DAN (_suddenly, in a clear voice_): "... Blessed is the man ... that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly ... 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 ... DAN (_reading_): "The body was nude. Attempts had been made to ... turn to foot of next column...." (_Doing so_) "Attempts had been made to ... era--eradicate fingerprints with a knife...." (_Far away, the tolling of village bells. Reading_) "... The head was severed by a skilled person, possibly a butcher. The murderer--" (_He stops suddenly, raises his head, smiles, takes the cigarette stub, puts it behind his ear, and listens._) OLIVIA: What's the matter? MRS. BRAMSON: Can you hear something? Oh, I'm scared.... DAN: I forgot it was Sunday.... They're goin' to church in the villages. All got up in their Sunday best, with prayer-books, and the organ playin', and the windows shinin'. Shinin' on holy things, because holy things isn't afraid of the daylight. MRS. BRAMSON: But, Danny, what on earth are you-- DAN (_quelling her_): But all the time the daylight's movin' over the floor, and by the end of the sermon the air in the church is turnin' grey.... And people isn't able to think of holy things so much no more, only of the terrible things that's goin' on outside, that everybody's readin' about in the papers! (_Looking at_ OLIVIA) Because they know that though it's still daylight, and everythin's or'nary and quiet ... to-day will be the same as all the other days, and come to an end, and it'll be night.... (_After a pause, coming to earth again with a laugh at the others, throwing the newspaper on the sofa_) I forgot it was Sunday! MRS. BRAMSON (_overawed_) Good gracious ... what's come over you, Danny? DAN (_with exaggerated animation_): Oh, I speechify like anything when I'm roused! I used to go to Sunday school, see, and the thoughts sort of come into my head. Like as if I was readin' off a book! (_Slapping his Bible_.) MRS. BRAMSON: Dear, dear.... You should have been a preacher. You should! DAN _laughs loudly and opens the Bible_.