(MRS. OTERYis very unhappy.)
(MRS. OTERYis very unhappy.)
You think she is in there?
MRS. OTERY.She may be.
HARRY(taking a deep breath). Give me air.
(He throws open the window and we see that it is a night of stars.)
(He throws open the window and we see that it is a night of stars.)
Leave me here now. I have a call to make.
MRS. OTERY(hesitating). I dunno. You think you’re in no danger, but——
HARRY.That is how it is to be, missis. Just ten minutes you were out of the room, did you say?
MRS. OTERY.That was all.
HARRY.God!
(She leaves him. After a moment’s irresolution he sets off upon his quest carrying the candle, which takes with it all the light of the room. He is visible on the other side of the darkness, in the little passage and opening the door beyond. He returns, and now we see the pale ghost ofMARY ROSEstanding in the middle of the room, as if made out of the light he has brought back with him.)
(She leaves him. After a moment’s irresolution he sets off upon his quest carrying the candle, which takes with it all the light of the room. He is visible on the other side of the darkness, in the little passage and opening the door beyond. He returns, and now we see the pale ghost ofMARY ROSEstanding in the middle of the room, as if made out of the light he has brought back with him.)
MARY ROSE(bowing to him timidly). Have you come to buy the house?
HARRY(more startled by his own voice than by hers). Not me.
MARY ROSE.It is a very nice house. (Doubtfully.) Isn’t it?
HARRY.It was a nice house once.
MARY ROSE(pleased). Wasn’t it! (Suspiciously.) Did you know this house?
HARRY.When I was a young shaver.
MARY ROSE.Young? Was it you who laughed?
HARRY.When was that?
MARY ROSE(puzzled). There was once some one who laughed in this house. Don’t you think laughter is a very pretty sound?
HARRY(out of his depths). Is it? I dare say. I never thought about it.
MARY ROSE.You are quite old.
HARRY.I’m getting on.
MARY ROSE(confidentially). Would you mind telling me why every one is so old? I don’t know you, do I?
HARRY.I wonder. Take a look. You mighthave seen me in the old days—playing about—outside in the garden—or even inside.
MARY ROSE.You—you are not Simon, are you?
HARRY.No. (Venturing.) My name is Harry.
MARY ROSE(stiffening). I don’t think so. I strongly object to your saying that.
HARRY.I’m a queer sort of cove, and I would like to hear you call me Harry.
MARY ROSE(firmly). I decline. I regret, but I absolutely decline.
HARRY.No offence.
MARY ROSE.I think you are sorry for me.
HARRY.I am that.
MARY ROSE.I am sorry for me, too.
HARRY(desperately desirous to help her). If only there was something I— I know nothing about ghosts—not a thing; can they sit down? Could you——?
(He turns the chair toward her.)
(He turns the chair toward her.)
MARY ROSE.That is your chair.
HARRY.What do you mean by that?
MARY ROSE.That is where you were sitting.
HARRY.Were you in this room when I was sitting there?
MARY ROSE.I came in to look at you.
(A sudden thought makes him cross with the candle to where he had left his knife. It is gone.)
(A sudden thought makes him cross with the candle to where he had left his knife. It is gone.)
HARRY.Where is my knife? Were you standing looking at me with my knife in your hand?
(She is sullenly silent.)
(She is sullenly silent.)
Give me my knife.
(She gives it to him.)
(She gives it to him.)
What made you take it?
MARY ROSE.I thought you were perhaps the one.
HARRY.The one?
MARY ROSE.The one who stole him from me.
HARRY.I see. Godsake, in a sort of way I suppose I am.
(He sits in the chair.)
(He sits in the chair.)
MARY ROSE.Give him back to me.
HARRY.I wish I could. But I’m doubting he is gone beyond recall.
MARY ROSE(unexpectedly). Who is he?
HARRY.Do you mean you have forgotten who it is you are searching for?
MARY ROSE.I knew once. It is such a long time ago. I am so tired; please can I go away and play now?
HARRY.Go away? Where? You mean back to that—that place?
(She nods.)
(She nods.)
What sort of a place is it? Is it good to be there?
MARY ROSE.Lovely, lovely, lovely.
HARRY.It’s not just the island, is it, that’s so lovely, lovely?
(She is perplexed.)
(She is perplexed.)
Have you forgotten the island too?
MARY ROSE.I am sorry.
HARRY.The island, the place where you heard the call.
MARY ROSE.What is that?
HARRY.You have even forgotten the call! With vision as far as I can make out, it was as if, in a way, there were two kinds of dogs out hunting you—the good and the bad.
MARY ROSE(who thinks he is chiding her). Please don’t be cross with me.
HARRY.I am far from cross with you. Ibegin to think it was the good dogs that got you. Are they ghosts in that place?
MARY ROSE(with surprising certainty). No.
HARRY.You are sure?
MARY ROSE.Honest Injun.
HARRY.What fairly does me is, if the place is so lovely, what made you leave it?
MARY ROSE(frightened). I don’t know.
HARRY.Do you think you could have fallen out?
MARY ROSE.I don’t know. (She thinks his power is great.) Please, I don’t want to be a ghost any more.
