Scene 2. The Lanyer kitchen—a clean, spacious room that has clearly seen better days. Lucinda Lanyer, a woman of elegant posture, wearing a once-fine but now faded dress, is seated at the table when Betty, a local woman, enters. BETTY. I did all I could, Miss Lucinda. You really need to call Doc Stevens.
LUCINDA. [firmly] That I shall not do.
BETTY. I'm sure he won't charge you a fee with the child so poorly.
LUCINDA. [straightening further in the chair] The Lanyers do not take handouts, Betty, especially Doc Stevens’s handouts. Not with that wife of his, Maude Stevens—why, she’d be delighted to tell the whole town!
BETTY. Now, Miss Lucinda, you’re not the only one! There’s misfortune to spare going around nowadays. So many out of work, so many losing money in the banks and the stock market and all. It’s a Great Depression, like they say.
LUCINDA. Yes, but one thing President Franklin Roosevelt has told us in this Depression is that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. So I'll not fear for my child's health, Betty. She's a sturdy little thing, and I'm sure that you've done your usual fine job...
BETTY. [exasperated] I can't vouch for it, Miss Lucinda. That child is mighty sick, and you really need to call Doc Stevens.

Which stage of the play’s plot, or sequence of events, does this scene most clearly illustrate?

A. rising action

B. climax

C. falling action

D. resolution