to say or do
something to put a stop to----

EILEEN (_with a broken laugh_). Never mind. Everything will stop--soon,
now!

MURRAY (_suspiciously_). What do you mean?

EILEEN (_with an attempt at a careless tone_). Nothing. If you can't
see---- (_She turns to him with sudden intensity._) Oh, Stephen, if you
only knew how wrong you are about everything you've said. It's all
true; but it isn't that--any of it--any more--that's---- Oh, I can't
tell you!

MURRAY (_with great interest_). Please do, Eileen!

EILEEN (_with a helpless laugh_). No.

MURRAY. Please tell me what it is! Let me help you.

EILEEN. No. It wouldn't be any use, Stephen.

MURRAY (_offended_). Why do you say that? Haven't I helped before?

EILEEN. Yes--but this----

MURRAY. Come now! 'Fess up! What is "this"?

EILEEN. No. I couldn't speak of it here, anyway. They'll all be coming
out soon.

MURRAY (_insistently_). Then when? Where?

EILEEN. Oh, I don't know--perhaps never, nowhere. I don't know----
Sometime before you leave, maybe.

MURRAY. But I may go to-morrow morning--if I gain weight and Stanton
lets me.

EILEEN (_sadly_). Yes, I was forgetting--you were going right away.
(_Dully_). Then nowhere, I suppose--never. (_Glancing towards the
dining-room._) They're all getting up. Let's not talk about it any
more--now.

MURRAY (_stubbornly_). But you'll tell me later, Eileen? You must.

EILEEN (_vaguely_). Perhaps. It depends----

(_The patients, about forty in number, straggle in from the
dining-room by twos and threes, chatting in low tones. The men
and women with few exceptions separate into two groups, the
women congregating in the left right angle of chairs, the men
sitting or standing in the right right angle. In appearance, most
of the patients are tanned, healthy, and cheerful-looking. The
great majority are under middle age. Their clothes are of the
cheap, ready-made variety. They are all distinctly of the
wage-earning class. They might well be a crowd of cosmopolitan
factory workers gathered together after a summer vacation. A
hollow-chestedness and a tendency to round shoulders may be
detected as a common characteristic. A general air of tension,
marked by frequent bursts of laughter in too high a key, seems to
pervade the throng._ Murray _and_ Eileen, _as if to avoid contact
with the others, come over to the right in front of the