Requiem for a Nun

246 WILLIAM FAULKNER

TEMPLE

So now I've got to tell all of it. Because that was just Nancy Mannigoe.

Temple Drake was in more than just a two-dollar Saturday-night house. But

then, I said touch~, didn't I?

She leans forward and starts to take up the crushed cigarette from the

ashtray. Stevens picks up the pack from the desk and prepares to offer it to

her. She withdraws her hand from the crushed cigarette and sits back.

TEMPLE

(to the proffered cigarette in Stevens' hand) No, thanks; I wont need it,

after all. From here out, it's merely anticlimax. Coup de grace. The

victim never feels that, does he?-Where was I?

(quickly) Never mind. I said that before too, didn't I?

(she sits for a moment, her hands gripped in her lap, motionless) There

seems to be some of this, quite a lot of this, which even our first paid

servant is not up on; maybe because he has been our first paid servant

for less than two years yet. Though that's wrong too; he could read eight

years ago, couldn't he? In fact, he couldn't have been elected Governor

of even Mississippi if he hadn't been able to read at least three years

in advance, could he?

STEVENS

Temple.

TEMPLE

(to Stevens) Why not? It's just stalling, isn't it?

GOVERNOR

(watching Temple) Hush, Gavin.

(to Temple)

Coup de grace not only means mercy, but is. Deliver it. Give her the

cigarette, Gavin.

TEMPLE

(sits forward again) No, thanks. Really.