The desolation of desolations! I shall be glad when I get out of it. What solitude! Of all the people I have known--dead or living--there is not one to stay by me.
_Enter, on the pass above him, a young girl repeating prayers on a rosary. She is a plain, unattractive girl, folded in a dull gray gown that wraps her loosely. Her face is earnest and devout._
NORAH (_looking back_). Oh, it is the Doctor.
DR. THORNE. But you’ve got the start of me, Norah. You are higher up. I am glad to see you, Norah (_eagerly_). But I can’t reach you.
NORAH (_holds down her hand_). Come up, Doctor! Come up! I’ll help you, Doctor.
DR. THORNE (_gratefully_). Thank you, Norah.
NORAH. It’s to Purrgatory I’d be goin’. But you’re the herretic, Doctor. Which way do you be goin’?
DR. THORNE (_shakes his head_). I don’t know, Norah. You are wiser than I am--in this foreign place.
NORAH (_holds down her hand_). The dear Doctor! Ye were that kind to me, Doctor,--at the hospital, and forninst the house where I was worrkin’. It’s niver a cint I had to pay yez for yer thruble. If I’d been a pretty lady with a purrse of gold, ye never could have put yerself about more than ye did for the likes of me. It’s not meself that would have died the day if _you’d_ been there. Doctor? Would yez mind, if I should--bless you, Doctor? There’s kindness onto kindness, and mercy goin’ after mercy that ye did me, all hidin’ in a poor girrl’s heart to rise and meet you here. I was sick an’ ye did visit me.
DR. THORNE (_melting_). When did I ever show you all that kindness, Norah? I don’t remember--
NORAH. And I don’t forget. Take my hand, now, Doctor, do. It must be lonesome down below there by yersel’. (_Touches her rosary. Her lips move in prayer._)
DR. THORNE (_climbing on, grasps_ NORAH’S _hand_). Thank you, Norah (_gently_).
(_There is a lull in the storm. It grows lighter._)
(DR. THORNE _and the Irish girl climb on together silently_.)
(_It brightens at the brow of the mountain. Dim outlines of figures are faintly seen at the summit. They waver, and melt away._)
DR. THORNE (_gradually loosening his hold of_ NORAH’S _hand, speaks, but not to_ NORAH, _bitterly_). Now stop a moment. Where will all this end? Rebelling, I obey; and obeying, I rebel. I am become what we used to call a spirit. And this is what it means! Better might one become a molecule, for those at least express the Laws of the Universe, and do not suffer. I don’t incline to go any higher. (_Drops back._) Every step is taking me further away from my wife.