The whole time there's been a smell of
corpses here.

DOCTOR. Perhaps that's us?

STRANGER. Can one be dead, without suspecting it?

DOCTOR. The dead maintain that they don't know the difference.

STRANGER. You terrify me. Is it possible? And all these shadowy figures,
whose faces I think I recognise as memories of my youth at school in the
swimming bath, the gymnasium.... (He clutches his heart.) Oh! Now he's
coming: the Terrible One, who tears the heart out of the breast. The
Terrible One, who's been following me for years. He's here!

(He is beside himself. The doors are thrown open; a choir boy comes in
carrying a lantern made of blue glass that throws a blue light on the
guests; he rings the silver bell. All present begin to howl like wild
beasts. The DOMINICAN then enters with the sacrament. The WAITRESS
and the WOMAN throw themselves on their knees, the others howl. The
DOMINICAN raises the monstrance; all fall on their knees. The choir boy
and the DOMINICAN go into the room on the left.)

BEGGAR (entering and going towards the STRANGER). Come away from here.
You're ill. And the bailiffs have a summons for you.

STRANGER. Summons? From whom?

BEGGAR. Your wife.

DOCTOR. The electric eel strikes at a great distance. She once wanted to
bring a charge of slander against me, because she couldn't stay out at
night.

STRANGER. Couldn't stay out at night?

DOCTOR. Yes. Didn't you know who you were married to?

STRANGER. I heard she'd been engaged before she... married you.

DOCTOR. Yes. That's what it was called, but in reality she'd been the
mistress of a married man, whom she denounced for rape, after she'd
forced herself into his studio and posed to him naked, as a model.

STRANGER. And that was the woman you married?

DOCTOR. Yes. After she'd seduced me, she denounced me for breach of
promise, so I had to marry her. She'd engaged two detectives to see I
didn't get away. And that was the woman you married!

STRANGER. I did it because I soon saw it was no good choosing when all
were alike.

BEGGAR. Come away from here. You'll be sorry if you don't.

STRANGER (to the DOCTOR). Was she always religious?

DOCTOR. Always.

STRANGER. And tender, good-hearted, self-sacrificing?

DOCTOR. Certainly!

STRANGER. Can one understand her?

DOCTOR. No. But you can go mad thinking about her. That's why one had to
accept her as she was. Charming, intoxicating!

STRANGER. Yes, I know. But one's powerless