[They go out one after the other, repeating the last phrases.  One couple after the other stop dancing and follow the Guests in silence.  For some time a single couple remain circling on the floor, but they too join the others at last.  The musicians, however, continue to play, making the same desperate effort.  The lackey turns out the electric lights, leaving only one light in the farthest chandelier.  The figures of the musicians are vaguely seen in the dim light, swaying to and fro with their instruments.  The outline of Someone in Gray is sharply visible.  The flame of the candle flickers, illuminating His stony face and chin with a garish, yellow light.  He turns around without raising his head, walks slowly and calmly through the whole length of the room, and disappears through the door through which Man passed out.

CURTAIN

THE FOURTH SCENE

MAN’S MISFORTUNE

A large, gloomy, quadrangular room, with dark watts, dark floor, and dark ceiling.  There are two high, curtainless windows with eight panes in the rear watt, and between them a small, low door.  Two similar windows appear in the right wall.  Night glooms through the windows, and when the door opens, the same deep blackness of night stares into the room.  In general, however bright Man’s rooms may be, the vast darkness of the windows engulfs the light.

On the left wall there is nothing but a small, low door leading to the rest of the house.  At the window on the right stands a broad sofa covered with dark oilcloth.  Man’s desk is very simple and poor.  On it are seen a dimly burning, shaded lamp, a sheet of yellow paper with a sketch drawn on it, and a lot of toys—­little peaked cap, a wooden horse without a tail, and a red, long-nosed clown with bells.  Between the windows there is an old dilapidated bookcase entirely empty.  The visible lines of dust left by the books show that they must have been removed recently.  The room has only one chair.

In the darkest corner stands Someone in Gray called He.  The candle in his hand is now no longer than it is thick.  The wax is running over a little.  The stump burns with a reddish, flickering light, and casts a red sheen on His stony face and chin.

The only remaining servant of Man, an Old Woman, is sitting on the chair.  She speaks in an even voice, addressing an imaginary companion._

OLD WOMAN

There!  Man has slipped back into poverty.  He had a lot of valuable things, horses and carriages, and even an automobile.  Now he has nothing.  Of all his servants I am the only one left.  There are still some good things in here and in two other rooms.  There’s the sofa and the bookcase.  But in the other twelve rooms there’s not a thing.  They are dark and empty.  Rats run around in them day and night and fight and squeak.  People are afraid, but I’m not.  It’s all the same to me.