(_He comes down from the altar steps amidst the hushed and respectful surprise of the congregation, who all turn to look at him as he passes. ROSE makes a very slight gesture of sympathy as he passes her. ANDREW stands with hands over his eyes. MICHAEL passes out by transept, his head bowed, his lips moving in prayer as he goes off._) _Curtain._ (_Ten months pass between Acts IV. and V._) ACT V SCENE.--_Reception room of the Monastery of San Salvatore at Majano, in Italy. A simply furnished room in an old Italian building. At back right an open door approached by a flight of steps, at back left a large window; a mass of masonry divides the window and door. A door down stage, left. The portrait of MICHAEL'S mother hangs on the wall. Time, a summer evening. Discover FATHER HILARY reading. Enter SIR LYOLF up the steps and by door at back._ FATHER H. Well? SIR LYOLF. I've been to see her again. I can't get her out of my mind. FATHER H. How is she this evening? SIR LYOLF. In the very strangest state, laughing, crying, jesting, fainting, and chattering like a magpie. I believe she's dying. FATHER H. Dying? SIR LYOLF. Yes. It seems she had a kind of malarial fever a month or two ago and wasn't properly treated. I wish there was a good English doctor in the place. And I wish Michael was here. FATHER H. Be thankful that he is away. SIR LYOLF. But if he finds out that she has been here, that she has sent again and again for him, and that we have hidden it from him--and that she has died? FATHER H. He mustn't know it until he can bear to hear it. We must consider him first. Think what he must have suffered all these months. Now that at last he is learning to forget her, now that he is finding peace, how wrong, how cruel it would be to reopen his wounds! SIR LYOLF. She said he promised to come to her if she sent for him. She begged so hard. She has come from England with the one hope of seeing him. I felt all the while that I was helping to crush the life out of her. FATHER H. What did you tell her? SIR LYOLF. That he had gone away alone for a few days in the mountains. That we didn't exactly know where to find him, but that he might come back at any time, and that I would bring him to her the moment he returned. FATHER H. Well, what more can we do? SIR LYOLF. Nothing now, I suppose. I wish we had sent after him when she came last week. We could have found him before this. Besides, she doesn't believe me. FATHER H. Doesn't believe you? SIR LYOLF. She thinks that Michael is here with us, and that we are hiding it from him. I wish he'd come back. FATHER H. If she is passing away, better it should all be over before he returns. SIR LYOLF. I don't like parting them at the last. She loves him, Ned, she loves him. FATHER H. Remember it's a guilty love. SIR LYOLF. Yes, I know. FATHER H. Remember what it has already cost him.