_Seymour_ (_shaken_)
But I saw nothing. At least a slight movement in anything so sensitive might be due to many causes....
_Philo_
Yes! It is always the old story. Truths must be hammered into humanity!
Branded in with flame, or driven in with sword and bullet!
_Bellows_ (_starting up alarmed_)
Hadn"t we better be going, doctor?
_Philo_
Oh, no! Wait till you"ve talked me over. Decide whether I"m mad or not!
If I"m a menace to the community! If I must be locked up! My father and mother are waiting to know. Don"t go! Finish your work! (_Rushes into room, left._)
_Bellows_ (_triumphantly to_ SEYMOUR)
Well?
(SEYMOUR _hesitates, looks at the father and mother, then at_ BELLOWS, _and takes out his match-case._)
_Bellows_ (_making a conquest of the obvious_)
Warner, a little of that fine cider of yours would just finish off our chat.
_Warner_
Nothing better! (_Starting out, whispers to_ MRS. W.) Where"s grandma"s silver pitcher?
_Mrs. W._
I"ll get _that_.
(_They go down-stairs._)
_Bellows_ (_laughing_)
She never lets him go to the cellar by himself.
_Seymour_
Not a drinker, is he?
_Bellows_
Oh, no! The pattern of a deacon. But she keeps her hand on.
(SEYMOUR _lights a cigar thinkingly._)
_Bellows_
No use to go over this case. It"s clear enough. We"ll have our cider--it"s worth waiting for--then go to my office and fix up the commitment papers.
_Seymour_ (_rubbing his hand slowly over his forehead_)
To talk with such a patient sometimes bewilders the brain. He seemed so clear in his utterance--so rational----
_Bellows_
Funny, wasn"t he? I almost believed it myself for a minute.
_Seymour_
It might be true.
_Bellows_
Hey?
_Seymour_
Perhaps we are all somnambulists moving about in this dream-world we call practical life. Behind this tough matter that takes so many shapes and colors, what strange secrets are hidden, just beginning to reach our dull senses--X-rays, radium emanations, wireless waves.
_Bellows_
Oh, they"re natural enough now. Common sense has adopted them.
_Seymour_
Yes, we are easily satisfied. Give a mystery a name and that"s enough for the most of us. But here and there are minds that must explore further; and if they discover something beyond the comprehension of us who stay behind, we call them mad.
_Bellows_
Well, none of your mind-puzzles for me. Give me something clear cut, like typhoid, or measles, an amputation, or new babies, something I can fix my eyes on. You can take care of the madmen--except when they"re in my own village. I"m not going to have a boy like Philo gibbering around ready to break out wild any time.
_Seymour_
It"s true he may be led into frenzy, or even self-destruction, but it will be from overwork and loneliness. I must have a talk with the parents----
_Bellows_
What do you expect _them_ to do? They"re asking us for help. And _I"m_ willing to give it to them.
(_Re-enter_ WARNER _and_ MRS. W. _He carries pitcher, she carries tray with gla.s.ses._)
_Seymour_ (_to_ BELLOWS)