23

## Act One - Scene One

"THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia

(More sharply and commandingly)

Orin! Look at me!

(He turns and his eyes remain fixed on hers from now on)

Who murdered our father?

Orin

He did - for revenge because his mother -

Lavinia

Brant was only a tool. Me!

Who murdered our father?

Answer

Orin

(With a shudder - stammers)

Mother was under his influence -

Lavinia

(Sternly)

You know that's a lie! Influence, wasn't it?

Answer me!

It was Brant who was under her. You know the truth in your heart!

Orin

(Shuddering)

Yes.

Lavinia

She was an adulteress and a murderer!

Orin

(Falteringly)

Yes.

Lavinia

If we'd done our rightful duty under the law, she would have been hanged, wouldn't she?

24

## Act One - Scene One

## "THE HAUNTED"

Orin

Yes.

Lavinia

But we didn't. We had no intention of doing so. We protected her. She could have lived, couldn't she?

Orin

(Harshly)

Yes - and she would have if I hadn't -

Lavinia

(Intensely - with all her will power)

That's not true! You know it isn't! You know she had ceased to care anything about you! You know she cared only for that nurse girl's son, her lover, and killed herself for love of him - because he was dead - and because of her guilt for our father's murder! Isn't that the truth?

(As he hesitates, trembling violently all over, she grabs his arm fiercely and shakes him)

Tell me! Be brave, Orin! Tell me the truth!

Orin

(Hardly above a whisper)

Yes, Vinnie.

Lavinia

She punished herself! It was an act of justice! You had nothing to do with it! You see that clearly now, don't you?

Orin

Yes.

Lavinia

And the feeling you had of being guilty of her death was all only your morbid imagination, wasn't it? You don't feel it now! You'll never feel it again!

25

Act One - Scene One

"THE HAUNTED"

Orin

No.

Lavinia

(Gratefully - and weakly because the strength she has willed
into him has left her exhausted)

There! Now you see! You can do it when you really will
to!

(She hugs and kisses him. He breaks down, sobbing weakly
against her breast. She soothes him)

There! Don't cry! It's all right. You ought to be proud.
You've proven you can laugh at your ghosts from now on, Orin!

(Then briskly)

Come. Let's go in. We'll find Hazel and Peter and surprise
them.

(She takes his arm and leads him to the steps. He walks
woodenly, like an automaton. When they reach the spot where
his mother had sat meaning, the last time he had seen her
alive (Act Five of "The Hunted") he stops with a shudder)

Orin

(Stammers - pointing)

It was here - she -

Lavinia

(Quickly, urging him on commandingly)

And you see there is nothing there! There are no ghosts!
The dead have forgotten us! We have forgotten them! Come,
Orin! Come!

(He obeys woodenly. She gets him up the steps and they pass
into the house. A pause. Then Orin suddenly comes out of
the house again, moving with stealthy quickness, glancing
behind him furtively, down the steps to where his mother had
sat)

26

Act One - Scene One

"THE HAUNTED"

Orin

(Pleading pitifully)

Mother! She is lying, isn't she? - just as I've lied to her, making her believe - you are here, aren't you? You do forgive me, don't you? You're waiting to welcome me home?

(He waits for an answer - then frightenedly)

There's no one! She isn't here! She can't forgive me!

(Then hastily, grasping pitifully at a straw of hope)

But she wouldn't be here, you fool! She'd be in Father's study where she -

(He hurries back with the same quick stealthy movement into the house)

Curtain

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

Scene - Same as Act Two of "The Hunted" - The sitting room in the Mannon house. Peter has lighted two candles on the mantle and put the lantern on the table at front. In this dim spotty light the room is full of shadows. It has the dead appearance of a room long shut up. In the flickering candlelight the eyes of the Mannon portraits stare with a grim forbiddingness.

Peter is finishing removing the white furniture covers. Lavinia appears noiselessly in the doorway at rear. His back is turned and he does not see her. In the lighted room, the change in her is strikingly apparent. At a first glance, one would mistake her for her mother as she appeared in the First Act of "Homecoming". She seems a mature woman, sure of her feminine attractiveness. Her bronze-gold hair is arranged as her mother's had been. Her dress is a copy of her mother's green dress in Act One of "Homecoming". She stands just inside the doorway staring at Peter with a strange eager possessiveness. She comes forward slowly. The movements of her body now have the feminine grace her mother's had possessed.

### Lavinia

(Calls softly)

Peter.

(He thinks for a second she is her mother and steps back with an exclamation of dread. Lavinia comes to him, smiling as her mother might have smiled.)

Don't you know me any more, Peter?

(She holds out her hand to him)

### Peter

Vinnie! I - I thought - you were -

(He takes her hand automatically, staring at her stupidly)

### Lavinia

(Laughing softly and possessively, keeping his hand)

A ghost? No! I'm very much flesh and blood now, Peter. You mustn't be afraid.

2

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Peter

But - I can't realize it's you! You've grown so like your -

(Checking himself awkwardly)

I mean you've changed so - and we weren't looking for you until -

### Lavinia

I know. We had intended to stay in New York tonight but we decided later we'd better come right home.

(Then taking him in with a smiling appreciative affection)

Let me look at you, Peter. You haven't gone and changed, have you? No. You're the same, thank goodness! I've been thinking of you all the way home and wondering if - I was so afraid you might have.

### Peter

(Plucking up his courage - blurts out)

You - you ought to know I'd never change - with you.

(Then, alarmed by his own boldness, he hastily looks away from her)

### Lavinia

(Gratefully - softly)

It makes me happy - to hear you say that.

(Then teasingly)

But you haven't even said yet you're glad to see me!

### Peter

(Has turned back and is staring fascinatedly at her. A surge of love and desire overcomes his timidity and he bursts out)

I - you know how much I - !

(Then he turns away again in confusion and takes refuge in a burst of talk)

3

## Aot One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Peter (continued)

Gosh, Vinnie, you ought to have given us more warning.
We've only just started to open the place up. I was
unveiling the furniture and Hazel's in the kitchen start-
ing a fire -

### Lavinia

(Laughing softly)

Yes. You're the same old Peter! You're still afraid
of me. You mustn't be now. I know I used to be an awful
old stick but -

### Peter

Who said so? You were not!

(Then with enthusiasm)

Gosh, you look so darned pretty - and healthy. Your trip
certainly did you good!

(Then embarrassed again)

Where's Orin?

### Lavinia

(Alarmed - turning to the doorway)

Why he was right behind me! I thought -

(She calls frightenedly)

Orin!

### Orin

(His voice comes from the dark hall)

I'm here!

### Lavinia

What are you doing out there? Come in! Here's Peter!

### Peter

(Has been staring at her again, drinking her in)

I can't get over seeing you dressed in color! You always
used to wear black.

4

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(With a strange smile)

Because I was dead then.

### Peter

It certainly is becoming. You ought always to wear colors.

### Lavinia

(Immensely pleased)

Do you think so?

(Orin appears in the doorway. His face wears a dazed, stricken appearance and his eyes have a wild bewildered look. He comes to Lavinia, without noticing Peter, as if he were seeking her protection)

### Lavinia

(Frightened by his look)

Orin! What is it?

### Orin

I've just been in the study. I was sure she'd be waiting for me there where she -

(Torturedly)

But she wasn't! She isn't anywhere! It's only they - the Mannons -

(He points to the portraits)

They're everywhere! But she's gone forever! She'll never forgive me now!

### Lavinia

(Pleadingly)

Orin! Be quiet!

### Orin

(Changing to bitter resentful defiance)

Well, let her go! What is she to me? I'm not her son! I'm Father's! I'm the last Mannon! And they'll welcome me home!

5

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(Has been glancing frightenedly at Peter - sharply commanding)

Stop it, do you hear me? Do you want Peter to think you're
crazy?

### Orin

(Shocked back to awareness by her tone - pitifully confused)

I - I didn't mean - don't be angry, Vinnie - Peter knows I
didn't mean -

### Lavinia

(Soothing him worriedly)

I'm not angry, dear. Only do get hold of yourself - and be
brave.

(Then changing to a lighter tone)

You haven't said a word to Peter. You mustn't be so rude.

### Peter

(Good-naturedly)

Give him a chance, Vinnie. Hello, Orin. Darn glad to
see you back.

(They shake hands. Peter has difficulty in hiding his
pained surprise at Orin's sickly appearance)

### Orin

(Rousing himself with a visible effort of will, forces a
smile and makes an effort at his old friendly manner with
Peter)

Hello, Peter. You know I'm glad to see you without any
polite palaver. Vinnie is the same old bossy fuss-buzzer -
you remember - always trying to teach me manners!

### Peter

(Taking his cue to be a laughing tone)

You bet I remember! But say, hasn't she changed, though?
I didn't know her, she's grown so fat. And I was just
telling her how well she looked in color. Don't you agree?

6

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Orin

(In a sudden strange tone of jeering malice)

I don't know. It seems too much like theft. Did you ask her why she stole Mother's colors? I can't see why - yet - and I don't think she knows herself. But it will prove a strange reason, I'm certain of that, when we do discover it!

### Lavinia

(Making a warning sign to Peter not to take this seriously - forcing a smile)

Don't mind him, Peter.

### Orin

(His tone becoming sly, insinuating and mocking)

And she's become romantic and poetic, Peter. Imagine that! Influence of "the dark and deep blue ocean" - and of the Islands, eh Vinnie?

### Peter

(Surprised - to Lavinia)

You stopped at the Islands?

### Lavinia

Yes. We took advantage of our being owners on a Mannon ship to make the captain go out of his course and touch there on the way back from China. We stopped a month. I thought I wrote you.

### Orin

(With resentful bitterness)

But they turned out to be Vinnie's Islands, not mine. They only made me sick - and the naked women disgusted me. I guess I'm too much of a Mannon, after all, to turn into a pagan. But you should have seen Vinnie when she looked at the men --- !

