MRS. CALLIFER: If you stay as long as your father thinks polite you can have a glass of wine when you come home.

ANNE: Thank you, Granny. Now I can spurn the fruit cup. (She goes out, followed by John, who makes a despairing gesture.)

MRS. CALLIFER: How pretty she is.

SARA: Yes, isn’t she? (Busying herself with the holly): I sometimes wonder what she would have been like if her mother had lived.

MRS. CALLIFER: Do parents influence children? I don’t see much of our influence on John.

SARA: Or James?

MRS. CALLIFER (closing down): He always went his own road.

SARA: He never spends Christmas here, does he?

MRS. CALLIFER: His work doesn’t allow him time.

SARA: Or do you never invite him?

MRS. CALLIFER: It’s only because of Anne we celebrate at all. Henry had his own name for the day. He called it Children’s Day. He never approved of the word Christmas.

SARA (ironically): Why shouldn’t we celebrate the great Palestinian religious leader?

MRS. CALLIFER: Oh, you know, dear, Christmas existed long before him.

SARA: Did your husband mind holly?

MRS. CALLIFER: No. That belonged to the ancient pagan festival—so he said. Did you hear a car?

SARA: No.

MRS. CALLIFER: I hope Anne hasn’t found some excuse.

SARA: I’ll go and see. (As she crosses the room a bell rings.)

MRS. CALLIFER: I hate a bell at night.

SARA: Perhaps an extra Christmas mail.

Sara goes out. Mrs. Callifer has her eyes fixed on the door. Who does she expect to see enter? James? William? Certainly she is not expecting Dr. Kreuzer. She doesn’t give Sara time to announce him.

MRS. CALLIFER: Dr. Kreuzer!

Pause.

KREUZER: Good evening, Mrs. Callifer.

MRS. CALLIFER: Has something happened to James? Is he with you?

KREUZER: I hoped to find him here.

MRS. CALLIFER: Here? He isn’t here. Why didn’t you telephone?

KREUZER: Because I have to see you, Mrs. Callifer. If I had telephoned you would have refused to let me come.

MRS. CALLIFER: But what’s all the urgency? I don’t understand why—

KREUZER: I telephoned to him twice yesterday. He wasn’t at home. Again today. Even Mr. Corner didn’t know where he was. When you saw him in Nottingham did he talk to you about going away?

MRS. CALLIFER: Perhaps. Vaguely. I can’t really remember.

KREUZER: I am very anxious, Mrs. Callifer. You see, I know that he had suicide on his mind.

SARA: Suicide?

KREUZER: He took some pills from my desk. They are quite harmless, but he didn’t know that. So you see, I have to know what happened afterwards between the two of you.

MRS. CALLIFER: We talked. What could have happened? We talked of this and that.

KREUZER: Did he seem disturbed?

MRS. CALLIFER: I don’t know. Perhaps. A little.

SARA: You never told me that.