Requiem for a Nun

REQUIEM FOR A NUN 229

TEMPLE

There is something else, then. We're even going to get the true one

this time. All right. Shoot.

He doesn't answer, makes no sign, watching her. A moment: then she turns

her head and looks toward the sofa and the sleeping child. Still looking

at the child, she rises and crosses to the sofa and stands looking down

at the child; her voice is quiet.

TEMPLE

So it was a plant, after all; I just didn't seem to know for who.

(she looks down at the child) I threw my remaining child

at you. Now you threw him back.

STEVENS

But I didn't wake him.

TEMPLE

Then I've got you, lawyer. What would be better for his peace and

sleep than to hang his sister's murderer?

STEVENS

No matter by what means, in what lie?

TEMPLE

Nor whose.

STEVENS

Yet you invented the coincidence.

TEMPLE

Mrs Gowan Stevens did.

STEVENS

Temple Drake did. Mrs Gowan Stevens is not even fightiDg in this

class. This is Temple Drake's.

TEMPLE

Temple Drake is dead.

STEVENS

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

She comes back to the table, takes a cigarette from the box, puts it in

her mouth and reaches for the lighter. He leans as though to hand it to

her, but she has already found it, snaps it on and lights the cigarette,

talking through the smoke.