ANNE: Wild Grove can wait. I’ve just sent them a telegram too, that you’d been detained on urgent business. The real detective work came first, finding out that Mrs. Potter hadn’t passed on. And where she lived. And when I found that out, everything was easy. Even the telegram. Of course she has quite a journey. We may have to wait for hours and hours, but it will be worth it, won’t it, because she’ll tell us what Potter saw.

JAMES: I’m just beginning to understand.

MRS. CALLIFER (to James): What’s the child done?

JAMES: Perhaps what Dr. Kreuzer couldn’t do.

A bell rings.

ANNE: There. I told you.

Pause while they listen.

MRS. CALLIFER: But Potter’s dead.

ANNE: This is Mrs. Potter.

MRS. CALLIFER: What did you put in the telegram?

ANNE: “Dying. You can relieve a mind in torment. Come tea time Thursday.” I signed it “Callifer.”

MRS. CALLIFER: Anne!

ANNE: Well, we are dying, aren’t we, all of us?

JAMES: There were no lies in that telegram.

The bell rings again.

ANNE: Shall I go? (She puts her hand on James’s.) Your hand, Uncle. It’s shaking. You’re afraid.

JAMES: No, no. It’s the methedrine.

ANNE: I’ll answer the door.

MRS. CALLIFER: No.

ANNE: I will.

JAMES: No. Stop where you are.

ANNE: You are afraid.

JAMES: That’s what Dr. Kreuzer said. (The bell rings a third time, impatiently. Turning round to the door): Don’t be so impatient. Can’t you wait a few seconds longer on the doorstep? You’ve been waiting for thirty years.

A long pause. No further ring.

ANNE: She’s gone. We’ll never know now.

The door opens and Corner enters.

CORNER: There’s a woman at the door, Callifer. She says—

MRS. CALLIFER: Please tell her there’s no one at home.

CORNER: She says she has an urgent telegram. From you, Callifer.

MRS. CALLIFER: Please tell her it was a mistake, Mr. Corner. A child’s silly prank. Here, give her this for her fare.

JAMES: No. Let her come in.

MRS. CALLIFER: You’ll only hear a lot of nonsense. Fairy stories, James. (She is between him and the door.) Mr. Corner, my son’s excited by his treatment. Send her away. (Corner hesitates.) He’s not in a fit state.

JAMES: She’s come to see me, Corner. Not my mother. I’ll fetch her if you won’t. (Corner looks at the two of them, shrugs and goes out.) Mother, you stood in front of a door like this once before. But not again.

MRS. CALLIFER: What’s the use, James? She wasn’t there. She’s only heard stories, exaggerated stories, Potter’s stories. She knows nothing.

JAMES: Then tell me yourself. All you know. In your words. Before she comes.

MRS. CALLIFER: It was so long ago.

JAMES: I’ll send her away if you’ll tell.