d disbelieve.

[_Enter_ PATRICIA _pale and in the slight negligee of the amateur
nurse._

PATRICIA. May I speak to the Conjurer?

SMITH. [_Hastening forward._] You want the Doctor?

PATRICIA. No, the Conjurer.

DOCTOR. Are there any developments?

PATRICIA. I only want to speak to the Conjurer.

[_They all withdraw, either at the garden or the other doors._
PATRICIA _walks up to_ CONJURER.

PATRICIA. You must tell me how you did the trick. You will. I know you
will. O, I know my poor brother was rude to you. He's rude to everybody!
[_Breaks down._] But he's such a little, little boy!

CONJURER. I suppose you know there are things men never tell to women.
They are too horrible.

PATRICIA. Yes. And there are things women never tell to men. They also
are too horrible. I am here to hear them all.

CONJURER. Do you really mean I may say anything I like? However dark it
is? However dreadful it is? However damnable it is?

PATRICIA. I have gone through too much to be terrified now. Tell me the
very worst.

CONJURER. I will tell you the very worst. I fell in love with you when I
first saw you.

[_Sits down and crosses his legs._

PATRICIA. [_Drawing back._] You told me I looked like a child and....

CONJURER. I told a lie.

PATRICIA. O; this is terrible.

CONJURER. I was in love, I took an opportunity. You believed quite
simply that I was a magician? but I....

PATRICIA. It is terrible. It is terrible. I never believed you were a
magician.

CONJURER. [_Astounded._] Never believed I was a magician...!

PATRICIA. I always knew you were a man.

CONJURER. [_Doing whatever passionate things people do on the stage._] I
am a man. And you are a woman. And all the elves have gone to elfland,
and all the devils to hell. And you and I will walk out of this great
vulgar house and be married.... Every one is crazy in this house
to-night, I think. What am I saying? As if _you_ could marry _me_! O my
God!

PATRICIA. This is the first time you have failed in courage.

CONJURER. What do you mean?

PATRICIA. I mean to draw your attention to the fact that you have
recently made an offer, I accept it.

CONJURER. Oh, it's nonsense, it's nonsense. How can a man marry an
archangel, let alone a lady. My mother was a lady and she married a
dying fiddler who tramped the roads; and the mixture plays the cat and
banjo with my body and soul. I can see my mother now cooking food in
dirtier and dir