A country cemetery. Ada: They were married in the quietest manner possible, and went off to Cambridge together to spend their honeymoon

Ada: They were married in the quietest manner possible, and went off to Cambridge together to spend their honeymoon. One foggy, drizzling morning they returned home and my brother appeared in his lecture-room at the very stroke of the hour. I welcomed the new mistress of the house and handed over the keys of it to her. Mrs. Grey pressed me warmly to go on keeping the house but it was impossible for me. It wasn’t my house any more. A couple of days later the maid carried a card, just after breakfast, when I was knitting and my brother was revising his morning lecture. It announced the re-arrival of Dr. James M’Murdo O’Brien.

SCENE IV

Two months later. The Greys’ library. Professor is sitting at his desk and writing. Ada is knitting. Enter Sarah with a card on a salver.

Sarah: Dr. James M’Murdo O’Brien wants to see you and Miss Grey, sir.

Grey: Show him here, Sarah.

Ada: I’d better change my dress. This one is not suitable, I suppose.

Grey: You have enough time to do it, Ada. We’re going to discuss his last book.

(Ada goes out. O’ Brien appears in the doorway. Professor Grey makes a few steps toward him. They shake hands.)

Grey: You see there have been changes.

O'Brien: So I heard. Miss Grey told me in her letters, and I read the notice in the British Medical Journal. How is your sister?

Grey: She is all right. You’ll see her in a few minutes.

O'Brien: We have corresponded, and I think that all will be well. She must come out with me. I don’t think I could leave England without her.

Grey: I’m sure, Ada will go with you to Australia. I have given her to understand that there is no one whom I should prefer for a brother-in-law to my most brilliant pupil.

O'Brien: You are very kind, Professor Grey – you have always been very kind. But when may I call and pay my respects to Mrs. Grey? Will she be at home this afternoon?

Grey: She is at home now. (Rings. Sarah enters.) Where is Mrs. Grey, Sarah?

Sarah: She is in the garden.

Grey: Ask her to come here, please. (Sarah disappears.)

O'Brien: So you are really married, aren’t you? How quickly and quietly you have managed it all!

Grey: You know how I hate shows or ceremonies of any kind. My wife is a sensible woman, she quite agreed with me on that point.

(Enter Jeannette. O’Brien gives a cry and falls into a chair, with his hand pressed tight to his side.

O’Brien: Jinny!

Jeannette: James! (She goes pale and stares at O’Brien. Her face expresses astonishment and horror.)

Grey (makes her sit down): Try this sofa. (To O’Brien.) So, O’Brien, you have already made the acquaintance of my wife!

O’Brien: Your wife! She is no wife of yours. God help me, she is my wife! How could you leave me so, Jinny? How could you have the heart to do it?

Jeannette: Oh, James!

Grey: You are faint, lie down and keep your head low. (Looks at his watch.) I’m sorry to leave you, O’Brien, but I have my class duties to look to. Possibly I may find you here when I return. (Professor goes out.)

O’Brien: I thought you were dead. I mourned for your death – ay, and you have made me mourn for you living. You have withered my life. Why do you not speak?

Jeannette: Because you are right, James. I have treated you cruelly – shamefully. But it is not as bad as you think.

O’Brien: You fled with De Horta.

Jeannette: No, I didn’t. At the last moment my better nature prevailed. He went alone. But I was ashamed to came back after what I had written to you. I could not face you. I changed my name. It seemed to me that I was beginning life again. I knew that you thought I was dead. Who could have dreamed that Fate would throw us together again. When the Professor asked me…

O’Brien: You are still my wife, Jinny. I forgive you from the bottom of my heart. I love you and I have never ceased to love you, though you had forgotten me.

Jeannette: No, James, I have always been yours. I thought that it was better for you that I should seem to be dead.

O’Brien: You must choose between us now, Jinny.

Jeannette: I shall go with you, James.

O’Brien: And the Professor?

Jeannette: The poor Professor! But he will not mind much, James; he has no heart.

O’Brien: We must tell him our resolution.

Grey (enters the room quite suddenly): There is no need. I have overheard the latter part of your conversation. You have come to a wise decision. Go to Australia together, and let what has passed be blotted out of your lives.

O’Brien: But you… you…

Grey: Never trouble about me.

Jeannette (comes up to him, trying to catch his eyes): What can I do or say? Howcould I have foreseen this? I thought my old life was dead. But it has come back again, with all its hopes and its desires. What can I say to you, John?

Grey: My carriage stands at the door. I beg that you will use it as your own. Your things, Jeannette, shall be forwarded.

O’Brien: I hardly dare offer you my hand.

Grey: On the contrary. I think that of the three of us you come best out of the affair. You have nothing to be ashamed of.

O’Brien: Your sister…

Grey: I shall see that the matter is put to her in its true light. Good-bye! Let me have a copy of your recent research.

Jeannette: Good-bye. (Their eyes meet. To O’Brian.) James, James! Don’t you see that he is stricken to the heart?

Grey (turns her quietly away from him): I am not an emotional man. I have my duties – my research. The carriage is here. Your cloak is in the hall. Now go.

(O’Brien and Jeannette leave the house. Professor Grey closes the door behind them and comes back to the library, where he sees Ada in her new dress.)

Ada: What’s the matter, John? Why didn’t you let me go downstairs? Are you not well? And where is Mr. O’Brien?

Grey (goes to his writing-table): I’ll explain everything to you tomorrow, Ada. And now I must work, I must work, work, work…

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