HARRY.As far as I can see, if you wasn’t a ghost there you made yourself one by coming back. But it’s no use your expecting me to be able to help you. (She droops at this and he holds out his arms.) Come to me, ghostie; I wish you would.
MARY ROSE(prim again). Certainly not.
HARRY.If you come, I’ll try to help you.
(She goes at once and sits on his knee.)
(She goes at once and sits on his knee.)
See here, when I was sitting by the fire alone I seemed to hear you as you once were sayingthat some day when he was a man you would like to sit on your Harry’s knee.
MARY ROSE(vaguely quoting she knows not whom). The loveliest time of all will be when he is a man and takes me on his knee instead of my taking him on mine.
HARRY.Do you see who I am now?
MARY ROSE.Nice man.
HARRY.Is that all you know about me?
MARY ROSE.Yes.
HARRY.There is a name I would like to call you by, but my best course is not to worry you. Poor soul, I wonder if there was ever a man with a ghost on his knee before.
MARY ROSE.I don’t know.
HARRY.Seems to me you’re feared of being a ghost. I dare say, to a timid thing, being a ghost is worse than seeing them.
MARY ROSE.Yes.
HARRY.Is it lonely being a ghost?
MARY ROSE.Yes.
HARRY.Do you know any other ghosts?
MARY ROSE.No.
HARRY.Would you like to know other ghosts?
MARY ROSE.Yes.
HARRY.I can understand that. And now you would like to go away and play?
MARY ROSE.Please.
HARRY.In this cold house, when you should be searching, do you sometimes play by yourself instead?
MARY ROSE(whispering). Don’t tell.
HARRY.Not me. You’re a pretty thing. What beautiful shoes you have.
(She holds out her feet complacently.)
(She holds out her feet complacently.)
MARY ROSE.Nice buckles.
HARRY.I like your hair.
MARY ROSE.Pretty hair.
HARRY.Do you mind the tuft that used to stand up at the back of—of Simon’s head?
MARY ROSE(merrily). Naughty tuft.
HARRY.I have one like that.
MARY ROSE(smoothing it down). Oh dear, oh dear, what a naughty tuft.
HARRY.My name is Harry.
MARY ROSE(liking the pretty sound). Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry.
HARRY.But you don’t know what Harry I am.
MARY ROSE.No.
HARRY.And this brings us no nearer what’s to be done with you. I would willingly stay here though I have my clearing in Australy, but you’re just a ghost. They say there are ways of laying ghosts, but I am so ignorant.
MARY ROSE(imploringly). Tell me.
HARRY.I wish I could; you are even more ignorant than I am.
MARY ROSE.Tell me.
HARRY.All I know about them for certain is that they are unhappy because they can’t find something, and then once they’ve got the thing they want, they go away happy and never come back.
MARY ROSE.Oh, nice.
HARRY.The one thing clear to me is that you have got that thing at last, but you are too dog-tired to know or care. What you need now is to get back to the place you say is lovely, lovely.
MARY ROSE.Yes, yes.
HARRY.It sounds as if it might be Heaven, or near thereby.
(She wants him to find out for her.)
(She wants him to find out for her.)
Queer, you that know so much can tell nothing, and them that know nothing can tell so much. If there was any way of getting you to that glory place!
MARY ROSE.Tell me.
HARRY(desperate). He would surely send for you, if He wanted you.
MARY ROSE(crushed). Yes.
HARRY.It’s like as if He had forgotten you.
MARY ROSE.Yes.
HARRY.It’s as if nobody wanted you, either there or here.
MARY ROSE.Yes. (She rises.) Bad man.
HARRY.It’s easy to call me names, but the thing fair beats me. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you, but a mere man is so helpless. How should the likes of me know what to do with a ghost that has lost her way on earth? I wonder if what it means is that you broke some law, just to come back for the sake of—of that Harry? If it was that, it’s surely time He overlooked it.
MARY ROSE.Yes.
(He looks at the open window.)
(He looks at the open window.)
HARRY.What a night of stars! Good old glitterers, I dare say they are in the know, but I am thinking you are too small a thing to get a helping hand from them.
MARY ROSE.Yes.
(The call is again heard, but there is in it now no unholy sound. It is a celestial music that is calling for Mary Rose, Mary Rose, first in whispers and soon so loudly that, for one who can hear, it is the only sound in the world. Mary Rose, Mary Rose. As it wraps her round, the weary little ghost knows that her long day is done. Her face is shining. The smallest star shoots down as if it were her star sent for her, and with her arms stretched forth to it trustingly she walks out through the window into the empyrean. The music passes with her.HARRYhears nothing, but he knows that somehow a prayer has been answered.)
(The call is again heard, but there is in it now no unholy sound. It is a celestial music that is calling for Mary Rose, Mary Rose, first in whispers and soon so loudly that, for one who can hear, it is the only sound in the world. Mary Rose, Mary Rose. As it wraps her round, the weary little ghost knows that her long day is done. Her face is shining. The smallest star shoots down as if it were her star sent for her, and with her arms stretched forth to it trustingly she walks out through the window into the empyrean. The music passes with her.HARRYhears nothing, but he knows that somehow a prayer has been answered.)
The End