Requiem for a Nun

220 WILLIAM FAULKNER

sleeve with it, sees he is doing no good, tosses the crumpled napkin back

onto the whiskey tray; and now, outwardly quite c,91m again, as though

nothing had happened, he gathers the gl-sses back onto the big tray, puts

the small tray and the napkin onto it too and takes up the tray and walks

quietly toward the dining-room door as the lights begin to go down.

The lights go completely down. The stage is dark.

The lights go up.

Scene Three

Stevens living room. 10:00 P.m. March eleventh

The room is exactly as it was four months ago, except that the only light

buming is the lamp on the table, and the sofa has been moved so that it

partly faces the audience, with a smqll motionless blanket-wrapped object

lying on it, and one of the chairs placed between the lamp and the sofa so

that the shadow of its back falls across the object on the sofa, making it

more or less indistinguishable, and the dining-room doors are now closed.

The telephone sits on the small stand in the corner right as in Scene Two.

The hall door opens. Temple enters, followed by Stevens. She now wears a

long housecoat; her hair is tied back with a ribbon as though prepared for

bed. This time Stevens carries the topcoat and the hat too; his suit is

different. Apparently she has already warned Stevens to be quiet; his air

anyway shows it. She enters, stops, lets him pass her. He pauses, looks

about the room, sees the sofa, stands looking at it.

STEVENS

This is what they call a plant.

He crosses to the sofa, Temple watching him, and stops, looking down at the

shadowed object. He quietly draws aside the shadowing chair and reveals a

little boy, about four, wrapped in the blanket, asleep.

TEMPLE

Why not? Don't the philosophers and other gynecologists tell us that

women will strike back with any weapon, even their children?

STEVENS

(watching the child)

Including the sleeping pill you told me you gave Gowan?