SAVVA

Your scarf?  There it is.  But I won’t give it to you.  Sit down; you have nothing to do there.

LIPA

Let me have it.

SAVVA

No, sit down, sit down.  It’s too late now anyway.

LIPA

Too late?

SAVVA

Yes, too late.  Don’t you hear the noise the crowd is making and the way they are running and pushing?

LIPA

I’ll run, I’ll run.

SAVVA

Keep still—­sit down. (Forces her to sit down) Tony, did you hear?  They’ve exploded God.

TONY (looking at Savva’s face in terror)

Savva, don’t make me laugh.  Turn your face away.

[Savva smiles and walks around the room with buoyant step, without his usual stoop.

LIPA (faintly)

Savva.

SAVVA

What is it?  Speak louder.

LIPA

Is it, really true?

SAVVA

It’s true.

LIPA

And doesn’t He really exist?

SAVVA

He does not.

[Lipa begins to cry, at first low, then more and more loudly.  The sound of the ringing bells and the noise of the crowd continue to swell.  The rolling and clatter of wagons is also heard.

SAVVA

They are running.  My, how they are running! (Lipa says something, but her words are inaudible) Louder.  I can’t hear you.  My, how they are ringing.

LIPA (aloud)

Kill, me, Savva.

SAVVA

Why?  You’ll die anyhow.

LIPA

I can’t wait.  I’ll kill myself.

SAVVA

Go ahead, kill yourself, kill yourself quick!

[Lipa cries, burying her head in the armchair Tony, his face distorted with fear, looks at Savva, holding both his hands in readiness at his mouth.  Loud peals of the bell.  The disquieting sound blends with the loud tone of Savva’s speech.

SAVVA (shouting)

Ah!  They are ringing.  Ring on!  Ring on!  Soon the whole earth will ring.  I hear!  I hear!  I see your cities burning!  I see the flames.  I hear the crackling.  I see the houses tumbling on your heads.  There is no place to run to.  No refuge!  No refuge!  Fire everywhere.  The churches are burning.  The factories are burning.  The boilers are bursting.  An end to all slavish toil!