ve it me?

LADY (hesitating). As medicine?

STRANGER. Of course. (Pause.) Have you read my books?

LADY. You know I have. And that it's you I have to thank for giving me
freedom and a belief in human rights and human dignity.

STRANGER. Then you haven't read the recent ones?

LADY. No. And if they're not like the earlier ones I don't want to.

STRANGER. Then promise never to open another book of mine.

LADY. Let me think that over. Very well, I promise.

STRANGER. Good! But see you keep your promise. Remember what happened
to Bluebeard's wife when curiosity tempted her into the forbidden
chamber....

LADY. You see, already you make demands like those of a Bluebeard. What
you don't see, or have long since forgotten, is that I'm married, and
that my husband's a doctor, and that he admires your work. So that his
house is open to you, if you wish to be made welcome there.

STRANGER. I've done all I can to forget it. I've expunged it from my
memory so that it no longer has any reality for me.

LADY. If that's so, will you come home with me to-night?

STRANGER. No. Will you come with me?

LADY. Where?

STRANGER. Anywhere! I have no home, only a trunk. Money I sometimes
have--though not often. It's the one thing life has capriciously refused
me, perhaps because I never desired it intensely enough. (The LADY
shakes her head.) Well? What are you thinking?

LADY. I'm surprised I'm not angry with you. But you're not serious.

STRANGER. Whether I am or not's all one to me. Ah! There's the organ! It
won't be long now before the drink shops open.

LADY. Is it true _you_ drink?

STRANGER. Yes. A great deal! Wine makes my soul from her prison, up into
the firmament, where she what has never yet been seen, and hears what
men never yet heard....

LADY. And the day after?

STRANGER. I have the most delightful scruples of conscience! I
experience the purifying emotions of guilt and repentance. I enjoy the
sufferings of the body, whilst my soul hovers like smoke about my head.
It is as if one were suspended between Life and Death, when the spirit
feels that she has already opened her pinions and could fly aloft, if
she would.

LADY. Come into the church for a moment. You'll hear no sermon, only the
beautiful music of vespers.

STRANGER. No. Not into church! It depresses me because I feel I don't
belong there.... That I'm an unhappy soul and that it's as impossible
for me to re-enter as to become a child again.