Page:Armistice Day.djvu/436
416 ARMISTICE DAY
Imaginative? Not in the least. He was a farm hand before the war.
THE VISITOR (persistently). Still, in his de- lirium
THE SURGEON (interrupting). He wouldn't rave like a poet. You forget; I have listened to so many others. (He pauses.) You think I am credulous. Perhaps. I neither affirm nor deny. They tell me of these things they call miracles
THE VISITOR (interrupting). And you ask no explanation?
THE SURGEON. Why must there be one?
THE VISITOR. There always is.
THE SURGEON. Yes; generally more miracu- lous than the miracle itself. (He pauses; then, with solemnity.) When, in the twentieth cen- tury, I myself have seen millions of men leaving their peaceful homes, their work, their occupa- tions, to kill one another, I say that is such a dreadful, such an unbelievable miracle that next to it everything else becomes insignificant. If this paperweight were to turn into a roaring lion before my eyes I would say that too was a mir- acle but that all of humanity had been witness to a greater! (The first door opens slowly.)
THE VISITOR (calling attention to it without alarm). The door is opening again. (THE SUR- GEON goes to it without a word; closes it.) THE VISITOR (as he does so). You would say
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