- Howard Wilton: [after Ruth has deliberately sprinkled debris on the floor he's just been cleaning, on his hands and knees] You think I'm funny?
- Ruth Williams: Not particularly.
- Howard Wilton: I don't like being laughed at.
- Ruth Williams: Well, aren't *you* the bundle of nerves! Listen, you. I don't see many men around polishing floors. It's a woman's job. Who do you think you are? Seems to me there's better ways for a *man* to make a living.
- Howard Wilton: Mrs. Gordon...
- Mrs. Helen Gordon: Yes?
- Howard Wilton: Have I done anything to hurt you?
- Mrs. Helen Gordon: No. Of course you haven't.
- Howard Wilton: I'm glad. Because I wouldn't want to hurt you. But I might, you know.
- Mrs. Helen Gordon: I don't believe that. You're just not feeling well, that's all.
- Howard Wilton: [haltingly] You don't know what it means... like I do... to find myself in the... middle of a room... the middle of a busy street... or in some house I'm working in. A thing like that happens, I wonder where I am... what I'm doing. And sometimes I'm... I'm looking down at someone... somebody that's been hurt. And they've been hurt very badly. And I wonder if *I've* done it, if what I'm looking at is real or, it's only in my mind. Then I begin to run. I hide. But I don't know what I'm hiding from. It's bad enough to hide, but... not to know what you're hiding from. There are days when I pick up a newspaper, and I see that somebody's been murdered. And I ask myself... could I have been there at that time? Could I have done this thing? Where was I yesterday? What causes these blank spaces? What causes them?
- Mrs. Helen Gordon: [frightened] I don't know... I don't know... I don't know. Perhaps if we get a doctor...
- [makes a run for the door to get away]