Carpenter
[As he exits.] God be with you. [Julie resumes her reading. Ficsur enters, slinks furtively sideways to the stretcher, looks at Liliom, shakes his head. Julie looks up from her reading. Ficsur takes fright, slinks away from the stretcher, sits down at right, biting his nails. Julie rises. Ficsur rises, too, and looks at her half fearfully. With her piercing glance upon him he slinks to the door-*way at back, where he pauses and speaks.] Ficsur The old woman asked me to tell you that coffee is ready, and you are to come in. [Julie goes to the kitchen door. Ficsur withdraws until she has closed the door behind her. Then he reappears in the doorway, stands on tiptoes, looks at Liliom, then exits. Now the body lies alone. After a brief silence music is heard, distant at first, but gradually coming nearer. It is very much like the music of the carousel, but slower, graver, more exalted. The melody, too, is the same, yet the tempo is altered and contrapuntal measures of the thieves' song are intertwined in it. Two men in black, with heavy sticks, soft black hats and black gloves, appear in the doorway at back and stride slowly into the room. Their faces are beardless, marble white, grave and benign. One stops in front of the stretcher, the
