ACT TWO
Scene: The same as Scene One, Professor Leeds’ study. It is about nine o’clock of a night in early fall, over a year later. The appearance of the room is unchanged except that all the shades, of the color of pale flesh, are drawn down, giving the windows a suggestion of lifeless closed eyes and making the room seem more withdrawn from life than before. The reading lamp on the table is lit. Everything on the table, papers, pencils, pens, etc., is arranged in meticulous order.
Marsden is seated on the chair at center. He is dressed carefully in an English made suit of blue serge so dark as to seem black, and which, combined with the gloomy brooding expression of his face, strongly suggests one in mourning. His tall, thin body sags wearily in the chair, his head is sunk forward, the chin almost touching his chest, his eyes stare sadly at nothing.
Marsden
[His thoughts at ebb, without emphasis, sluggish and melancholy]
Prophetic Professor! . . . I remember he once said . . . shortly after Nina went away . . . “some day, in here, . . . you’ll find me” . . . did he foresee? . . . no . . . everything in life is so contemptuously accidental! . . . God’s sneer at our self-importance! . . .
[Smiling grimly]
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