Enter MARY.

MARY.

They are coming, grandfather.

THE OLD MAN.

Is It you?—­Where are they?

MARY.

They are at the foot of the last hills.

THE OLD MAN.

They will come in silence?

MARY.

I told them to pray in a low voice.  Martha is with them....

THE OLD MAN.

Are they many?

MARY.

The whole village is about the bearers.  They had brought lights.  I told them to put them out....

THE OLD MAN.

Which way are they coming?

MARY.

They are coming by the footpaths.  They are walking slowly....

THE OLD MAN.

It is time....

MARY.

You have told them, grandfather?

THE OLD MAN.

You see plainly we have told them nothing....  They are waiting still under the lamp....  Look, my child, look!  You will see something of life....

MARY.

Oh, how at peace they seem!...  You would say I saw them in a dream....

THE STRANGER.

Take care, I saw both sisters give a start....

THE OLD MAN.

They are getting up....

THE STRANGER.

I think they are coming to the windows....

[At this moment, one of the two sisters of whom they speak draws near the first window, the other near the third, and, pressing their hands at the same time against the panes, look a long while into the darkness.]

THE OLD MAN.

No one comes to the window in the middle....

MARY.

They are looking....  They are listening....

THE OLD MAN.

The elder smiles at what she does not see.

THE STRANGER.

And the other has eyes full of fearfulness....

THE OLD MAN.

Take care; we do not know how far the soul extends about men....

[A long silence, MARY cowers against the old man’s breast and kisses him.]

MARY.

Grandfather!...

THE OLD MAN.

Do not weep, my child....  We shall have our turn....
          
                                                    [A silence.

THE STRANGER.

They are looking a long while....

THE OLD MAN.

They might look a hundred thousand years and not perceive anything, the poor little sisters....  The night is too dark....  They are looking this way; and it is from that way the misfortune is coming....

THE STRANGER.

It is fortunate they look this way....  I do not know what that is coming toward us, over by the meadows.

MARY.

I think it is the crowd....  They are so far away you can hardly make them out....

THE STRANGER.

They follow the undulations of the path....  Now they appear again on a hillside in the moonlight....