FREDERIK. [Picks up the receiver.] Hello?...  You don’t feel well, you say? [Then echoing the purport of HICKS’ answer.] I see....  Your lawyer can attend to everything to-night without you.  Very well.  It’s entirely a question of money, Mr. Hicks.  Send your lawyer to the Grimm Manor Hotel.  I’ll arrange at once for a room.  Good-bye. [Hangs up the receiver.] That’s off my mind. [He lights a fresh cigarette—­his face expressing the satisfaction he feels in the prospect of a perfectly idle future. PETER looks at him as though to say:  “And that’s the boy whom I loved and trusted!" FREDERIK gets his hat, throws his coat over his arm, and hastens out.

PETER. [Turns and faces the door leading into the next room, as though he could feel the presence of some one waiting there.] Yes ...  I am still in the house.  Come in ... come in ... [He repeats the signal of the first act.] Ou—­oo. [The door opens slowly—­and CATHERINE enters as though at PETER’S call.  She looks about her, not understanding.  He holds out his arms to her. CATHERINE walks slowly towards him.  He takes her in his arms, but she does not respond.  She does not know that she is being held.] There!  There!...  Don’t worry....  It’s all right....  We’ll arrange things very differently.  I’ve come back to change all my plans. [She moves away a step—­just out of his embrace.  He tries to call her back.] Katie! ...  Can’t I make my presence known to you?  Katie!  Can’t my love for you outlive me?  Isn’t it here in the home?...  Don’t cry. [She moves about the room in thought.  As PETER watches her—­she pauses near his desk.

CATHERINE. [Suddenly.] Crying doesn’t help matters.

PETER.  She hears me.  She doesn’t know it, but she hears me.  She’s cheering up. [She inhales the flowers—­a half smile on her lips.] That’s right, you haven’t smiled before since I died. [Suddenly giving way to the realization of her loss, CATHERINE sighs.

PETER. [Correcting himself.] I—­I mean—­since I learned that there was a happier place than the world I left....  I’m a trifle confused.  I’ve not had time to adjust myself to these new conditions. [CATHERINE smiles sadly—­goes up to the window, and, leaning against the pane, looks out into the night. PETER continues comfortingly.] The dead have never really died, you know.  We couldn’t die if we tried.  We’re all about you....  Look at the gardens:  they’ve died, haven’t they?  But there they are all the better for it.  Death is the greatest thing in the world.  It’s really a—­Ha!—­delightful experience.  What is it, after all?  A nap from which we waken rested, refreshened ... a sleep from which we spring up like children tumbling out of bed—­ready to frolic through another world.  I was an old man a few days ago; now I’m a boy.  I feel much younger than you—­much younger.