all, and you
feel within you that I cannot commit such deeds as you, and that is your
advantage. But think if you forced me to deal with you as I did with the
coachman!

[Lifts his hand as if to strike. Mr. Y. looks hard at Mr. X.]

MR. Y. You can't do it. He who dared not take his salvation out of the
case couldn't do that.

MR. X. Then you don't believe that I ever took from the case?

MR. Y. You were too cowardly, just as you were too cowardly to tell your
wife that she is married to a murderer.

MR. X. You are a different kind of being from me--whether stronger or
weaker I do not know--more criminal or not--that doesn't concern me. But
you are the stupider, that's proven. Because you were stupid when you
forged a man's name instead of begging as I have had to do; you were
stupid when you stole out of my book--didn't you realize that I read my
books? You were stupid when you thought that you were more intelligent
than I am and that you could fool me into becoming a thief; you were
stupid when you thought, that the restoration of balance would be
accomplished by the world's having two thieves instead of one, and you
were most stupid when you believed that I have built my life's happiness
without having laid the cornerstone securely. Go and write your
anonymous letter to my wife about her husband being a homicide--that she
knew as my fiancee. Do you give up now?

MR. Y. Can I go?

MR. X. Now you _shall_ go--immediately. Your things will follow you.

CURTAIN.

*****

EASTER

CHARACTERS

MRS. HEYST
ELIS, her son. Instructor in a preparatory school
ELEONORA, her daughter
CHRISTINE, Elis' fiancee
BENJAMIN, a freshman
LINDKVIST

[Scene for the entire play.--The interior of a glass-enclosed piazza,
furnished like a living-room. A large door at the middle back leading
out into the garden with fence and garden gate visible. Beyond one sees
the tops of trees (indicating that the house is situated on a height),
and in the distance the cathedral and another high building loom against
the sky. The glass windows which extend across the entire back of scene
are hung with flowered yellow cretonne, which can be drawn open. A
mirror hangs on the panel between door and window on the left. Below the
mirror is a calendar. To the right of door a writing table covered with
books and writing materials. A telephone is also on it. To L. of door
is a dining table, stove and bureau. At