### Lavinia

(Indignantly but with a certain guiltiness)

Orin! Don't be disgusting!

7

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Orin

(Jeeringly)

Handsome and romantic-looking, weren't they, Vinnie?
Oh, she was a bit shocked at first by the dances she insisted
on seeing, but afterwards she fell in love with the Islanders.
If we'd stayed another month, I know I'd have discovered her
some moonlight night dancing under the palm trees - as naked
as the rest!

### Lavinia

Orin!

### Orin

(Points to the portraits mockingly)

Picture, if you can, the feelings of the God-fearing
Mannon dead at that spectacle!

### Lavinia

(Strangely confused - with an anxious glance at Peter)

How can you make up such disgusting fibs?

### Orin

(With a malicious chuckle)

Oh, I wasn't as blind as I pretended to be - not by a
long shot!

### Lavinia

Stop talking like a fool!

(Then forcing a smile and a motherly tone)

You're a naughty boy, do you know it? What will Peter
think? Of course, he knows you're only teasing me - but
you shouldn't go on like that. It isn't nice.

(Then changing the subject abruptly)

Why don't you go on and find Hazel? She's in the kitchen.
Here! Let me look at you. I want you to look your best
when she sees you.

(She arranges him as a mother would a boy, pulling down his
coat, giving a touch to his shirt and tie. Orin straightens
woodenly to a soldierly attention. She is vexed by this)

8

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia (continued)

Don't stand like a ramrod! You'd be so handsome if you'd
only shave off that silly beard and not carry yourself like
a tin soldier!

### Orin

(With a sly cunning air)

Not look so much like Father, eh? More like a romantic
clipper captain, is that it?

(As she starts and stares at him frightenedly he smiles an
ugly taunting smile)

Don't look so frightened, Vinnie!

### Lavinia

(With an apprehensive glance at Peter - pleading and at the
same time warning)

Ssshh! You weren't to talk nonsense, remember!

(Giving him a final pat)

There! Now run along to Hazel.

### Orin

(Looks from her to Peter suspiciously)

You seem damned anxious to get rid of me. Why?

(He turns and stalks stiffly with hurt dignity from the room.
Lavinia turns to Peter. The strain of Orin's conduct has
told on her. She seems suddenly weak and nervous)

### Peter

What has come over Orin, Vinnie? He acted plumb crazy!

### Lavinia

(In a strained voice)

It's the same old thing - what the war did to him - and on
top of that Father's death - and the shock of Mother's
suicide.

9

## Act One - Scene Two

"THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia (continued)

(Then sadly, appealing for his sympathy)

Poor Orin! I've done everything I could! I took him on this trip so he'd forget, but he wouldn't think of anything but her! And finally I decided it might be the best thing for him to come home and fight it out with himself - with my help -

(Appealingly)

And I want you to help me, Peter - and get Hazel to help me get him back to himself.

Peter

Sure thing! We'll do anything you want!

(He puts his arm around her impulsively - comfortingly)

It'll be all right! Don't worry, Vinnie!

Lavinia

(Nestling against him gratefully)

Thank you, Peter. You're so good.

(Then suddenly looking into his eyes)

Do you still love me, Peter?

Peter

Don't have to ask that, do you?

(He squeezes her awkwardly - then stammers timidly)

But do you - think now - you maybe - can love me?

Lavinia

Yes. I'm beginning to already! I do! Oh, I never thought I would be glad to be home, but I am now - with you!

Peter

(In the seventh heaven)

You really mean that?

10

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

Yes. I do! I've thought of you so much! Things were always reminding me of you - the ship and the sea - everything that was honest and clean! And the natives on the Islands reminded me of you too. They were so simple and fine, even if they were heathen - like big children who thought all life was good - and all love was natural and sweet. They didn't think about church or what the neighbors would say:

(Then hastily with a queer guilty air)

But you mustn't mind what Orin was saying about the Islands. He's become a regular narrow bigoted Mannon in some ways.

### Peter

(Amazed)

But Vinnie - !

### Lavinia

Oh, I know it must sound funny hearing me talk like that! But remember I'm only half Mannon! I'm Mother's daughter too!

(She looks at the portraits defiantly)

And I've done my duty to them! They can't say I haven't!

### Peter

(Mystified but happy)

Gosh, you certainly have changed! But I'm darn glad!

### Lavinia

Orin says nasty things because he's jealous if I even look at anyone. He keeps insinuating I was flirting with the chief's son because he used to smile at me and I smiled back. He was so simple and good - like a big boy - like you!

### Peter

(Teasingly)

Now, I'm beginning to get jealous too, Vinnie!

11

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(Strangely)

You mustn't. He made me think of you. He made me dream of marrying you - and everything.

### Peter

(With a grin)

Oh, well then, I take it all back! I owe him a vote of thanks!

(He hugs her)

### Lavinia

(Dreamily)

I loved those Islands! They finished setting me free! It had started when I left here and the sea made it grow - and then the other side of the world - where I saw people happy with different laws, a different God - But the Islands finished it. There was something there mysterious and beautiful - a good spirit - of love - coming out of the land and the sea. It made me forget death. There was no hereafter there. There was only this world and it was beautiful - a world of love - the warm earth in the moonlight - the trade wind in the coco palms - the surf on the reef - the fire and the drum throbbing in my heart - the natives dancing naked and innocent - without knowledge of sin!

(She checks herself abruptly and frightenedly)

But what in the world! I'm gabbing on like a regular chatterbox. You must think I've become awfully scatter-brained!

### Peter

(With a chuckle)

Gosh no! I'm glad you've grown that way! You never used to say a word unless you had to!

### Lavinia

(Suddenly filled with grateful love for him, lets herself go and throws her arms around him)

13

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

I know it is, Peter, but you can't do anything with him when he gets his morbid spells. Oh, I don't mean he's the way he is tonight most of the time. Usually he's like himself, only quiet and sad - so sad it breaks my heart to see him - like a little boy who's been punished for something he didn't do. I thought maybe if Hazel still loved him --

### Peter

She does. I can tell you that.

### Lavinia

Oh, I don't mean he could marry her yet. I've got to be with him every minute for fear --

(She checks herself abruptly)

Please tell Hazel all I've told you, Peter, so she'll understand and make allowances for anything he may say about Mother.

### Peter

I'll warn her. And now don't you worry anymore about him! You cheer up! We'll yank him out of his dumps one way or another, you wait and see!

### Lavinia

(Again grateful for his simple goodness - lovingly)

Bless you, Peter!

(She kisses him. As she does so, Hazel and Orin appear in the doorway at rear. Hazel is a bit shocked, then smiles happily. Orin starts as if he'd been struck. He glares at them with jealous rage and clenches his fists as if he were going to attack them)

### Hazel

(With a teasing laugh)

I'm afraid we're interrupting, Orin.

(Peter and Vinnie jump apart in confusion)

14

## Act One - Scene Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

Orin

(In a harsh voice - threateningly)

So that's it! By God - !

Lavinia

(Frightened but managing to be stern)

Orin!

Orin

(Pulls himself up sharply - confusedly, forcing a sickly smile)

Don't be so solemn - Fuss Buzzer! I was only trying to scare you - for a joke!

(Turning to Peter and holding out his hand, his smile becoming ghastly)

I suppose congratulations are in order. I - I'm glad.

(Peter takes his hand awkwardly, watching him puzzledly. Hazel moves toward Lavinia to greet her, her face full of an uneasy bewilderment. Lavinia stares at Orin with eyes full of dread)

Curtain

## Act Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

Scene - Same as Act Two of "The Hunted" - Ezra Mannon's study - on an evening a month later. The shutters of the windows are closed. Candles on the mantle above the fireplace light up the portrait of Ezra Mannon in his judge's robes. Orin is sitting in his father's chair at left of table, writing by the light of a lamp. A small pile of manuscript is neatly stacked by his right hand. He is intent on his work. He seems to have aged in the intervening month, - to be the same age now as his father in the portrait. He is dressed in black and resemblance between the two is uncanny. Something like a grim smile of satisfaction that is almost sinister twitches his lips as he stops writing and reads over the paragraph he has just finished. Then he puts the sheet down and stares up at the portrait, sitting back in his chair.

### Orin

(Sardonically, addressing the portrait)

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! Is that the kind of truth you are demanding, Father? Are you sure you want the whole truth? You used to fear your neighbor as yourself, as I remember! What will the neighbors say if this whole truth is ever known?

(He chuckles grimly)

A ticklish decision for you, Your Honor!

(There is a knock on the door. He hastily grabs the script and puts it in the drawer of the desk)

Who's there?

### Lavinia

It's I.

### Orin

(Hastily looking the drawer and putting the key in his pocket)

What do you want?

### Lavinia

(Sharply)

Please open the door!

2

## Act Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

Orin

All right. In a minute.

(He hurriedly straightens up the table and grabs a book at random from the bookcase and lays it open on the table as if he'd been reading. Then he unlocks the door and comes back to his chair as Lavinia enters. She wears a purplish plum color dress similar to that worn by Christine in Act Three of "Homecoming". It sets off her hair and eyes. She is obviously hiding beneath a surface calm a sense of dread and uneasiness)

Lavinia

(Glances at him suspiciously, but forcing a casual air)

Why did you look yourself in?

(She comes over to the table)

What are you doing?

Orin

Reading.

Lavinia

(Picks up the book - sceptically)

Father's law books?

Orin

(Mockingly)

Why not? I am considering studying law. He wanted me to, if you remember.

Lavinia

Do you expect me to believe that, Orin? What is it you're really doing?

Orin

Curious, aren't you?

3

## Act Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(Forcing a smile)

Good gracious, why wouldn't I be? You've acted so funny lately, looking yourself in here with the blinds closed and a lamp burning even in the daytime. It isn't good for you staying in this stuffy room in this weather. You ought to get out in the fresh air all you can.

