BASTON: You know very well what I mean. Things may go wrong—a man may stumble on the right number of pills.

KREUZER: Very seldom. We all have great unconscious wisdom.

BASTON: He succeeded the first time.

KREUZER: He what, Dr. Baston?

BASTON (embarrassed): I mean he would have succeeded if the gardener had not found him. (Running hastily on): You are taking a great responsibility, Dr. Kreuzer, if you don’t sign with me. He’s your patient. Coroners are apt to take a harsh view of psychiatrists whose patients kill themselves. Has it never happened to you?

KREUZER: Dr. Baston, surely there’s another doctor whose opinion we ought to have, if he’s alive—the doctor who was here when it happened.

MRS. CALLIFER: Dr. Baston was the doctor.

KREUZER: I see.

BASTON: I can assure you there was nothing—unusual.

KREUZER: You massaged the heart?

BASTON: It was too late.

KREUZER: Too late?

BASTON: He was already conscious when I arrived.

KREUZER: Oh, I see.

BASTON: The layman can’t recognize death. He thinks just because a mirror doesn’t fog or a leaf on the lips move—

KREUZER: They tried that?

BASTON: If such a test for death was infallible, and it never could be, even then I would not accept a miracle. I would simply say we had to redefine our terms—the concepts, life and death.

MRS. CALLIFER: Henry told himself that too. The trouble was he didn’t believe the argument.

BASTON: What on earth are you suggesting, Mary?

MRS. CALLIFER: Henry believed that Potter’s story was true. He never spoke of it, but I knew.

BASTON: That’s nonsense, Mary.

MRS. CALLIFER: Why do you think I was afraid to let James see him when he was dying? Henry could forget so long as he wasn’t reminded. If you are guilty, you want to forget. (To James): You loved your uncle. You half believed—but your father had a wicked tongue and all the arguments. Oh, it was my fault too. I didn’t know how deeply he cut. A child can’t stand confusion.

BASTON: Mary, we aren’t concerned with trivial mistakes in a child’s upbringing. You can’t pretend Henry believed that ignorant gardener’s story.

MRS. CALLIFER: James, I never wanted to tell you this. I wanted to forget too. Sleeping dogs, Dr. Kreuzer, sleeping dogs. Henry was a fake.

BASTON: You appall me. I always thought you loved him.