Get thee behind me, Satan!"
At which she laughed and left me. But a voice
Was whispering in my ear continually:
"Self-murder is no crime. The life of man
Is his, to keep it or to throw away!"

MARTHA.
'T was a temptation of the Evil One!
Giles, Giles! why will you harbor these dark thoughts?

COREY (rising).
I am too tired to talk. I'll go to bed.

MARTHA.
First tell me something about Bridget Bishop.
How did she look? You saw her? You were there?

COREY.
I'll tell you that to-morrow, not to-night.
I'll go to bed.

MARTHA.
First let us pray together.

COREY.
I cannot pray to-night.

MARTHA.
Say the Lord's Prayer,
And that will comfort you.

COREY.
I cannot say,
"As we forgive those that have sinned against us,"
When I do not forgive them.

MARTHA (kneeling on the hearth).
God forgive you!

COREY.
I will not make believe! I say to-night
There's something thwarts me when I wish to pray,
And thrusts into my mind, instead of prayers,
Hate and revenge, and things that are not prayers.
Something of my old self,--my old, bad life,--
And the old Adam in me rises up,
And will not let me pray. I am afraid
The Devil hinders me. You know I say
Just what I think, and nothing more nor less,
And, when I pray, my heart is in my prayer.
I cannot say one thing and mean another.
If I can't pray, I will not make believe!

[Exit COREY. MARTHA continues kneeling.

ACT III.

SCENE I. -- GILES COREY'S kitchen. Morning. COREY and MARTHA
sitting at the breakfast-table.

COREY (rising).
Well, now I've told you all I saw and heard
Of Bridget Bishop; and I must be gone.

MARTHA.
Don't go into the village, Giles, to-day.
Last night you came back tired and out of humor.

COREY.
Say, angry; say, right angry. I was never
In a more devilish temper in my life.
All things went wrong with me.

MARTHA.
You were much vexed;
So don't go to the village.

COREY (going).
No, I won't.
I won't go near it. We are going to mow
The Ipswich meadows for the aftermath,
The crop of sedge and rowens.

MARTHA.
Stay a moment,
I want to tell you what I dreamed last night.
Do you believe in dreams?

COREY.
Why, yes and no.
When they come true, then I believe in them
When they come false, I don't believe in them.
But let me hear. What did you d