kin, longish
hair, and the noiseless tread of his moccasined feet, are the only
suggestions of his race. He bows to Rhoda, who returns his
salutation; then, with a glance at Michaelis, he goes out doors._

_Rhoda nods toward the closing door._

It's really him Annie's afraid of. He's like a creature from another
world, to her.

MICHAELIS.

_Looks at her in an odd, startled way._

Another world?

RHODA.

Oh, you're used to his people. Your father was a missionary to the
Indians, you told me.

MICHAELIS.

Yes.

RHODA.

Where?

MICHAELIS.

At Acoma.

RHODA.

Where is that?

MICHAELIS.

_Standing near the wall map, touches it._

In New Mexico, by the map.

RHODA.

_Comes nearer._

What is it like?

MICHAELIS.

It's--as you say--another world.

RHODA.

Describe it to me.

MICHAELIS.

I couldn't make you see it. It's--centuries and centuries from our
time.--And since I came here, since I entered this house, it has seemed
centuries away from my own life.

RHODA.

My life has seemed far off, too--my old life--

MICHAELIS.

What do you mean by your old life?

RHODA.

_She breaks out impulsively._

I mean--I mean--. Three days ago I was like one dead! I walked and ate
and did my daily tasks, but--I wondered sometimes why people didn't see
that I was dead, and scream at me.

MICHAELIS.

It was three days ago that I first saw you.

RHODA.

Yes.

MICHAELIS.

Three nights ago, out there in the moonlit country.

RHODA.

Yes.

MICHAELIS.

You were unhappy, then?

RHODA.

The dead are not unhappy, and I was as one dead.

MICHAELIS.

Why was that?

RHODA.

I think we die more than once when things are too hard and too bitter.

MICHAELIS.

Have things here been hard and bitter?

RHODA.

No. All that was before I came here! But it had left me feeling--. The
other night, as I walked through the streets of the town, the people
seemed like ghosts to me, and I myself like a ghost.

MICHAELIS.

I cannot think of you as anything but glad and free.

RHODA.

When you met me on the road, and walked home with me, and said those
few words, it was as if, all of a sudden, the dead dream was shattered,
and I began once more to live.

_Bell rings._

That is Aunt Mary's bell.

_Rhoda goes out by the hall door, wheeling the invalid chair.
Martha enters from the kitchen, carrying a steaming coffee-pot and
a plat