Page:Strange Interlude (1928).djvu/167

Rh

it were Sam’s child we’ve never given in to our desire  and I’ve watched love grow in him until I’m sure

[With sudden alarm]

But am I? he’s never once mentioned love  perhaps I’ve been a fool to play the part I’ve played  it may have turned him against me [Suddenly with calm confidence]

No he does  I feel it  it’s only when I start thinking, I begin to doubt

[She settles back and stares dreamily before her—a pause]

There again  his child! my child moving in my life my life moving in my child  the world is whole and perfect  all things are each other’s  life is  and the is is beyond reason  questions die in the silence of this peace  I am living a dream within the great dream of the tide  breathing in the tide I dream and breathe back my dream into the tide  suspended in the movement of the tide, I feel life move in me, suspended in me  no whys matter  there is no why  I am a mother  God is a Mother

[''She sighs happily, closing her eyes. A pause'']

[ ''enters from the hallway in rear. He is dressed carefully but his clothes are old ones—shabby collegiate gentility—and he has forgotten to shave. His eyes look pitiably harried, his manner has become a distressingly obvious attempt to cover up a chronic state of nervous panic and guilty conscience. He stops inside the doorway and looks at her with a pitiable furtiveness, arguing with himself, trying to get up his courage'']

Tell her! go on! you made up your mind to, didn’t you? don’t quit now! tell her you’ve decided for her sake  to face the truth  that