ALICE. What is it?
LIEUTENANT. Well, Miss Judith——
ALICE. Help us with this first—then you can speak of Miss Judith afterward.
[TheLIEUTENANTrolls out the chair to the right.
[TheLIEUTENANTrolls out the chair to the right.
ALICE. Away with the carcass! Out with it, and let's open the doors! The place must be aired! [Opens the doors in the background; the sky has cleared] Ugh!
CURT. Are you going to desert him?
ALICE. A wrecked ship is deserted, and the crew save their lives—I'll not act as undertaker to a rotting beast! Drainmen and dissectors may dispose of him! A garden bed would be too good for that barrowful of filth! Now I am going to wash and bathe myself in order to get rid of all this impurity—if I can ever cleanse myself completely!
JUDITHis seen outside, by the balustrade, waving her handkerchief toward the sea.
JUDITHis seen outside, by the balustrade, waving her handkerchief toward the sea.
CURT. [Toward the background] Who is there? Judith! [Calls out] Judith!
JUDITH.[Cries out as she enters] He is gone!
CURT. Who?
JUDITH. Allan is gone!
CURT. Without saying good-bye?
JUDITH. He did to me, and he sent his love to you, Uncle.
ALICE. Oh, that was it!
JUDITH. [Throwing herself intoCURT'sarms] He is gone!
CURT. He will come back, little girl.
ALICE. Or we will go after him!
CURT. [With a gesture indicating the door on the right] And leave him? What would the world——
ALICE. The world—bah! Judith, come into my arms! [JUDITHgoes up toALICE,who kisses her on the forehead] Do you want to go after him?
JUDITH. How can you ask?
ALICE. But your father is sick.
JUDITH. What do I care!
ALICE. This is Judith! Oh, I love you, Judith!
JUDITH. And besides, papa is never mean—and he doesn't like cuddling. There's style to papa, after all.
ALICE. Yes, in a way!
JUDITH. And I don't think he is longing for me after that telephone message—Well, why should he pester me with an old fellow? No, Allan, Allan! [Throws herself intoCURT'sarms] I want to go to Allan!
Tears herself loose again and runs out to wave her handkerchief[CURTfollows her and waves his handkerchief also.
Tears herself loose again and runs out to wave her handkerchief
[CURTfollows her and waves his handkerchief also.
ALICE. Think of it, that flowers can grow out of dirt!
TheLIEUTENANTin from the right.
TheLIEUTENANTin from the right.
ALICE. Well?
LIEUTENANT. Yes, Miss Judith——
ALICE. Is the feeling of those letters that form her name so sweet on your lips that it makes you forget him who is dying?
LIEUTENANT. Yes, but she said——
ALICE. She? Say rather Judith then! But first of all—how goes it in there?
LIEUTENANT. Oh, in there—it's all over!
ALICE. All over? O, God, on my own behalf and that of all mankind, I thank Thee for having freed us from this evil! Your arm, if you please—I want to go outside and get a breath—breathe!
[TheLIEUTENANToffers his arm.
[TheLIEUTENANToffers his arm.
ALICE. [Checks herself] Did he say anything before the end came?
LIEUTENANT. Miss Judith's father spoke a few words only.
ALICE. What did he say?
LIEUTENANT. He said: "Forgive them, for they know not what they do!"
ALICE. Inconceivable!
LIEUTENANT. Yes, Miss Judith's father was a good and noble man.
ALICE. Curt!
CURTEnters.
CURTEnters.
ALICE. It is over!
CURT. Oh!
ALICE. Do you know what his last words were? No, you can never guess it. "Forgive them, for they know not what they do!"
CURT. Can you translate it?
ALICE. I suppose he meant that he had always done right and died as one that had been wronged by life.
CURT. I am sure his funeral sermon will be fine.
ALICE. And plenty of flowers—from the non-commissioned officers.
CURT. Yes.
ALICE. About a year ago he said something like this: "It looks to me as if life were a tremendous hoax played on all of us!"
CURT. Do you mean to imply that he was playing a hoax on us up to the very moment of death?
ALICE. No—but now, when he is dead, I feel a strange inclination to speak well of him.
CURT. Well, let us do so!
LIEUTENANT. Miss Judith's father was a good and noble man.
ALICE. [ToCURT] Listen to that!
CURT. "They know not what they do." How many times did I not ask you whether he knew what he was doing? And you didn't think he knew. Therefore, forgive him!
ALICE. Riddles! Riddles! But do you notice that there is peace in the house now? The wonderful peace of death. Wonderful as the solemn anxiety that surrounds the coming of a child into the world. I hear the silence—and on the floor I see the traces of the easy-chair that carried him away—And I feel that now my own life is ended, and I am starting on the road to dissolution! Do you know, it's queer, but those simple words of the Lieutenant—and his is a simple mind—they pursue me, but now they have become serious. My husband, my youth's beloved—yes, perhaps you laugh!—hewasa good and noble man—nevertheless!
CURT. Nevertheless? And a brave one—as he fought for his own and his family's existence!
ALICE. What worries! What humiliations! Which he wiped out—in order to pass on!
CURT. He was one who had been passed by! And that is to say much! Alice, go in there!
ALICE. No, I cannot do it! For while we have been talking here, the image of him as he was in his younger years has come back to me—I have seen him, I see him—now, as when he was only twenty—I must have loved that man!
CURT. And hated him!
ALICE. And hated!—Peace be with him!
Goes toward the right door and stops in front of it, folding her hands as if to pray.
Goes toward the right door and stops in front of it, folding her hands as if to pray.