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Page 55
LADY. He shall be my avenger.
STRANGER. Or mine!
LADY (tearfully). Poor little thing. Conceived in sin and shame,
and born to avenge by hate.
STRANGER. It's a long time since I've heard you speak like that.
LADY. I dare say.
STRANGER. That was the voice that first drew me to you; it was like
that of a mother speaking to her child.
LADY. When you say 'mother' I feel I can only believe good of you;
but a moment after I say to myself: it's only one more of your ways
of deceiving me.
STRANGER. What ill have I ever really done you? (The LADY is
uncertain what to reply.) Answer me. What ill have I done you?
LADY. I don't know.
STRANGER. Then invent something. Say to me: I hate you, because I
can't deceive you.
LADY. Can't I? Oh, I'm sorry for you.
STRANGER. You must have poison in the pocket of your dress.
LADY. Well, I have!
STRANGER. What can it be? (Pause.) Who's that coming down the road?
LADY. A harbinger.
STRANGER. Is it a man, or a spectre?
LADY. A spectre from the past.
STRANGER. He's wearing a black coat and a laurel crown. But his
feet are bare.
LADY. It's Caesar.
STRANGER (confused). Caesar? That was my nickname at school.
LADY. Yes. But it's also the name of the madman whom my ... first
husband used to look after. Forgive me speaking of him like that.
STRANGER. Has this madman got away?
LADY. It looks like it, doesn't it?
(CAESAR comes in from the back; he wears a black frock coat and is
without a collar; he has a laurel crown on his head and his feet
are bare. His general appearance is bizarre.)
CAESAR. Why don't you greet me? You ought to say: Ave, Caesar! For
now I'm the master. The werewolf, you must know, has gone out of
his mind since the Great Man went off with his wife, whom he
himself snatched from her first lover, or bridegroom, or whatever
you call him.
STRANGER (to the LADY). That was strychnine for two adults! (To
CAESAR) Where's your master now--or your slave, or doctor, or
warder?
CAESAR. He'll be here soon. But you needn't be frightened of him.
He won't use daggers or poison. He only has to show himself, for
all living things to fly from him; for trees to drop their leaves,
and the very dust of the highway to run before him in a whirlwind
like the pillar of cloud before the Children of Israel. ...
STRANGER. Listen. ...
CAESAR. Quiet, whilst I'm speaking. ... Sometimes he believes
himself to be a werewolf, and says he'd like to eat a little child
that's not yet born, and that's really his according to the right
of priority. ... (He goes on his way.)
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