THE GRANDFATHER [_trying to rise_]. I should like to pierce this darkness!... THE FATHER. Where do you want to go? THE GRANDFATHER. Over there.... THE FATHER. Don't be so anxious. THE UNCLE. You are strange this evening. THE GRANDFATHER. It is all of you who seem to me to be strange! THE FATHER. Do you want anything? THE GRANDFATHER. I do not know what ails me. THE ELDEST DAUGHTER. Grandfather! grandfather! What do you want, grandfather? THE GRANDFATHER. Give me your little hands, my children. THE THREE DAUGHTERS. Yes, grandfather. THE GRANDFATHER. Why are you all three trembling, girls? THE ELDEST DAUGHTER. We are scarcely trembling at all, grandfather. THE GRANDFATHER. I fancy you are all three pale. THE ELDEST DAUGHTER. It is late, grandfather, and we are tired. THE FATHER. You must go to bed, and grandfather himself would do well to take a little rest. THE GRANDFATHER. I could not sleep to-night! THE UNCLE. We will wait for the doctor. THE GRANDFATHER. Prepare for the truth. THE UNCLE. But there is no truth! THE GRANDFATHER. Then I do not know what there is! THE UNCLE. I tell you there is nothing at all! THE GRANDFATHER. I wish I could see my poor daughter! THE FATHER. But you know quite well it is impossible; she must not be awakened unnecessarily. THE UNCLE. You will see her to-morrow. THE GRANDFATHER. There is no sound in her room. THE UNCLE. I should be uneasy if I heard any sound. THE GRANDFATHER. It is a very long time since I saw my daughter!... I took her hands yesterday evening, but I could not see her!... I do not know what has become of her.... I do not know how she is.... I do not know what her face is like now.... She must have changed these weeks!... I felt the little bones of her cheeks under my hands.... There is nothing but the darkness between her and me, and the rest of you!... I cannot go on living like this ... this is not living.... You sit there, all of you, looking with open eyes at my dead eyes, and not one of you has pity on me!... I do not know what ails me.... No one tells me what ought to be told me.... And everything is terrifying when one's dreams dwell upon it.... But why are you not speaking? THE UNCLE. What should we say, since you will not believe us? THE GRANDFATHER. You are afraid of betraying yourselves! THE FATHER. Come now, be rational!