### Orin

(Harshly)

I hate the daylight. It's like an accusing eye! No, we have renounced the day in which normal people live - or rather it has renounced us. Perpetual night - darkness of death in life - that's the fitting habitat for guilt! You believe you can escape that, but I'm not so foolish!

### Lavinia

Now you're being stupid again!

### Orin

And I find artificial light more appropriate for my work - man's light, not God's - man's feeble striving to understand himself, to exist for himself in the darkness! It's a symbol of his life - a lamp burning out in a room of waiting shadows!

### Lavinia

(Sharply)

Your work?

What work?

### Orin

(Mockingly)

Studying the law of crime and punishment, as you saw.

### Lavinia

(Forcing a smile again and turning away from him)

All right, if you won't tell me. Go on being mysterious, if you like.

4

## Act Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia (continued)

(In a tense voice)

It's so close in here! It's suffocating! It's bad for you!

(She goes to the window and throws the shutters open and looks out)

It's black as pitch tonight. There isn't a star.

Orin

(Somberly)

Darkness without a star to guide us! Where are we going, Vinnie?

(Then with a mocking shuckle)

Oh, I know you think you know where you're going, but there's many a slip, remember!

(If she has heard this she gives no sign but remains looking out in the darkness. Orin stares at her - then is suddenly ashamed of himself and full of love for her)

Orin

Vinnie!

(As she doesn't answer, he gets to his feet and goes and puts his hand on her shoulder. A shiver runs over his body. He says remorsefully)

I'm sorry, Vinnie. I don't mean to torture you. But I don't know why, at some moments some devil gets into me and I almost hate you - when I get to thinking - But you'll never leave me alone, as she did, will you?

Lavinia

(Turns to him, forcing a smile)

Of course not, silly boy! And don't worry about the things you say - when you're not yourself. I don't pay any attention to them.

5

## Act Two

"THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia (continued)

(She kisses him lightly on the cheek)

There. We won't think of it.

(She looks around, evidently calculating something - suddenly forcing a laugh)

Good heavens, I'd clean forgotten what I came after you for.
There's something wrong with the pump in the kitchen - and
Seth's nowhere to be found, as usual.

Orin

He's afraid of this house at night. I don't blame him.

Lavinia

I know. And I don't think we'll be able to keep Hannah
much longer - except to come in the daytime. She's heard
the idiotic story someone started about its being haunted.

(Then quickly)

Go out and see if you can do something to the pump, won't
you, Orin?

Orin

(Starting for the door)

All right.

(Then turning around in the doorway - suspiciously)

Aren't you coming?

Lavinia

(Joining him)

Yes, but I've got to go upstairs a moment first. You go
along.

(They go out to the hall together. His footsteps are heard
moving away to the rear of the house. Then Lavinia hurries
back into the study and begins a feverish search. She feels
behind the books in the case, and goes through the desk,
coming finally to the table where she tries the drawer and

6

## Act Two

"THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia (continued)

finds it locked. She makes a gesture of despairing hopelessness - then listens, hears Orin's footsteps returning from the rear of the house, and hurries noiselessly out of the door again to go upstairs. A pause. Then Orin enters. He glances around hurriedly and apprehensively, as if afraid she might be there, and is relieved at not finding her. He comes to the table, feels if the drawer is still locked, examines the lock, and smiles with mocking satisfaction. Then as he raises his head his eyes are caught by the portrait and he stands staring at it a moment and finally addresses it mockingly)

The whole truth and nothing but the whole truth, Your Honor!

(He laughs harshly. Lavinia enters behind him. She shrinks as she hears his laughter)

### Lavinia

Orin! What are you doing?

### Orin

Communing with our guilty conscience!

(He turns to her)

Yes, our! Oh, I know he used to be your justification - he and the rest of the Mannon tribe - but now you'll find they are our judges!

### Lavinia

(Making an effort to be carelessly scornful)

Fiddlesticks! Don't talk nonsense!

### Orin

(Staring at her - with a strange eagerness)

What's the matter, Vinnie? You look all upset. You're trembling. Did you see something upstairs? Did you go to her room? Tell me!

### Lavinia

(Her voice strident as if her will were snapping)

For God's sake, be quiet! Can't you think of anything but -

7

## Act Two

"THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia (continued)

(Then controlling herself, comes to him - gently)

I'm sorry. I'm terribly nervous tonight. It's the heat, I guess. And you get me so worried with your incessant brooding over the past. It's the worst thing for your health.

(She pats him on the arm - soothingly)

That's all I'm thinking about, dear.

Orin

(With somber bitterness)

She wasn't there? But you'd lie if she were! You've become like her even in that! You always lie to me now!

Lavinia

(Angrily)

There was nothing upstairs! You're getting worse than Hannah - with your spooks! Did you fix the pump?

Orin

(Dully)

No, I don't know what's wrong. It will have to wait for Seth.

(Then his tone suddenly changing to one of bitter accusation)

Thank you for your anxiety about my health a moment ago! But I'm afraid there isn't much hope for you there! I happen to feel quite well!

Lavinia

(Whirling on him - distractedly)

Orin! Stop it! How can you insinuate such horrible - ?

(Again controlling herself with a great effort, forcing a smile)

8

## Act Two

"THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia (continued)

But you're only trying to rile me - and I'm not going to
let you even I do think that sort of morbid joking isn't a
bit funny.

(A pause. He still stares at her suspiciously. She goes on calmly without looking at him)

I'm so glad you're feeling better. You ate a good supper
tonight - for you. The long walk we took with Hazel this
morning did you good.

Orin

(Dully)

Yes.

(He slumps down in his chair at left of table)

Why is it you never leave me alone with her more than a
minute? You made me ask her to marry me. You keep harp-
ing that it was one of Mother's last wishes - and now we're
engaged you never leave us alone.

(Then with a bitter smile)

But I know the reason well enough! You're afraid I'll let
something slip.

Lavinia

(Sits in the chair opposite him - wearily)

Can you blame me, the way you've been acting?

Orin

(Somberly)

No. I am afraid myself of being too long alone with her -
afraid of myself. I have no right in the same world with
her. And yet I feel irresistibly drawn to her purity! Her
love for me makes me appear less vile to myself -

(Then with a harsh laugh)

9

## Act Two

"THE HAUNTED"

Orin (continued)

And, at the same time, a million times more vile, that's
the hell of it! So I'm afraid you can't hope to get rid
of me through Hazel. She's another lost island! It's
wiser for you to keep Hazel away from me, I warn you.
Because when I see love for a murderer in her eyes my guilt
crowds up in my throat like poisonous vomit and I long to
spit it out - and confess!

### Lavinia

(In a low voice - brokenly)

Yes, that is what I live in terror of, Orin - that in one
of your fits you will say something - before someone - now
after it's all past and forgotten - when there isn't the
slightest suspicion -

### Orin

(Harshly)

Were you hoping you could escape retribution? You can't!
Confess and atone to the full extent of the law! That's the
only way to wash the guilt of our mother's blood from our
souls!

### Lavinia

Ssshh!

### Orin

Ask our father, the Judge, if it isn't the only way! He
knows! He keeps telling me!

### Lavinia

(Violently)

But we didn't kill her! You know we didn't! She punished
herself for his murder! It was an act of justice! How can
you blame yourself? It's too mad!

### Orin

(Somberly)

No. She loved me and I could have saved her! Instead of
that I goaded her to death. She would have lived if she'd
had my love to fall back on. But I turned against her when

10

## Act Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

Orin (continued)

I should have forgiven her. And to make it blacker, it was all my fault in the first place. Why did I ever let Father and you nag me into the war when she pleaded with me not to leave her alone? If I had stayed home with her she never would have come under Brant's influence. She never would have poisoned Father! It was all my fault for leaving her!

### Lavinia

(With a flare-up of her old jealousy)

How can you still love that woman so - when you know she cared nothing about you and was plotting to leave you without a thought and marry Brant?

### Orin

(With fierce accusation)

Yes! Exactly as you're pretending to love me now while you're scheming to leave me and marry Peter! But by God, you won't! You'll damn soon stop your tricks when you know what I've been writing in here!

### Lavinia

(Tensely)

What have you written?

### Orin

(His anger turned to gloating satisfaction)

Ah! That frightens you, does it? Well, you'd better be frightened!

### Lavinia

(Starting up from her chair - distractedly)

Oh, I can't bear it any longer! I won't!

(She walks toward the door - then stops and turns back determinedly)

Orin! Tell me what you've been writing.

11

## Act Two

"THE HAUNTED"

### Orin

(Mockingly)

Ah, I thought you'd be too curious to leave before you'd
found that out!

(Then roughly)

None of your damned business!

### Lavinia

I've got to know!

### Orin

Well, as I've finished it - I suppose I might as well tell
you. At his earnest solicitation -

(He waves a hand to the portrait mockingly)

as his son and the last of the Mannons - thank God for that,
eh! - I've been writing the history of the family.

(He adds with a glance at the portrait and a malicious chuckle)

But I don't wish to convey that he approves of all I've
set down - not by a damned sight!

### Lavinia

(Trying to keep calm - tensely)

A history? What kind of history do you mean?

### Orin

A true history of the family crimes! An analysis of the
fate within us, the curse that made us commit them!

### Lavinia

(Aghast)

Do you mean to tell me you've written down -

12

## Act Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

Orin

(As if he hadn't heard - deliberately)

I've tried to trace to its secret hiding place in the Mannon
soul the inherited fate, the family devil-god that has lived
our lives for us! I wanted to discover the forces in us with
roots deep in deeds of the past, the impulses we haven't
recognized in ourselves or have been afraid to admit.

Lavinia

(Falteringly)

I don't see - what you mean.

