The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson – Swanston Edition. Volume 15

Mary. Dearest!.. Husband! You forgive him? O, you forgive him?

Leslie. He is my brother now. Let me take you to our father. Come.

SCENE IV

After a pause, Brodie through the window

Brodie. Saved! And the alibi! Man, but you’ve been near it this time – near the rope, near the rope. Ah, boy, it was your neck, your neck you fought for. They were closing hell-doors upon me, swift as the wind, when I slipped through and shot for heaven! Saved! The dog that sold me, I settled him; and the other dogs are staunch. Man, but your alibi will stand! Is the window fast? The neighbours must not see the Deacon, the poor, sick Deacon, up and stirring at this time o’ night. Ay, the good old room in the good, cosy old house … and the rat a dead rat, and all saved. (He lights the candles.) Your hand shakes, sir? Fie! And you saved, and snug and sick in your bed, and it but a dead rat after all? (He takes off his hanger and lays it on the table.) Ay, it was a near touch. Will it come to the dock? If it does! You’ve a tongue and you’ve a head, and you’ve an alibi; and your alibi will stand. (He takes off his coat, takes out the dagger, and with a gesture of striking.) Home! He fell without a sob. “He breaketh them against the bosses of His buckler!” (Lays the dagger on the table.) Your alibi … ah, Deacon, that’s your life!.. your alibi, your alibi. (He takes up a candle and turns towards the door.) O!.. Open, open, open! Judgment of God, the door is open!

SCENE V

Brodie, Mary

Brodie. Did you open the door?

Mary. I did.

Brodie. You … you opened the door?

Mary. I did open it.

Brodie. Were you … alone?

Mary. I was not. The servant was with me; and the doctor.

Brodie. O … the servant … and the doctor. Very true. Then it’s all over the town by now. The servant and the doctor. The doctor? What doctor? Why the doctor?

Mary. My father is dead. O Will, where have you been?

Brodie. Your father is dead. O yes! He’s dead, is he? Dead. Quite right. Quite right… How did you open the door? It’s strange. I bolted it.

Mary. We could not help it, Will, now could we? The doctor forced it. He had to, had he not?

Brodie. The doctor forced it? The doctor? Was he here? He forced it? He?

Mary. We did it for the best; it was I who did it … I, your own sister. And O Will, my Willie, where have you been? You have not been in any harm, any danger?

Brodie. Danger? O, my young lady, you have taken care of that. It’s not danger now, it’s death. Death? Ah! Death! Death! Death! (Clutching the table. Then recovering as from a dream.) Death? Did you say my father was dead? My father? O my God, my poor old father! Is he dead, Mary? Have I lost him? is he gone? O, Mary dear, and to think of where his son was!

Mary. Dearest, he is in heaven.

Brodie. Did he suffer?

Mary. He died like a child. Your name … it was his last.

Brodie. My name? Mine? O Mary, if he had known! He knows now. He knows; he sees us now … sees me! Ay, and sees you left – how lonely!

Mary. Not so, dear; not while you live. Wherever you are, I shall not be alone, so you live.

Brodie. While I live? I? The old house is ruined, and the old master dead, and I!.. O Mary, try and believe I did not mean that it should come to this; try and believe that I was only weak at first. At first? And now! The good old man dead, the kind sister ruined, the innocent boy fallen, fallen… You will be quite alone; all your old friends, all the old faces, gone into darkness. The night (with a gesture) … it waits for me. You will be quite alone.

Mary. The night!

Brodie. Mary, you must hear. How am I to tell her, and the old man just dead! Mary, I was the boy you knew; I loved pleasure, I was weak; I have fallen … low … lower than you think. A beginning is so small a thing! I never dreamed it would come to this … this hideous last night.

Mary. Willie, you must tell me, dear. I must have the truth … the kind truth … at once … in pity.

Brodie. Crime. I have fallen. Crime.

Mary. Crime?

Brodie. Don’t shrink from me. Miserable dog that I am, selfish hound that has dragged you to this misery … you and all that loved him … think only of my torments, think only of my penitence, don’t shrink from me.

Mary. I do not care to hear, I do not wish, I do not mind; you are my brother. What do I care? How can I help you?

Brodie. Help? help me? You would not speak of it, not wish it, if you knew. My kind good sister, my little playmate, my sweet friend! Was I ever unkind to you till yesterday? Not openly unkind? You’ll say that when I am gone.

Mary. If you have done wrong, what do I care? If you have failed, does it change my twenty years of love and worship? Never!

Brodie. Yet I must make her understand…!

Mary. I am your true sister, dear. I cannot fail, I will never leave you, I will never blame you. Come! (Goes to embrace.)

Brodie (recoiling). No, don’t touch me, not a finger, not that, anything but that!

Mary. Willie, Willie!

Brodie (taking the bloody dagger from the table). See, do you understand that?

Mary. Ah! What, what is it!

Brodie. Blood. I have killed a man.

Mary. You?..

Brodie. I am a murderer; I was a thief before. Your brother … the old man’s only son!

Mary. Walter, Walter, come to me!

Brodie. Now you see that I must die; now you see that I stand upon the grave’s edge, all my lost life behind me, like a horror to think upon, like a frenzy, like a dream that is past. And you, you are alone. Father, brother, they are gone from you; one to heaven, one…!

Mary. Hush, dear, hush! Kneel, pray; it is not too late to repent. Think of our father, dear; repent. (She weeps, straining to his bosom.) O Willie, my darling boy, repent and join us.

SCENE VI

To these, Lawson, Leslie, Jean

Lawson. She kens a’, thank the guid Lord!