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]

Stop it—stop! You must!

Are you crazy? Have you no sense of decency?

[Doctor Curtis comes quickly downstairs.

What ’s this noise? I forbid it. Your mother has heard you.

(ashamed)

I ’m sorry.

(sulkily)

I did n’t mean to make a row.

It ’s him. (He looks bitterly at Ben) He brings out all the worst in us. He brought trouble into the world with him when he came, and ever since.

[Hannah, a middle-aged servant, comes hastily halfway downstairs and calls out sharply.

Doctor! Come, Doctor!

[She exits up the stairs, as the Doctor crosses through the hall and follows her.

(afraid)

Is she dead, Mum? Does Hannah mean she’s dead!

[Sadie hides her head on his shoulder and weeps.

I ’ll go to her.

[She exits.

(violently)

She ’ll go. There ain’t scarcely a drop of Jordan blood in her veins, and she’s the one that goes to mother.