arrest his movement._
DOCTOR. Where are you going?
CONJURER. I am going to ask the God whose enemies I have served if I am
still worthy to save a child.
[_Exit into garden. He paces up and down exactly as_ MORRIS _has
done. As he does so_, PATRICIA _slowly goes out; and a long silence
follows, during which the remaining men stir and stamp very
restlessly. The darkness increases. It is long before anyone
speaks._
DOCTOR. [_Abruptly._] Remarkable man that Conjurer. Clever man. Curious
man. Very curious man. A kind of man, you know.... Lord bless us! What's
that?
DUKE. What's what, eh? What's what?
DOCTOR. I swear I heard a footstep.
_Enter_ HASTINGS _with papers._
DUKE. Why, Hastings--Hastings--we thought you were a ghost. You must
be--er--looking white or something.
HASTINGS. I have brought back the answer of the Anti-Vegetarians ... I
mean the Vegetarians.
[_Drops one or two papers._
DUKE. Why, Hastings, you _are_ looking white.
HASTINGS. I ask your Grace's pardon. I had a slight shock on entering
the room.
DOCTOR. A shock? What shock?
HASTINGS. It is the first time, I think, that your Grace's work has been
disturbed by any private feelings of mine. I shall not trouble your
Grace with them. It will not occur again.
[_Exit_ HASTINGS.
DUKE. What an extraordinary fellow. I wonder if....
[_Suddenly stops speaking._
DOCTOR. [_After a long silence, in a low voice to_ SMITH.] How do you
feel?
SMITH. I feel I must have a window shut or I must have it open, and I
don't know which it is.
[_Another long silence._
SMITH. [_Crying out suddenly in the dark._] In God's name, go!
DOCTOR. [_Jumping up rather in a tremble._] Really, sir, I am not used
to being spoken to....
SMITH. It was not you whom I told to go.
DOCTOR. No. [_Pause._] But I think I will go. This room is simply
horrible.
[_He marches towards the door._
DUKE. [_Jumping up and bustling about, altering cards, papers, etc., on
tables._] Room horrible? Room horrible? No, no, no. [_Begins to run
quicker round the room, flapping his hands like fins._] Only a little
crowded. A little crowded. And I don't seem to know all the people. We
can't like everybody. These large at-homes....
[_Tumbles on to a chair._
CONJURER. [_Reappearing at the garden doors._] Go back to hell from
which I called you. It is the last order I shall give.
DOCTOR. [_Rising rather shakily._] And what are you going to do?
CONJURER. I am going to tell that poor little lad a lie. I have found
in the garden what he did not find in the garden. I have managed to
think of a natural explanation of that trick.
DOCTOR. [_Warmly moved._] I think you are something like a great man.
Can I take your explanation to him now?
CONJURER. [_Grimly._] No thank you. I will take it myself.
[_Exit into the other room._
DUKE. [_Uneasily._] We all felt devilish queer just now. Wonderful
things there are in the world. [_After a pause._] I suppose it's all
electricity.
[_Silence as usual._
SMITH. I think there has been more than electricity in all this.
_Enter_ PATRICIA, _still pale, but radiant._
PATRICIA. Oh, Morris is ever so much better! The Conjurer has told him
such a good story of how the trick was done.
_Enter_ CONJURER.
DUKE. Professor, we owe you a thousand thanks!
DOCTOR. Really, you have doubled your claim to originality!
SMITH. It is much more marvellous to explain a miracle than to work a
miracle. What was your explanation, by the way?
CONJURER. I shall not tell you.
SMITH. [_Starting._] Indeed? Why not?
CONJURER. Because God and the demons and that Immortal Mystery that you
deny has been in this room to-night. Because you know it has been here.
Because you have felt it here. Because you know the spirits as well as I
do and fear them as much as I do.
SMITH. Well?
CONJURER. Because all this would not avail. If I told you the lie I told
Morris Carleon about how I did that trick....
SMITH. Well?
CONJURER. YOU would believe it as he believed it. You cannot think
[_pointing to the lamp_] how that trick could be done naturally. I alone
found out how it could be done--after I had done it by magic. But if I
tell you a natural way of doing it....
SMITH. Well?...
CONJURER. Half an hour after I have left this house you will be all
saying how it was done.
[CONJURER _buttons up his cloak and advances to_ PATRICIA.
CONJURER. Good-bye.
PATRICIA. I shall not say good-bye.
PATRICIA. Yes. That fairy tale has really and truly come to an end.
[_Looks at him a little in the old mystical manner._] It is very hard
for a fairy tale to come to an end. If you leave it alone it lingers
everlastingly. Our fairy tale has come to an end in the only way a fairy
tale can come to an end. The only way a fairy tale can leave off being a
fairy tale.
CONJURER. I don't understand you.
PATRICIA. It has come true.
CURTAIN
* * * * *
_A Selection from the
Catalogue of_
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
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Complete Catalogue sent
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New Comedies
By
LADY GREGORY
The Bogie Men--The Full Moon--Coats Damer's Gold--McDonough's Wife
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The plays have been acted with great success by the Abbey Company, and
have been highly extolled by appreciative audiences and an enthusiastic
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One of the plays in the collection, "Coats," depends for its plot upon
the rivalry of two editors, each of whom has written an obituary notice
of the other. The dialogue is full of crisp humor. "McDonough's Wife,"
another drama that appears in the volume, is based on a legend, and
explains how a whole town rendered honor against its will. "The Bogie
Men" has as its underlying situation an amusing misunderstanding of two
chimney-sweeps. The wit and absurdity of the dialogue are in Lady
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Irish Plays
By
LADY GREGORY
Lady Gregory's name has become a household word in America and her works
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Shaw, in a recently published interview, said Lady Gregory "is the
greatest living Irishwoman.... Even in the plays of Lady Gregory,
penetrated as they are by that intense love of Ireland which is
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G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON
Irish Folk-History Plays
By
LADY GREGORY
_First Series. The Tragedies_
GRANIA
KINCORA
DERVORGILLA
_Second Series. The Tragic Comedies_
THE CANAVANS
THE WHITE COCKADE
THE DELIVERER
_2 vols. Each, $1.50 net. By mail, $1.65_
Lady Gregory has preferred going for her material to the traditional
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=Kincora=, telling of Brian Boru, who reigned in the year 1000, evoked
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The story of =Grania=, on which Lady Gregory has founded one of these
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Another of Lady Gregory's plays, =The Canavans= dealt with the stormy
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=The White Cockade= is founded on a tradition of King James having escaped
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All these plays, except =Grania=, which has not yet been staged, have been
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G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
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