_Enter ELLEN, R. H., second dress, followed by
EUSTON, L. H._
ELLEN. What news my love--is it good or bad?
EUS. Bad!
ELLEN. We are quite ruined!
EUS. No! there is hope yet, Ellen!
ELLEN. If he relents, there is--nothing is past hope if such a miracle
has happened.
EUS. He is past relenting! He is dead!
ELLEN. Dead! It is a crime but heaven forgive me, I almost feel thankful
for it!
EUS. What the half drunken-woman told me last night, when I tried to see
him and obtain a week's delay, and which I thought a mere excuse to
avoid me, was true,--he was not only ill, but dying then!
ELLEN. To whom will our debt be transferred!
EUS. I don't know, but before that time we shall be ready with the
money, and were we not, we can hardly find so merciless a creditor in
his successor. We may sleep to-night with light hearts, Ellen. Come!
(_Exeunt R. H._)
SCR. This is terrible! Let me see some tenderness connected with a death
in that dark chamber, which we left just now, Spirit--it will be for
ever present to me. (SPIRIT _points onward and slowly exits followed by
SCROOGE._)