ACT II.
Scene:The same room, slightly more dingy.Jemima Bloggs,her husband, and aDoctorare standing under the gas bracket.Hooker,as usual, is crouching over the starveling fire.
Scene:The same room, slightly more dingy.Jemima Bloggs,her husband, and aDoctorare standing under the gas bracket.Hooker,as usual, is crouching over the starveling fire.
The Doctor(curtly): She can’t live. It’s only a matter of days, perhaps hours. I must go.
Bloggs: Can nothing be done?
The Doctor: Can you send her to the Riviera?
Bloggs: No. Would that cure her?
The Doctor: It might.... I’m sorry. Good-day. (He goes.)
Jemima(in a shaking voice): I’ll get your tea, Joseph. (She begins taking down the cups and laying the table.)
Bloggs(as if in a trance): The Riviera might save her. (He takes his hat.)
Jemima: Won’t you wait for tea before you go?
Bloggs: I don’t want any tea. (He slouches miserably out.)
Hooker: The fog’s very thick.
Jemima: Yes.
Hooker: It’s still raining. (He takes his hat and coat.)
Jemima: Won’t you stay for tea, Mr. Hooker?
Hooker: I don’t feel equal to tea. (He goes out unsteadily.Jemimasits wretchedly by the smouldering hearth. The child cries out in its delirium. The fog steals into the room obscuring everything.)
The Curtain Falls.