Orin

I start with Grandfather Abe's lust for Marie Brantôme,
and I trace the result of his lust and hatred to his
brother's suicide and Marie's death - to her son's hatred
and revenge - to the hatred and revenge Mother felt when
Father and you sent me out to murder for the Union - then
the fusing of Mother's hate and Adam's in the desire that
murdered Father - and so on to you and me and our murdering
them! But I haven't dared predict our finish - not yet,
Vinnie! But either we will be driven by the Mannons to
confess and give ourselves to the law - or Mother and Marie
Brantôme will drive us to some last act of rebellion against
the Mannon God so evil that it will murder even the Mannon
conscience, and bring us peace!

(He stares at her with a strange sinister intensity)

Lavinia

(Frightenedly - shrinking from him)

Why do you look at me like that?

Orin

(Dropping his eyes guiltily and resuming his mocking tone)

Most of what I've written is about you, Vinnie. You are the
most interesting criminal of the lot.

Lavinia

(Tremblingly)

Orin! You ought to be ashamed to talk like that to me!

13

Act Two

"THE HAUNTED"

Orin

So many queer hidden things combine in you - the guilts
of deeds done long ago that marry kindred guilts and multiply
in time and are the thing you look upon as you! I've written
the true story of our trip to the East - the inner story, not
a log book. Remember on the voyage out the First Mate,
Wilkinson? Oh, I know you thought I was in a stupor of grief -
and so I was, but I wasn't blind. I watched you watch him.
I watched day by day your longing for him grow in your eyes.

Lavinia

(Looking guilty - angrily)

I never gave him a thought! He was just an officer of the
ship -

Orin

(Driving his point in with a sinister mockery)

Adam Brant was a ship's officer, wasn't he? And Wilkinson
took a romantic view about his calling - ships and the sea -
as I believe Brant did. Oh, don't trouble to lie, Vinnie!
He reminded you of Adam and you wanted him. That was why
you bought new clothes in San Francisco and started wearing
Mother's colors.

Lavinia

(Chokingly)

Orin! Stop it! I - I warn you - I won't bear your
insults much longer! I won't!

Orin

(Goes on deliberately)

I'm only telling you what you wanted to know - what I've
written. Now we come to the Islands. You remember.
Avahanni, the Chief's son? I have a queer intuition that
the decisive moment in your transformation from a Mannon to
our mother was due to him! Wasn't it?

Lavinia

(In guilty confusion)

I - I don't know what you're talking about!

14

## Act Two

"THE HAUNTED"

### Orin

(Mockingly)

A handsome child of Nature, innocent of our warped ideas of sin, to whom sex was as natural as eating to appease hunger - and to whom killing an enemy was a simple act of righteousness! Those things among others!

### Lavinia

(Lets a stifled gasp escape her)

Ah!

### Orin

All that he meant to you, didn't he? - oh not consciously then, but you see it now, don't you? And what a paradise of longing fulfilled the Islands were to you! All those handsome men staring with desire at you and your strange golden hair! It was then you began to fill out and become a woman. You were aware that Avahanni adored and frankly desired you! I could see it filled you with pride.

(He suddenly accuses her with fierce jealousy)

What did you do with him that night I was sick and you went to watch their shameless dance? Something happened between you! I saw your face when you came back and stood with him in front of our hut!

### Lavinia

(Quietly - with a simple proud dignity)

Nothing. I had kissed him good night, that was all. In gratitude. He was simple and innocent and good. He made me feel life and love were sweet and natural. He didn't believe life was only a trial to go through in order to be permitted to die!

### Orin

(Convinced, ashamed of himself, and grateful)

I - forgive me, Vinnie - I didn't mean - I know you couldn't -

15

## Act Two

"THE HAUNTED"

Orin (continued)

(Then with an obsessed insistence)

But the point is this just the same - even if it only
happened in your mind - that in him you saw a chance to
steal quite naturally, without suspicion, far from the
eyes of respectability, the last thing that remained to
steal from Mother, and make your own - her sin, her guilty
love! After you'd done that you could be her! But I
want to warn you you'll find the fate in it is that now,
having become her, you'll have to repeat her experiences -
and our Mannon God will trap you in the end as it trapped
her!

(He laughs diabolically)

Can't you see I'm now in Father's place - and you're
Mother? I'm the Mannon you're chained to! You want
Peter - and I stand between you! Don't you realize what
that is fated to lead to?

Lavinia

(Putting her hands over her ears)

You don't know what you're saying! I won't listen!

(Then pleading distractedly)

For God's sake, Orin, don't torture me so! I'll do anything - anything for you if you'll only stop talking like that!

Orin

(Stares at her with a strange wild look)

That's a large promise, Vinnie - anything!

Lavinia

(Frightenedly)

What do you mean?

(Then shrinking in horror from something she sees in his
eyes)

Don't look at me like that!

16

## Act Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Orin

(Staring at her as before - slowly, lowering his voice)

You don't seem to realize all you mean to me now! You
are all I love in the world! I love you with all the
guilt in me, too - the guilt we share! Perhaps I love
you - too much, Vinnie! There are times when you seem
to be not you, nor Mother, but some stranger with the same
strange golden hair - no sister of mine -

(He suddenly breaks off and laughs crazily)

Maybe it's Marie Brantôme, eh? And yet you say there are
no ghosts in this house!

### Lavinia

(Shrinking away - in a horrified whisper)

Stop talking, Orin! Stop, for God's sake!

### Orin

(Changing to a threatening tone)

So I warn you I won't bear your leaving me alone with my
guilt and forgetting me for Peter! I know you're planning
how to get rid of me! But I'm going to put the confession
I've written into safe hands - to be opened and read in case
you ever try to marry Peter - or if I should suddenly die
mysteriously!

### Lavinia

(Torturedly)

Don't keep saying that! How can you be so horrible?
Don't you know I'm your sister, who loves you, who would
give her life to make you well again and bring you peace?

### Orin

I don't believe you! I know you're plotting something!
Another act of justice, eh? Perhaps, to avoid all
suspicion, you'll drive me to kill myself as I drove Mother!

(He grins horribly)

That would be poetic justice, wouldn't it? - now you have
made yourself Mother! And perhaps she could forgive me
then!

17

## Act Two

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(Frantically grabbing his arm and shaking him fiercely)

Stop having such thoughts! Stop making me have them! You're like a devil torturing me! I won't listen! I won't bear it!

(Orin seems to come to himself, the wild look leaves his eyes)

### Orin

(Dully and stupidly)

All right - I'm sorry, Vinnie - don't mind me -

(Then in a strange tone)

I think back too far! I say things that belong to silence! I'm rotten with guilt! Forgive me!

(He comes back to the chair at left of table and slumps down heavily in it. Lavinia goes slowly to the door, her eyes still full of dread fixed on him. He doesn't look up. She goes out closing the door after her)

Curtain

## Act Three

## "THE HAUNTED"

Scene - Same as Act One, Scene Two - the sitting room. The lamp on the table is lighted but turned low. Two candles are burning on the mantle over the fireplace at right, shedding their flickering light on the portrait of Abe Mannon above and of the other Mannons on the walls on each side of him. The eyes of the portraits seem to possess an intense bitter life with their frozen stare "looking over the head of life, cutting it dead for the impropriety of living", as Orin had said of his father in Act Two of "The Hunted".

No time has elapsed since the preceding act. Lavinia enters from the hall in the rear, having just come from the study. She comes to the table and turns up the lamp. She is in a terrific state of tension. The corners of her mouth twitch, she bites her lips, she twines and untwines the fingers of her clasped hands with a slow wringing movement which recalls her mother in the last Act of "The Hunted".

### Lavinia

(Torturedly - begins to pace up and down, muttering her thoughts aloud)

I can't bear it any longer! I'll go insane, too! Why does he keep putting his death in my head? Why does he keep harping - as if he desired it? He would be better off if - Why hasn't he the courage - ?

(Then distractedly, clutching her hair with both hands as if she were trying to tear these thoughts from her brain)

I won't think of that! I won't! It's my duty to save him from himself! But then I can never marry Peter! I will never know love or have children! I will be his prisoner! The way he looks at me - the way he talks of loving me! Oh God, he is insane, he can't mean that - or he isn't fit to live. He ought to kill himself!

(Then in a frenzy of remorseful anguish again she falls on her knees and prays, her eyes unconsciously seeking the Mannon portraits on the right wall as if they were the visible symbol of her God)

Oh God, I pray to You, don't let me have such thoughts! You know I love Orin! Help me! Show me the way to save him and make him sane again! And don't let me think of death! I couldn't bear another death! Please! Please!

2

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia (continued)

(At a noise from the hall she starts to her feet and composes herself, pretending to be glancing through a book on the table. The cook, Hannah, appears in the doorway. She is an old fat negress, very black, with grizzled hair)

Hannah

Mis' Vinnie.

Lavinia

(Without turning - brusquely)

What is it, Hannah?

Hannah

Bout dat pesky pump. I can't git no water to do my dishes. I'se skeered to go lookin' fur dat no-count Seth in de dark. Won't you come wid me, Mis' Vinnie?

Lavinia

All right. I'll get Seth for you.

(She goes to the door - impatiently)

You're such a fool, Hannah! Afraid of the dark!

Hannah

(Defensively)

You know I usen't to be skeered, Mis' Vinnie. But now I feel things crawlin' behine me -

Lavinia

(Brusquely)

Rats!

(She goes out with Hannah. A pause. Then a ring from the front door bell. A moment later Hannah is seen coming back through the hall. She opens the front door - is heard greeting Peter and Hazel and follows them as they enter the room)

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Hannah

Mis' Vinnie's gone out to de barn to git Seth. She'll be right back.

### Peter

All right, Hannah.

### Hannah

(Lowering her voice - volubly)

She was jest givin' me the dickens 'cause I'se skeered in dis house. But I tells her it's God's truth, if it wasn't her an' Orin was like my own chillrun, I wouldn't work here fur all de money dey is in de worl'.

### Peter

(Grinning)

Well, you just catch one of those h'ants and sit on him! I'll bet you he won't do any h'anting after that!

### Hannah

(Huffily)

Ain't no use talkin' to you! You're always makin' game!

