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Page 58
STRANGER. She will, this time. Later, perhaps, when the child's
here, she'll cut herself adrift.
MOTHER. You seem very sure.
STRANGER. Yes. As I said, I still am. So long as the bond's not
broken you can feel it. When it is, you'll feel that unpleasantly
clearly, too.
MOTHER. But when you've parted from one another, you may yet both
be bound to the child. You can't tell in advance.
STRANGER. I've been providing against that by a great interest,
that I hope will fill my empty life.
MOTHER. You mean gold. And honour!
STRANGER. Precisely! For a man the most enduring of all illusions.
MOTHER. So you'd build on illusions?
STRANGER. On what else should I build, when everything's illusion?
MOTHER. If you ever awake from your dream, you'll find a reality of
which you've never been able to dream.
STRANGER. Then I'll wait till that happens.
MOTHER. Wait then. Now I'll go and shut the window, before the
thunderstorm breaks.
STRANGER (going towards the back of the stage). That's going to be
interesting. (A hunting horn is heard in the distance.) Who's
sounding that horn?
MOTHER. No one knows; and it means nothing good. (She goes out.)
STRANGER (busying himself with the electroscope, and turning his
back on the open window as he does so; then taking up a book and
reading aloud.) 'When Adam's race of giants had increased enough
for them to consider their number sufficient to risk an attack on
those above, they began to build a tower that was to reach up to
Heaven. Those above were then seized with fear and, in order to
protect themselves, broke up the assembled multitude by so
confusing their tongues and their minds that two people who met
could not understand one another, even if they spoke the same
language Since then, those above rule by discord: divide and rule.
And the discord is upheld by the belief that the truth has been
found; but when one of the prophets is believed, he is a lying
prophet. If on the other hand a mortal succeeds in penetrating the
secret of those above, no one believes him, and he is struck with
madness so that no one ever shall. Since then mortals have been
more or less demented, particularly those who are held to be wise,
but madmen are in reality the only wise men; for they can see, hear
and feel the invisible, the inaudible and the intangible, though
they cannot relate their experiences to others.' Thus Zohar, the
wisest of all the books of wisdom, and therefore one that no one
believes. I shall build no tower of Babel, but I shall tempt the
Powers into my mousetrap, and send them to the Powers below, the
subterranean ones, so that they can be neutralised. It is the
higher Schedim, who have come between mortal men and the Lord
Zabaoth; and that is why joy, peace and happiness have vanished
from the earth.
LADY (coming back in despair, throwing herself down in front of the
STRANGER and putting her arms round his feet and her head on the
ground.) Help me! Help me! And forgive me.
STRANGER. Get up. In God's name! Get up. Don't do that. What's
happened?
LADY. In my anger I've behaved foolishly. I've been caught in my
own net.
STRANGER (lifting her up). Stand up, foolish child; and tell me
what's happened.
LADY. I went to the public prosecutor.
STRANGER. ... and asked for a divorce. ...
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