few feet_). Good-bye, darling. Remember me--and perhaps--you'll find
out after a time--I'll pray God to make it so! Oh, what am I saying?
Only--I'll hope--I'll hope--till I die!

MURRAY (_in anguish_). Eileen!

EILEEN (_her breath coming in tremulous heaves of her bosom_).
Remember, Stephen--if ever you want--I'll do anything--anything you
want--no matter what--I don't care--there's just you and--don't hate
me, dear. I love you--love you--remember! (_She suddenly turns and runs
away up the road._)

MURRAY. Eileen! (_He starts to run after her, but stops by the signpost
and stamps on the ground furiously, his fists clenched in impotent rage
at himself and at fate. He curses hoarsely._) Christ!

THE CURTAIN FALLS

Act Three

_Four months later. An isolation room at the Infirmary with a
sleeping porch at the right of it. Late afternoon of a Sunday
towards the end of October. The room, extending two-thirds of the
distance from left to right, is, for reasons of space economy,
scantily furnished with the bare necessities--a bureau with mirror
in the left corner, rear--two straight-backed chairs--a table with
a glass top in the centre. The floor is varnished hardwood. The
walls and furniture are painted white. On the left, forward, a door
to the hall. On the right, rear, a double glass door opening on the
porch. Farther front two windows. The porch, a screened-in
continuation of the room, contains only a single iron bed, painted
white, and a small table placed beside the bed._

_The woods, the leaves of the trees rich in their autumn colouring,
rise close about this side of the Infirmary. Their branches almost
touch the porch on the right. In the rear of the porch they have
been cleared away from the building for a narrow space, and through
this opening the distant hills can be seen with the tree tops
glowing in the sunlight._

_As the curtain rises,_ Eileen _is discovered lying in the bed on
the porch, propped up into a half-sitting position by pillows under
her back and head. She seems to have grown much thinner. Her face
is pale and drawn, with deep hollows under her cheek-bones. Her
eyes are dull and lustreless. She gazes straight before her into
the wood with the unseeing stare of apathetic indifference. The
door from the hall in the room behind her is opened, and_ Miss
Howard _enters, followed by_