(She goes out. Peter chuckles but Hazel does not smile. They have come forward and sat down, Hazel at right of table at left center and Peter at left center. Peter looks hearty and good-natured, the same as ever, but Hazel's face wears a nervous uneasy look although her air is determined)

### Peter

I'll have to run along soon and drop in at the Council meeting. I can't get out of it. I'll be back in half an hour - maybe sooner.

### Hazel

(Is looking around her uneasily - suddenly with a little shiver)

I hate this house now. I hate coming here. If it wasn't for Orin -

4

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

Peter

Bosh! You're as bad as Hannah!

Hazel

Well, I really am beginning to believe it's haunted by
the evil spirit Seth spoke about - and that's what's the
matter with Orin and Vinnie.

Peter

(Defensively)

I haven't noticed anything wrong with Vinnie.

Hazel

You wouldn't. But there is just the same. She isn't
like the old Vinnie a bit.

Peter

I'm darned glad she isn't!

Hazel

(Sharply)

Maybe you won't -

(She stops abruptly)

Peter

(Frowning)

Won't what?

Hazel

Nothing.

Peter

What's come over you lately? You act as if you had it
in for Vinnie. You and she had a falling out?

Hazel

No.

5

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Peter

(Resentfully)

You ought to remember it's no picnic for her living alone
with Orin, the way he is.

### Hazel

(Resentful in her turn)

It's harder for him than for her. He's getting worse.

### Peter

Seems to me he's a lot better than he was.

### Hazel

Because you want to believe that! And he's careful how
he acts before you. But I know better. Keeping him shut
up in this house is the worst thing Vinnie could do.

### Peter

He won't go out. You know very well she has to force him
to walk with you.

### Hazel

And comes along herself! Never leaves him alone a second.

### Peter

(With a grin)

Oh, that's what you've got against her, eh?

### Hazel

(Sharply)

Don't be silly, Peter! I simply think, and I'd say it to
her face, that she's a bad influence for Orin!

### Peter

Why, she takes care of him as if she were his slave.

### Hazel

Why doesn't she have a doctor see him?

6

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Peter

She took him to one in New York when they landed. She's following his instructions.

### Hazel

Orin told me he'd never been to a doctor in New York.

### Peter

He forgets what he's done!

### Hazel

He can't forget something he's done. That's what's the matter with him!

### Peter

Well, we know what that is, don't we? Vinnie warned us he had a crazy guilty feeling about his mother's suicide.

### Hazel

Then why is she so bound he won't tell me? He wants to but she's always around to stop him. She ought to know I would understand. And I'm certain if he got it off his mind, I could help him stop brooding over it -

(She adds in a tone of foreboding)

if that's all it is.

### Peter

(Frowning)

Vinnie probably thinks it's bad for him to talk about it.

(Then uneasily)

What made you say "if that's all it is"?

### Hazel

I don't know, Peter. But I feel there's something awfully wrong - somehow. Orin scares me at times - and Vinnie - I've watched her looking at you. She's changed so. There's something bold about her.

7

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Peter

(Resentfully-getting up)

If you're going to talk like that - ! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Hazel!

### Hazel

(Defiantly)

Well, I'm not! Don't forget I'm engaged to Orin just as much as you are to her! I've got some right to say something about how he's cared for! And I'm going to from now on and not let her stop me! I'm going to make her let him visit us for a spell. I've asked Mother and she'll be glad to have him. And I know it will do him good to get away from here. It's cheerful at our house - not like this tomb.

### Peter

Say, I think that's a darn good notion for both of them. She needs a rest from him too.

### Hazel

Vinnie doesn't think it's a good notion! I mentioned it yesterday and she gave me such a look and said he couldn't.

(Determinedly)

But I'm going to make him promise to come over tomorrow no matter what she says!

### Peter

(Soothingly, patting her shoulder)

Don't get angry now - about nothing. I'll help you persuade Vinnie to let him come. She probably only thinks Mother mightn't want him when he's acting so queer.

(Then with a grin)

I'll help you do anything to help Orin - if only for self-fish reasons. As long as Vinnie's tied down to him we can't get married.

9

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Hazel

She's gone out to find Seth, Hannah said.

### Peter

(Glancing at his watch)

Gosh, I've got to hurry to that darned Council meeting.

### Orin

(Eagerly)

You're going?

### Peter

(Jokingly)

You needn't look so darn tickled about it! It isn't polite!

### Orin

I've got to see Hazel alone!

### Peter

All right! You don't have to put me out!

(He grins, slapping Orin on the back and goes out. Orin follows him with his eyes until he hears the front door close behind him)

### Orin

(Turning to Hazel - with queer furtive excitement)

Listen, Hazel! I want you to do something! But wait! I've got to get -

(He rushes out and can be heard going across the hall to the study. Hazel looks after him worriedly. A moment later he hurries back with a big sealed envelope in his hand which he gives to Hazel, talking breathlessly with nervous jerks of his head as he glances apprehensively at the door)

10

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

Orin (continued)

Here! Take this! Quick! Don't let her see it! I want
you to keep it in a safe place and never let anyone know you
have it! It will be stolen if I keep it here! I know her!
Will you promise?

Hazel

But - what is it, Orin?

Orin

I can't tell you. You mustn't ask me. And you must pro-
mise never to open it - unless something happens to me.

Hazel

(Frightened by his tone)

What do you mean?

Orin

I mean if I should die - or - but this is the most important,
if she tries to marry Peter -- the day before the wedding --
I want you to make Peter read what's inside.

Hazel

You don't want her to marry Peter?

Orin

No! She can't have happiness! She's got to be punished!

(Suddenly taking her hand - excitedly)

And listen, Hazel. You mustn't love me any more! I can't
love you! I've killed all pure love in myself. The only
love I can know now is the love of guilt for guilt which
breeds more guilt - until you get so deep at the bottom of
hell there is no lower you can sink and you rest there in
peace!

(He laughs harshly and turns away from her)

Hazel

Orin! Don't talk like that!

(Then conquering her horror - resolutely tender and soothing)

Ssshh! Poor boy! Come here to me.

11

## Act Three

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Hazel (continued)

(He comes to her. She puts an arm around him. He sinks on his knees beside her)

Listen. I know something is torturing you - and I don't want to seem prying - I'm not - but I've had such a strong feeling at times that it would relieve your mind if you could tell me what it is. Haven't you thought that, Orin?

### Orin

(Longingly)

Yes! Yes! I want to confess to your purity! I want to be forgiven!

(Then checking himself abruptly as he is about to speak - dully)

No. I can't. Don't ask me. I love her.

### Hazel

But, you silly boy, Vinnie told Peter herself what it is and told him to tell me.

### Orin

(Staring at her wildly)

What did she tell?

### Hazel

About your having a quarrel with your poor mother that night before she -- and how you've brooded over it until you blame yourself for her death.

### Orin

(Springs to his feet - harshly)

I see! So in case I did tell you - oh, she's cunning! But not cunning enough this time!

(Vindictively)

You remember what I've given you, Hazel, and you do exactly what I said with it!

12

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

Orin (continued)

(Then suddenly with desperate pleading)

For God's sake, Hazel, if you love me help me to get away
from here - or something terrible will happen!

Hazel

That's just what I want to do! You come over tomorrow and stay with us for a week or two and I'll take care of you and we'll take walks in the sun and fresh air -

Orin

(Bitterly)

Do you suppose for a moment she'll ever let me go?

Hazel

But haven't you a perfect right to do as you want to? Do
you have to ask her permission for everything? Just walk
out and come to our house!

Orin

(Furtively)

I could sneak out when she wasn't looking - and then you
could hide me and when she came looking tell her I wasn't
there.

Hazel

(Indignantly)

I won't do any such thing! I don't tell lies, Orin!

(Then scornfully)

How can you be so scared of Vinnie?

Orin

(Hearing a noise from the hall - hastily)

Ssshh! She's coming! Don't let her see what I gave you.
And go home right away and lock it up!

13

## Act Three

## "THE HAUNTED"

Orin (continued)

(He tiptoes away as if he were afraid of being found close to her and sits on the sofa at right, adopting a suspiciously careless attitude. Hazel looks self-conscious and stiff. Lavinia appears in the doorway and gives a start as she sees Hazel and Orin are alone. She quickly senses something suspicious in the atmosphere and glances sharply from one to the other as she comes into the room)

Lavinia

(To Hazel, forcing a casual air)

I'm sorry being so long but the pump's out of order and I had to get Seth to fix it.

Hazel

I didn't mind waiting.

Lavinia

(Sitting down on the chair at center)

Where's Peter?

Hazel

He had to go to a Council meeting. He's coming back.

Lavinia

(Uneasiness creeping into her tone)

Has he been gone long?

Hazel

Not very long.

Lavinia

(Turning to Orin - sharply)

I thought you were in the study.

Orin

(Sensing her uneasiness - mockingly)

I finished what I was working on.

14

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

You finished - ?

(She glances sharply at Hazel - forcing a joking tone)

My, but you, too, look mysterious! What have you been up to?

### Hazel

(Trying to force a laugh)

Why, Vinnie? What makes you think - ?

### Lavinia

You're hiding something.

(Hazel gives a start and instinctively moves the hand with the envelope father behind her back. Lavinia notices this. So does Orin who uneasily comes to Hazel's rescue)

### Orin

We're not hiding anything. Hazel has invited me over to their house to stay for a while - and I'm going.

### Hazel

(Backing him up resolutely)

Yes. Orin is coming tomorrow.

### Lavinia

(Alarmed and resentful - coldly)

It's kind of you. I know you mean it for the best. But he can't go.

### Hazel

(Sharply)

Why not?

### Lavinia

I don't care to discuss it, Hazel. You ought to know -

15

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Hazel

(Angrily)

I don't know - and I guess Orin is of age and can go where
he pleases.

### Orin

Let her talk all she likes, Hazel. I will have the upper
hand for a change, from now on!

