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Page 36
CONFESSOR (to the Abbess). The fool! The fool!
Curtain.
SCENE X
THE 'ROSE' ROOM
[The curtains have been taken down. The windows gape into the
darkness outside. The furniture has been covered in brown
loose-covers and pulled forward. The flowers have been taken away,
and the large black stove lit. The MOTHER is standing ironing white
curtains by the light of a single lamp. There is a knock at the
door.]
MOTHER. Come in!
STRANGER (doing so). Where's my wife?
MOTHER. Where do you come from?
STRANGER. I think, from hell. But where's my wife?
MOTHER. Which of them do you mean?
STRANGER. The question's justified. Everything is, except to me.
MOTHER. There may be a reason: I'm glad you've seen it. Where have
you been?
STRANGER. Whether in a poorhouse, a madhouse or a hospital, I don't
know. I should like to think it all a feverish dream. I've been
ill: I lost my memory and can't believe three months have passed.
But where's my wife?
MOTHER. I ought to ask you that. When you deserted her, she went
away--to look for you. Whether she's tired of looking, I can't say.
STRANGER. Something's amiss here. Where's the Old Man?
MOTHER. Where there's no more suffering.
STRANGER. You mean he's dead?
MOTHER. Yes. He's dead.
STRANGER. You say it as if you wanted to add him to my victims.
MOTHER. Perhaps I'm right to do so.
STRANGER. He didn't look sensitive: he was capable of steady
hatred.
MOTHER. No. He hated only what was evil, in himself and others.
STRANGER. So I'm wrong there, too! (Pause.)
MOTHER. What do you want here?
STRANGER. Charity!
MOTHER. At last! How was it at the hospital! Sit down and tell me.
STRANGER (sitting). I don't want to think of it. I don't even know
if it _was_ a hospital.
MOTHER. Strange. Tell me what happened after you left here.
STRANGER. I fell in the mountains, hurt my hip and lost
consciousness. If you'll speak kindly to me you shall know more.
MOTHER. I will.
STRANGER. When I woke I was in a red iron bedstead. Three men were
pulling a cord that ran through two blocks. Every time they pulled
I felt I grew two feet taller. ...
MOTHER. They were putting in your hip.
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