The Professor's sitting room at 1 a.m. Enter Ibiye in night gown.

IBIYE: (Looks at the clock.) This is a full hour past midnight and this man is yet to return from office. What kind of work is he doing at this time of the night? Is he the only worker in the world? Well, enough is enough.

(Enter Fayemi. Ibiye glares at him silently.)

PROF.: What now, woman? Why do you regard me in such a malevolent way? What's wrong.

IBIYE: You! Something is definitely wrong with you. Just come and sit down here. I want to talk to you.

PROF.: Alright. (Sits opposite her.) Now, what's the problem?

IBIYE: My husband, it’s time I had a serious talk with you about our relationship in this house. I know that you regard me as being lower than the filth that corrupts the cleanliness of your house. Yet, you cannot deny that I'm a human being like you, with feelings. Barren I may be, but it is only my womb that is barren and not my humanity.

PROF.: I know. I know.

IBIYE: Why do you then treat me like a plague of infectious disease to be avoided lest infected? There’s a limit to human endurance. If you don't change your ways, I shall pack my bags and baggage and return to my father's house. Perhaps then you will come to realize the worth of my presence in this house.

(Fayemi is taken aback by the sudden vehemence of his hitherto submissive wife.)

PROF: You do me a great injustice by accusing me of treating you like filth and avoiding contact with you. My lateness, as you most surely know, is caused by the on going examination that demands that I stay in the office till late in the night to mark some papers. I'm sorry you feel bad about it, my dear. I shall try my best to come in earlier.

IBIYE: Are you sure that it’s in your office you stay every night? What’s in this rumour that says you’re having an affair with one useless girl called Elizabeth?

FAYEMI: (Shocked.) It's a lie! A callous bloody lie! How can I have such a beautiful wife as you at home and still run after useless girls?

IBIYE: Don't ask me. But let me warn you, the day I catch you with any girl....

(She storms out of the room, leaving the sentence hanging in the air.)

PROF.: Ibiye! Ibiye! Ibiye! She’s gone. Hmn, my erring legs are now straying toward the quicksand region. I better take care or all hell will break. (Fayemi goes in.)