(Lavinia looks at him startedly, frightened by the triumphant
satisfaction in his voice)

### Hazel

(Anxious to score her point and keep Orin's mind on it)

I should think you would be glad. It will be the best
thing in the world for him to get where it's cheerful and
not stay stuck in this gloomy house.

### Lavinia

(Turns on her - angrily)

I'll ask you to please mind your own business, Hazel!

### Hazel

(Springs to her feet, in her anger forgetting to hide the
envelope which she now holds openly in her hand)

It is my business! I love Orin better than you! I don't
think you love him at all, the way you've been acting!

### Orin

(He sees the envelope in plain sight and calls to her
warningly)

Hazel?

(She catches his eye and hastily puts her hand behind her.
Lavinia catches the movement but doesn't for a moment
realize the meaning of it. Orin goes on warningly -
excited)

You said you had to go home early. I don't want to remind
you but -

16

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Hazel

(Hastily)

Yes, I really must.

(Starting to go, trying to keep the envelope hidden, aware
that Lavinia is watching her suspiciously - defiantly to
Orin)

We will expect you tomorrow, and have your room ready.

(Then to Lavinia - coldly)

After the way you have insulted me, Vinnie, I hope you
realize there is no more question of any friendship between
us.

(She tries awkwardly to sidle toward the door)

### Lavinia

(Suddenly gets between her and the door - with angry accusa-
tion)

What are you hiding behind your back?

(Hazel flushes guiltily, but refusing to lie, says nothing.
Lavinia turns on Orin)

Have you given her what you've written?

(As he hesitates - violently)

Answer me!

### Orin

That's my business! What if I have?

### Lavinia

You - you traitor! You coward!

(Fiercely to Hazel)

Give it to me! Do you hear?

17

## Act Three

## "THE HAUNTED"

### Hazel

Vinnie! How dare you talk that way to me!

(She turns to go but Lavinia keeps directly between her and the door)

### Lavinia

You shan't leave here until -

(Then suddenly breaking down and pleading)

No! I don't mean that! Forgive me for getting angry!
But please give it to me!

### Orin

Remember what you promised me, Hazel!

### Lavinia

You know he isn't responsible for what he's doing! He'd never do this if he were! I don't ask you for my sake but in the name of the friendship between our families for generations! For the sake of the Mannons I ask this of the Niles!

### Hazel

(Moved and shaken)

I can't. I promised him.

### Lavinia

Orin! Think what you're doing! Tell her to give it to me!

### Orin

No!

### Lavinia

(Goes and sinks on her knees beside him and puts her arms around him - beseachingly as he shrinks away and avoids her eyes)

Orin! Dear Orin! Think sanely for a moment! You can't do this! You're a Mannon.

18

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

Orin

(Harshly)

It's because I'm one!

Lavinia

For Mother's sake, you can't! You loved her!

Orin

A lot she cared! Don't call on her!

Lavinia

(Desperately)

For my sake, then! You know I love you! Make Hazel give that up and I'll do anything - anything you want me to!

Orin

(Stares into her eyes, bending his head until his face is close to hers - with morbid intensity)

You mean that? You promise? You swear it?

Lavinia

(Shrinking back from him and avoiding his eyes - falteringly)

Yes.

Orin

(Laugs with a crazy triumph - checks this abruptly - and goes quietly to Hazel who has been standing bewilderedly, not understanding what is behind their talk but sensing something sinister, and terribly frightened. Orin speaks quietly)

Let me have it, Hazel.

Hazel

(Hands him the envelope - in a trembling voice)

I'll go home. I suppose - we can't expect you tomorrow - now.

19

## Act Three

## "THE HAUNTED"

Orin

(With surprising gentleness)

No. Forget me, Hazel. The Orin you loved was killed in the war.

(With a twisted smile)

Remember only that dead hero and not his rotting ghost!

(He suddenly takes her hand and kisses it - his voice breaking)

Thank you - for all your kindness and goodness! Good'bye!

(Then feeling himself breaking - harshly)

Please go!

(Hazel begins to sob and stumbles into the hall. A moment later the front door is heard closing behind her. Orin comes back to Lavinia who remains kneeling by the chair, staring before her. He puts the envelope in her hand - harshly)

Here!

(Then more harshly)

You realize the promise you made means giving up Peter?

Lavinia

(Dully)

Yes.

Orin

And you realize what else it means - to what final damnation our guilty fate and the ghosts in us are driving us?

Lavinia

(Shrinking back)

No! You're insane now! You don't mean -

## Act Three

## "THE HAUNTED"

20

### Orin

You shrink from me in horror! But what other way to peace have you left me - except utter damnation! You won't confess with me - and find peace that way!

(Suddenly with a passionate pleading, getting on one knee beside her)

Vinnie! For the love of God, let us go together now and confess and pay the penalty for our mother's murder - and find peace and forgiveness!

### Lavinia

(Tempted and tortured, in a longing whisper)

Find peace!

(Then summoning her will - springs to her feet wildly)

No! You coward! Leave me alone! There is no guilt! There was no crime! There was only justice on a murderess!

### Orin

(Suddenly turning and addressing the portraits with harsh mockery)

You hear me? You'll find Lavinia Mannon harder to break than me! You'll have to haunt and hound her for a lifetime!

(He laughs wildly and turns back to Lavinia - with a mad insistence)

Then that way to peace is barred! You know I can't confess alone! But I must find peace somehow or go mad! You don't want me to go mad, do you? I would talk too much! So we come to the other way to peace - the absolute damnation! If I can commit one sin that will make me feel so irrevocably damned that to continue to have a conscience would be ridiculous even for a lunatic - well, the eternally damned know a kind of peace, don't they? You can't refuse me that! And now that Peter is finished, why should you care? There will only be you and I alone in a world of darkness from now on! And you pretend you have killed your conscience - so why shouldn't we take what joy in guilt the devil offers us?

21

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(With a shuddering repulsion - in a stifled whisper)

Oh! You're not my brother! You're not Orin! You're
vile! You're disgusting! I hate you!

(Then in a sudden burst of frantic rage, glaring at him)

You ought to be ashamed to live! You'd kill yourself if
you weren't a coward!

### Orin

(Starts back as if he'd been struck, the wild tortured mad
look on his face changing to a stricken terrified expres-
sion - brokenly)

Vinnie!

### Lavinia

(Frenziedly)

I mean it! I mean it! You shouldn't live to torture me!

(Then she breaks down in an anguish of wild hysterical
sobbing)

### Orin

(Stares at her with the lost stricken expression for a
moment more - then the obsessed wild look returns to his
eyes and he mutters to himself)

Yes - of course - the act of justice - the exact retri-
bution - it was fated it must be exactly this way and no
other!

(Then a strange note of relieved satisfaction coming into
his voice)

And it's the way to peace, too - to my lost Island - Death
is the Island of Peace I've always longed for! Mother will
be waiting there - to forgive me - to welcome me home!

(He speaks to Vinnie with excited eagerness)

Vinnie! I'll see Mother soon! Do you know what I'll do
then? I'll get on my knees and ask her forgiveness - and
say -

22

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

Orin (continued)

(His mouth grows convulsed as if he were retching up poison)

I'll say, I'm glad you found love, Mother! I'll wish them happiness - her and Adam!

(He laughs with an exulting triumph)

She's heard me! She's here in the house now, can't you feel her? She's calling to me! She's in the study waiting to take me home!

(He turns and strides toward the door)

### Lavinia

(Who has raised her head and been staring at him frightenedly during the latter part of his talk - suddenly realizing and torn by remorse, runs after him and throws her arm around him - stammeringly)

No, Orin! No! No!

### Orin

(Pushes her away - with a brusque brotherly irritation, as if he were impatient with her for her stupidity in res-training him from an obviously sensible action)

Let go of me! Don't be so damned stupid, Vinnie. It's the only way to peace and forgiveness, can't you understand that?

(He evades her hands and gets to the door. She gives a frightened cry. Then he turns suddenly back to her and says sharply)

Ssshh! Be quiet! Here's Peter! Be sensible, now!

(He steps back in the room as Peter appears in the doorway)

### Peter

Excuse my coming right in. The door was open. Where's Hazel?

### Orin

(Speaks with unnatural casualness)

Gone home.

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

23

## Orin (continued)

(Then with a quick meaning glance at Lavinia - with hidden mockery)

I'm just going in the study to clean my pistol. Darn thing's gotten so rusty it won't work. Glad you came now, Peter. You can keep Vinnie company.

(He turns and goes out the door. Peter stares after him puzzledly)

## Lavinia

(With a half-stifled cry)

Orin!

(There is no answer but the sound of the study door being shut. Then she throws herself into Peter's arms as if for protection against herself and begins to talk volubly as if to drown out thought)

Hold me close to you, Peter! Nothing matters but our love, does it? That must come first! No price is too great, is it? Or for peace! One must have peace - if one is tortured to madness - if one is too weak to forget - no one has a right to keep one from peace!

(She makes a motion to cover her ears with her hands)

## Peter

(Alarmed by her hectic excitement)

He's a darn fool to monkey with a pistol - in his state. Shall I get it away from him?

## Lavinia

(Holding him tighter - wildly)

Don't leave me! Hold me close! Oh, won't it be wonderful, Peter - once we're married and have a baby and a home with a garden and trees! We'll be so happy! I love trees! I love everything that grows simply - up toward the sun - everything that's straight and clean and strong! I hate what's stunted and warped and twists and eats into itself and dies for a lifetime in shadow. I love you because you're innocent and clean and strong in the sun - like a great oak tree!

(Then her voice rising as if it were about to break hysterically - again with the instinctive movement to cover her ears)

24

## Act Three

"THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia (continued)

I can't bear waiting - waiting and waiting and waiting - !

(There is a muffled shot from the study across the hall)

### Peter

(Breaking from her and darting for the door)

Good God! What's that?

### Lavinia

(Sags weakly and supports herself against the table - in a faint, trembling voice)

Orin! Forgive me!

