Part 22 (2/2)

MRS. BRAMSON: Well, he did offer to fetch some money yesterday for the dairy. But I wouldn't give him the key! Oh, no!

OLIVIA: Why?

MRS. BRAMSON: Do I want to see him waylaid and attacked, and my key stolen? Oh, no, I told him, that key stays on me--

OLIVIA: Did he--know how much money there is in there?

MRS. BRAMSON: I told him! Do you wonder I stick to the key, I said-- what _is_ the matter with you, all these questions?

OLIVIA: Oh, it's no use--

_She goes to the armchair below the fireplace and sits in it._ DAN _returns from the kitchen, with a copy of the ”News of the World,” the Bible tucked under his arm, a cigarette stub between his lips._

DAN: He says they're sellin' like hot cakes! (_Handing the paper to_ MRS. BRAMSON) There you are, I've found the place for you--whole page, headlines an' all....

MRS. BRAMSON: Oh, yes....

DAN _stands with one knee on the sofa, and turns over the pages of his Bible.

(Reading breathlessly, her back to the fireplace_)

”... The Victim's Past” ... with another picture of me underneath!

(_Looking closer, dashed_) Oh, taken at Tonbridge the year before the war; really it isn't right.... (_To_ OLIVIA, _savouring it_) ”The Bungalow of Death!... Gruesome finds.... Fiendish murderer still at large.... The enigma of the missing head ... where is it buried?” ... Oh, yes! (_She goes on reading silently to herself._)

DAN (_suddenly, in a clear voice_): ”... Blessed is the man ...

that walketh not in the counsel of the unG.o.dly ... nor standeth in the way of sinners ... nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful....”

MRS. BRAMSON (_impatiently_): Oh, the print's too small....

DAN (_firmly_): Shall I read it to you?

MRS. BRAMSON: Yes, dear, do....

_He shuts the Bible with a bang, throws it on the sofa, and takes the paper from her._ OLIVIA _watches him intently; he smiles at her slowly and brazenly as he shakes out the paper._

DAN (_reading laboriously_): ”... The murderer committed the crime in the forest most--in the forest, most likely strippin' beforehand---”

_DORA comes in from the kitchen, and stands at the door, arrested by his reading. She is dressed, in Sunday best.

(reading_) ”... and cleansin' himself afterwards in the forest lake----”

MRS. BRAMSON: Tch! tch!

DAN (_reading_): ”... He buried the body shallow in the open pit, cunnin'ly chancin' it bein' filled, which it was next day, the eleventh----” (_Nodding at_ OLIVIA) That was the day 'fore I come here....

MRS. BRAMSON: So it was ...

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