ou will all remain perfectly silent.

GODFATHER. This seems to be a most extraordinary malady.

GEORGE (_rising from his seat_). God! O God!

FIRST RELATION. How lightly he treads!

SECOND RELATION. Look! he clasps his thin hands across his breast.

THIRD RELATION. His eyelids are motionless; he does not move his lips,
but what a sharp and thrilling shriek!

NURSE. Christ, shield him!

GEORGE. Depart from me, Darkness! I am a child of light and song, and
what hast thou to do with me? What dost thou desire from me?

I do not yield myself to thee, although my sight has flown away upon the
wings of the wind, and is flitting restlessly about through infinite
space: it will return to me--my eyes will open with a flash of
flame--and I will see the universe!

GODFATHER. He talks exactly as his mother did; he does not know what he
is saying, I think his condition very critical.

PHYSICIAN. He is in great danger.

NURSE. Holy Mother of God! take my eyes, and give them to the poor boy!

GEORGE. My mother, I entreat thee! O mother, send me thoughts and
images, that I may create within myself a world like the one I have lost
forever!

FIRST RELATION. Do you think, brother, it will be necessary to call a
family consultation?

SECOND RELATION. Be silent!

GEORGE. Thou answerest me not, my mother!

O mother, do not desert me!

PHYSICIAN (_to the Man_). It is my duty to tell you the truth.

GODFATHER. Yes, to tell the truth is the duty and virtue of a physician!

PHYSICIAN. Your son is suffering from incipient insanity, connected with
an extraordinary excitability of the nervous system, which sometimes
occasions, if I may so express myself, the strange phenomenon of
sleeping and waking at the same time, as in the case now before us.

THE MAN (_aside_). He reads to me thy sentence, O my God!

PHYSICIAN. Give me pen, ink, and paper.

He writes a prescription.

THE MAN. I think it best you should all now retire; George needs rest.

SEVERAL VOICES. Good night! good night! good night!

GEORGE (_waking suddenly_). Are they wishing me good night, father?

They should rather speak of a long, unbroken, eternal night, but of no
good one, of no happy dawn for me....

THE MAN. Lean on me, George. Let me support you to the bed.

GEORGE. What does all this mean, father?

THE MAN. Cover yourself up, and go quietly to sleep. The doctor says you
will regain your sight.

GEORGE. I feel so very unwell, father; st