(She controls herself with a terrible effort of will. Her mouth congeals into a frozen line. Mechanically she hides the sealed envelope in a drawer of table and locks the drawer)

I've got to go in --

(She turns to go and her eyes catches the eyes of the Mannons in the portraits fixed on her. She starts - then defiantly)

Why do you look at me like that? I'm Mother's daughter - not one of you! I'll live in spite of you!

(She squares her shoulders, turns with a return of the abrupt military movement of her Father's she had of old - as if by the very act of disowning the Mannons she had returned to the fold - and marches stiffly from the room)

Curtain

## Act Four

## "THE HAUNTED"

Scene - Same as Act One - Scene One - Exterior. It is in the late afternoon of a day three days later. The Mannon house has much the same appearance as it had in the first scene of "Homecoming". Soft golden sunlight shimmers in a luminous mist on the Greek temple portico, intensifying the whiteness of the columns, the deep green of the shutters, the green of the shrubbery, the black and green of the pines. The columns cast black bars of shadow on the gray stone wall behind them. The shutters are all fastened back, the windows open. On the ground floor, the upper part of the windows, raised from the bottom, reflect the sun in a burning glare, as of fierce revengeful eyes.

Lavinia is sitting in a white rocking chair with a red Indian blanket thrown over the cane bottom and the back. The three days that have intervened have affected a remarkable change in her. Her body, dressed in deep mourning, again appears flat-chested and angularly thin. The Mannon mask-sembalance of her face appears intensified now. It is emotionless, deeply lined, haggard with sleeplessness and mental strain, congealed into a stony expression. Her lips are bloodless, drawn taut in a grim line. She sits bolt upright, her thin arms on the arms of the chair, her hand clutching the ends tensely, her legs and feet pressed together, and stares back into the sun-glare with unblinking, frozen, defiant eyes. A pause. Then she suddenly gets up and comes down the steps, stiff and square-shouldered, and marches woodenly off left between the lilac bushes and the house, going toward the garden. Seth appears walking slowly up the drive from right, front. He has a pair of grass clippers and potters along pretending to trim the edge of the lawn along the drive. But in reality he is merely killing time, chewing tobacco, and singing mournfully to himself, in his aged plaintive wraith of a once good baritone, the chanty "Shenandoah":

### Seth

"Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you
A-way my rolling river
Oh Shenandoah, I can't get near you
Way-ay, I'm bound away
Across the wide Missouri"

Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter
A-way, you rolling river".

(Hannah appears in the doorway and comes to the edge of the steps. She looks worried and sad and irritable. She interrupts him)

2

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

Hannah

Where's Mis' Vinnie, Seth?

Seth

(Without looking up, clipping one or two sprigs of grass laboriously)

Dunno. I ain't seed her fur a while.

Hannah

(Worriedly)

She ain't tol' me muffin' 'bout supper - muffin' 'bout muffin'.

Seth

(Without looking up, sings to himself)

"She's gone across the stormy water
Way-ay, I'm bound away
Across the wide Missouri"

Hannah

(With a shiver - irritably)

Stop singin' yo' fool song. I'se feelin' mournful enuf.

(Then seeking refuge in a railing tone - regarding him derisively)

I'clar I never seed a man yit could look so busy doin' muffin' as you kin!

Seth

(Without looking up - provokingly)

That so?

Hannah

You waste enuf strength pretendin' to work, seems like you might just as well do it!

3

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Seth

Expectin' me to work! That's what we git fur freein' you!

(Hannah snorts indignantly and begins sweeping again. Seth goes on with a comically injured air)

Allus pickin' on a poor old invalid tetterin' on the brink of the grave!

(He shakes his head sadly and spits)

### Hannah

(With a complete change of tone, looking around her with dread)

Fo' Lawd's sake, don't go talkin' o' graves wid po' Mistah Orin not cold in his yit!

(She begins to cry lifting her apron to her eyes)

Po' Lamb! I 'member de day he was b'on s'if it was yesterday. He was sech a pretty baby. His mother jut doted on him! Dat's the on'y thing I evah likes 'bout dat woman. She sho'ly did love dat baby. An' now dey's both gone!

### Seth

(His face gone grim - dryly)

Ayeh!

(He leaves his clippers on the ground and moves to the steps. Then shaking his head - more to himself than to her)

A durned measly death fur a sodjer to kill himself cleanin' his gun! Clean through the heart! Purty straight shootin' fur an accident, folks is sayin'.

(He stares at the house resentfully and spits)

There's a cuss on that house! Death's stalkin' in it!

### Hannah

(Drying her eyes - her voice still trembling)

Po' Mis' Vinnie! She's all 'lone now.

4

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Seth

Not fur long, I calc'late. She'll be marryin' Peter. I
hope she moves away to live. Folks'll fight purty shy of
her. A Mannon has come to mean sudden death to 'em.

### Hannah

Huh! Lot she cares fur de trash in dis town!

### Seth

Oh, she's able fur 'em, no denyin'. Clean Mannon strain.
They'd never git her to show nothin'. Her face at the funeral
was like a stone statue's. Anyone didn't know her would think
it was some stranger gittin' planted, not Orin.

### Hannah

Her heart's broken, jest the same! She can't bear stayin'
in de house a minute now, even wid all de doors an' winders
open.

(Pointing to the chair)

Look where she's set out every night since he died. I knows
she ain't slept a wink.

### Seth

(Grimly)

She's got sense to stay out of the durmed house!

(He looks off left)

There she be pickin' flowers. Like her mother used to -
on'y wuss. Durn it! I hoped she'd stop that once the
funeral was over. There won't be a one left in my garden.

### Hannah

Every room in de house is full of 'em. Dey comforts her,
I reckons.

### Seth

(Moving back)

She's comin'.

5

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

Seth (continued)

(He goes busily to pluck up imaginary weeds from around the lilac clump. Hannah sweeps again. Lavinia enters from behind the lilacs)

### Lavinia

(Goes to the steps and holds out the flowers to Hannah - in a strange empty voice)

Take these, Hannah. Set them around inside. I want the house to be full of flowers. Mister Peter is coming and I want everything to be pretty and cheerful.

### Hannah

(Glancing at her worriedly)

Yes, Mis' Vinnie.

(She carries the flowers into the house. Lavinia goes up the steps and sits stiffly erect on her chair again in the position she had been in before)

### Seth

(Has been watching her covertly out of the corner of his eye - kindly)

How'd you like if I hauled one of them sofas out for you to lie on, Vinnie? Mebbe you could take a couple o' winks an' it'd do you good.

### Lavinia

(A bit startled. She has been oblivious to his presence before)

No, thank you, Seth. I'm waiting for Peter.

(Then after a pause, curiously)

Why didn't you tell me to go in the house and lie down?

(Seth pretends not to hear the question, avoiding her eyes)

You understand, don't you? You've been with us Mannons so long! You know there's no rest in this house which Grand-father built as a temple of Hate and Death!

6

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Seth

(Blurts out)

Don't you try to live here, Vinnie! You marry Peter and get clear!

### Lavinia

I'm going to marry him! And I'm going away with him and forget this house and all that ever happened in it!

### Seth

That's talkin', Vinnie!

### Lavinia

I'll close it up tight and leave it in the sun and rain to die a natural death. The portraits of the Mannons will mildew and rot on the walls and the ghosts will fade back into death and forget! And the Mannons will be forgotten. I'm the last and I won't be one long. I'll be Mrs Peter Niles. Then they're finished! Thank God!

(She leans back in the sunlight and closes her eyes. Seth stares at her worriedly, shakes his head, spits, and goes back to his lazy pottering about. Then he hears something and peers down the drive, off left)

### Seth

(In a low warning tone)

Vinnie! Here's Hazel comin'.

### Lavinia

(Jerks up stiffly with a look of alarm)

Hazel? What does she want?

(She springs up as if she were going to run in the house, then stands her ground on the top of the steps - her voice hardening)

Seth, you go work in back, please!

### Seth

Ayeh!

(He moves slowly off behind the lilacs as Hazel enters from left, front - calling back)

Evenin', Hazel.

7

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Hazel

Good evening, Seth.

(She stops short and stares at Lavinia. Lavinia's eyes are hard and defiant as she stares back. Hazel is dressed in mourning. Her face is sad and pale, her eyes show evidence of much weeping, but there is an air of stubborn resolution about her as she makes up her mind and walks to the foot of the steps)

### Lavinia

(Finally asks defiantly)

What do you want? I've got a lot to attend to.

### Hazel

(Quietly)

It won't take me long to say what I've come to say, Vinnie.

(Suddenly she bursts out)

It's a lie about Orin killing himself by accident! I know it is! He meant to!

### Lavinia

(Seeming to grow more stiff - coldly)

You better be careful what you say. I can prove what happened. Peter was there -

### Hazel

I don't care what anyone says!

### Lavinia

I should think you'd be the last one to accuse Orin of that, if you had any regard for his memory.

### Hazel

I'm not accusing him! Don't you dare say that! I'm accusing you! You drove him to do it! Oh, I know I can't prove it - anymore than I can prove a lot of things Orin hinted at! But I know terrible things must have happened - and that you're to blame for them, somehow!

8

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(Concealing a start of fear - changing to a forced reproachful tone)

What would Orin think of you coming here the day of his funeral to accuse me of the sorrow that's afflicted our family?

### Hazel

(Feeling guilty and at the same time defiant and sure she is right - dully)

All right, Vinnie. I won't say anything more. But I know there's something - and so do I - something that was driving Orin crazy -

(She suddenly breaks down and sobs pitifully)

Poor Orin!

### Lavinia

(Stares straight before her. Her lips twitch. In a stifled voice between her clenched teeth)

Don't - do that!

### Hazel

(Controlling herself - after a pause)

I'm sorry. I didn't come to talk about Orin.

### Lavinia

(Uneasily)

What did you come for?

### Hazel

About Peter.

