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Page 56
LADY (to the STRANGER). Can you exorcise this demon?
STRANGER. I can do nothing against devils who brave the sunshine.
LADY. Yesterday you made an arrogant remark, and now you shall have
it back. You said it wasn't fair for invisible ones to creep in by
night and strike in the darkness, they should come by day when the
sun's shining. Now they've come!
STRANGER. And that pleases you!
LADY. Yes. Almost.
STRANGER. What a pity it gives me no pleasure when it's you who's
struck! Let's sit down on the seat--the bench for the accused. For
more are coming.
LADY. I'd rather we went.
STRANGER. No, I want to see how much I can bear. You see, at every
stroke of the lash I feel as if a debit entry had been erased from
my ledger.
LADY. But I can stand no more. Look, there he comes himself.
Heavens! This man, whom I once thought I loved!
STRANGER. Thought? Yes, because everything's merely delusion. And
that means a great deal. You go! I'll take the duty on myself of
confronting him alone.
(The LADY goes up the steps, but does not reach the toy before the
DOCTOR becomes visible at the back of the stage. The DOCTOR comes
in, his grey hair long and unkempt. He is wearing a tropical helmet
and a hunting coat, which are exactly similar to the clothes of the
STRANGER. He behaves as though he doesn't notice the STRANGER'S
presence, and sits down on a stone on the other side of the road,
opposite the STRANGER, who is sitting on the seat. He takes of his
hat and mops the sweat from his brow. The STRANGER grows
impatient.) What do you want?
DOCTOR. Only to see this house again, where my happiness once dwelt
and my roses blossomed. ...
STRANGER. An intelligent man of the world would have chosen a time
when the present inhabitants of the house were away for a short
while; even on his own account, so as not to make himself ridiculous.
DOCTOR. Ridiculous? I'd like to know which of us two's the more
ridiculous?
STRANGER. For the moment, I suppose I am.
DOCTOR. Yes. But I don't think you know the whole extent of your
wretchedness.
STRANGER. What do you mean?
DOCTOR. That you want to possess what I used to possess.
STRANGER. Well, go on.
DOCTOR. Have you noticed that we're wearing similar clothes? Good!
Do you know the reason? It's this: you're wearing the things I
forgot to fetch when the catastrophe took place. No intelligent man
of the world at the end of the nineteenth century would ever put
himself into such a position.
STRANGER (throwing down his hat and coat). Curse the woman!
DOCTOR. You needn't complain. Cast-off male attire has always been
fatal ever since the celebrated shirt of Nessus. Go in now and
change. I'll sit out here and watch, and listen, how you settle the
matter alone with that accurs�d woman. Don't forget your stick!
(The LADY, who is hurrying towards the house, trips in front of the
steps. The STRANGER stays where he is in embarrassment.) The stick!
The stick!
STRANGER. I don't ask mercy for the woman's sake, but for the child's.
DOCTOR (wildly). So there's a child, too. Our house, our roses, our
clothes, the bed-clothes not forgotten, and now our child! I'm
within your doors, I sit at your table, I lie in your bed; I exist
in your blood; in your lungs, in your brain; I am everywhere and
yet you can't get hold of me. When the pendulum strikes the hour of
midnight, I'll blow cold, on your heart, so that it stops like a
clock that's run down. When you sit at your work, I shall come with
a poppy, invisible to you, that will put your thoughts to sleep,
and confuse your mind, so that you'll see visions you can't
distinguish from reality. I shall lie like a stone in your path, so
that you stumble; I shall be the thorn that pricks your hand when
you go to pluck the rose. My soul shall spin itself about you like
a spider's web; and I shall guide you like an ox by means of the
woman you stole from me. Your child shall be mine and I shall speak
through its mouth; you shall see my look in its eyes, so that
you'll thrust it from you like a foe. And now, belov�d house,
farewell; farewell, 'rose' room--where no happiness shall dwell
that I could envy. (He goes out. The STRANGER has been sitting on
the seat all this time, without being able to answer, and has been
listening as if he were the accused.)
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