathe. But when she knows she is choking him, that knowledge is
fire burning its way into the last passion_) It _is_ you. It is you.

TOM: (_words coming from a throat not free_) Claire! What are you doing?
(_then she knows what she is doing_)

CLAIRE: (_to his resistance_) No! You are _too much_! You are _not
enough_. (_still wanting not to hurt her, he is slow in getting free. He
keeps stepping backward trying, in growing earnest, to loosen her hands.
But he does not loosen them before she has found the place in his throat
that cuts off breath. As he gasps_)