### Lavinia

(As if this were something she had been dreading - harshly)

You leave Peter and me alone!

9

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Hazel

I won't! You're not going to marry Peter and ruin his life!

(Pleading now)

You can't! Don't you see he could never be happy with you, that you will only drag him into this terrible thing - whatever it is - and make him share it?

### Lavinia

There is no terrible thing!

### Hazel

I know Peter can't believe evil of anyone, but living alone with you, married, you couldn't hide it, he'd get to feel what I feel. He might never find out what it is, but he'd feel it in you! You could never be happy long because it would come between you!

(Pleading again)

Oh Vinnie, you've got to be fair to Peter! You've got to consider his life and happiness as well as your own - if you really love him!

### Lavinia

(Hoarsely)

I do love him!

### Hazel

It has started already - his being made unhappy through you!

### Lavinia

You're lying!

### Hazel

He fought with Mother last night when she tried to talk to him - the first time he ever did such a thing! It isn't like Peter! You have changed him! He left home and went to the hotel to stay! He said he'd never speak to Mother or me again! He's always been such a wonderful son before - and brother! We three have been so happy! It's broken Mother's heart! All she does is sit and cry!

10

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

Hazel (continued)

(Desperately)

Oh Vinnie, you can't do it! You will be punished if you do.
Peter would get to hate you in the end!

Lavinia

No!

Hazel

Do you want to take the risk of driving Peter to do what
Orin did? He might in the end - if he ever discovered the
truth!

Lavinia

(Violently)

What truth, you little fool! Discover what?

Hazel

(Accusingly)

I don't know - but you know! Look in your heart and ask
your conscience before God if you ought to marry Peter!

Lavinia

(Desperately - at the end of her tether)

Yes! Before God! Before anything!

(Then suddenly glaring at her threateningly, with a burst of
frenzied rage)

You leave me alone - go away - or I'll get Orin's pistol and
kill you!

(Her rage passes, leaving her weak and shaken. She leans
against a column for support)

Hazel

(Recoiling)

Vinnie! Oh! You are wicked! I believe you would kill -
Vinnie! What made you like this? You ought to pray to God -

11

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(Supporting herself by the column, has gone to the chair and sunk on it)

God is dead! Go away!

### Hazel

Vinnie!

(Lavinia closes her eyes. Hazel stands staring at her. After a pause - in a trembling voice)

All right. I'll go. All I can do is trust you. I know in your heart you can't be dead to all honor and justice - you, a Mannon!

(Lavinia gives a little bitter mocking laugh without opening her eyes)

At least you owe it to Peter to tell him the whole truth before he marries you - Let him read what Orin had in that envelope you made him take back. That's the truth, I know - and Orin asked me to make Peter read it before he married you. I've told Peter about that, Vinnie.

### Lavinia

(Without opening her eyes - strangely, as if to herself)

The everlasting Mannon dead! Why can't the dead die!

### Hazel

(Stares at her frightenedly, not knowing what to do - looks around her uncertainly and sees someone coming from off the left, front - quickly)

Here comes Peter now. I'll go by the back. I don't want him to meet me.

(She starts to go but stops by the clump of lilacs - pityingly)

I know you're suffering, Vinnie - and I know your conscience will make you do what's right - and God will forgive you. Good'bye.

(She goes quickly behind the lilacs and around the house to the rear)

12

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(Looks after her and calls defiantly)

All you've said has gone in one ear and out the other!
I'm not asking God or anybody for forgiveness. I forgive
myself!

(She leans back and closes her eyes again - bitterly)

I hope there is a hell for the good somewhere!

(Peter enters from the left, front. He looks haggard and tormented. He walks slowly, his eyes on the ground - then sees Lavinia and immediately makes an effort to pull himself together and appear cheerful)

### Peter

Hello, Vinnie.

(He sits on the edge of the portico beside her. She still keeps her eyes closed as if afraid to open them. He looks at her worriedly)

You look terribly worn out. Haven't you slept?

(He pats her hand with awkward tenderness. Her mouth twitches and draws down at the corners as she stifles a sob. He goes on comfortingly)

You've had an awfully hard time of it, but never mind,
we'll be married soon and we'll forget -

### Lavinia

(Without opening her eyes - longingly)

You'll love me and keep me from remembering!

### Peter

You bet I will! And the first thing is to get you away
from this darned house! I may be a fool but I'm beginning
to feel superstitious about it myself.

### Lavinia

(Without opening her eyes - strangely)

Yes. Love can't live in it. We will go away and leave it
alone to die - and we'll forget the dead.

13

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Peter

(A bitter resentful note coming into his voice)

We can't move too far away to suit me! I hate this damned
town now and everyone in it!

### Lavinia

(Opens her eyes and looks at him startedly)

I never heard you talk that way before, Peter - bitter!

### Peter

(Avoiding her eyes - resentfully)

Well, some things would make anyone bitter!

### Lavinia

You've quarrelled with your mother and Hazel - on account of
me - is that it?

### Peter

How did you know?

### Lavinia

Hazel was just here.

### Peter

She told you? The darned fool! What did she do that for?

### Lavinia

She doesn't want me to marry you.

### Peter

(Angrily)

The little sneak! What right has she - ?

(Then a bit uneasily - forcing a smile)

Well, you won't pay any attention to her, I Hope.

14

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Lavinia

(More as if she were answering some voice in herself than him - stiffening in her chair - defiantly)

No! I won't!

### Peter

She and Mother suddenly get a lot of crazy notions in their heads. But they'll get over them.

### Lavinia

(Staring at him searchingly - uneasily)

Supposing they don't?

### Peter

They will after we are married - or I'm through with them!

### Lavinia

(A pause. Then suddenly she takes his face in her hands and turns it up to hers)

Peter! Let me look at you! You're suffering! Your eyes have a hurt look! They've always been so trustful! They look suspicious and afraid of life now! Have I done this to you already, Peter? Are you beginning to suspect me? Are you wondering what it was Orin wrote for Hazel to show you - so you wouldn't marry me?

### Peter

(Protesting violently)

No! Of course I'm not! Don't I know Orin was half out of his mind? Why would I pay any attention - ?

### Lavinia

You swear you'll never suspect me - of anything?

### Peter

What do you think I am?

### Lavinia

And you'll never let anyone come between us? Nothing can keep us from being happy, can it? You won't let anything, will you?

15

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

### Peter

Of course I won't!

### Lavinia

(More and more desperately)

I want to get married right away, Peter! I'm afraid
alone! Would you marry me now - this evening? We can
find a Minister to do it. I can change my clothes in
a second and put on the color you like! Marry me today,
Peter! I'm afraid to wait!

### Peter

(Bewildered and a bit shocked)

But - you don't mean that, do you? We couldn't. It
wouldn't look right the day Orin - out of respect for him.

(Then suspicious in spite of himself)

I can't see why you're so afraid of waiting. Nothing can
happen, can it? Was there anything in what Orin wrote
and gave to Hazel that would stop us from - ?

### Lavinia

(With a wild beaten laugh)

Always the dead coming between! They always would, Peter!
You trust me with your happiness! But that means trusting
the Mannon dead - and they're not to be trusted with love!
I know them too well! And I couldn't bear to watch your
eyes grow bitter and hidden from me and wounded in their
trust of life! I love you too much!

### Peter

(Frightenedly)

What are you talking about, Vinnie?

### Lavinia

(In a flat dead voice)

I can't marry you, Peter. You mustn't ever see me again.

16

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia (continued)

(He stares at her, stunned and stupid)

Go home! Make it up with your mother and Hazel. Marry
someone else. Love isn't permitted to me. The dead are too
strong!

### Peter

(His mind is in a horrible turmoil - stammering)

Vinnie! You can't - ! You've gone crazy - ! What's changed you? Why are you doing this?

(Then suspiciously)

Is it - what Orin wrote for me? What was it, Vinnie?
I've got a right to know, haven't I?

(Then as she doesn't answer - more suspiciously)

He always acted so queer about - what happened on the
Islands. Was it something - there?

### Lavinia

(Seizing on this way out - brutally)

Yes, if you must know! He knew I'd fornicated with that
Chief's son he talked about.

### Peter

(Shrinking from her with a stricken look of horrified
disgust - stammers)

Vinnie! Then Mother and Hazel were right! You are bad at
heart - evil and cruel - no wonder Orin - I - I never want
to see you again! I hope you'll be punished! I -

(He turns and stumbles off blindly down the drive to the
left)

### Lavinia

(With a little cry, starts after him)

Peter! It isn't true! I lied to you!

17

## Act Four

"THE HAUNTED"

Lavinia (continued)

(She stops abruptly and stiffens into her stiff soldierly attitude. She looks down the drive after him - then turns away staring straight before her, saying in a dead flat tone of finality)

Goodbye, Peter.

(Seth enters from the left rear, coming around the corner of the house. He stands for a moment watching her, grimly wondering. Then to call her attention to his presence, he begins singing half under his breath his melancholy "Shenandoah" chanty, at the same time looking at the ground around him as if searching for something)

Seth

"Oh Shenandoah, I can't get near you
Way-ay, I'm bound away - "

Lavinia

(Without looking at him, picking up the words of the chanty - with a grim writhen smile)

I'm not bound away - not now, Seth. I'm bound here - to the Mannon dead!

(She gives a dry little cackle of laughter and turns as if to enter the house)

Seth

(Frightened by the look on her face, grabs her by the arm)

Don't go in there, Vinnie!

Lavinia

(Grimly)

Don't be afraid. I'm not going the way Mother and Orin went. That's escaping punishment. And there's no one left to punish me. I'm the last Mannon. I've got to punish myself. Living alone at home here with the dead is a worst act of justice than death or prison! I'll never go out or see anyone again. I'll have the shutters nailed closed so no sunlight can ever get in. I'll live alone with the dead in twilight and darkness, and keep their secrets, and let them hound me, until the curse is all paid out and the last Mannon is let die!