MRS. BRAMSON (_putting her hand on his arm_): I think I'll go to bed now. DAN (_after a pause, dropping his arm_): O.K. MRS. BRAMSON: And I'll have my supper-tray in my room. (_Petulantly_) Get me back into my chair, dear, will you? DAN (_jerkily_): O.K.... _He crosses to the invalid-chair._ MRS. BRAMSON: Has she put the glass by the bed for my teeth? DAN (_bringing over the chair_): I put it there myself. _He helps her into the chair and pulls it over towards the bedroom._ MRS. BRAMSON (_suddenly, in the middle of the room_): I want to be read to now. DAN (_after a pause of indecision_): O.K. (_Clapping his hands effusively_) What'll you have? The old _East Lynne_? MRS. BRAMSON: No, I don't feel like anything sentimental to-night.... DAN (_looking towards the desk_): What'll you have, then? MRS. BRAMSON: I think I'd like the Bible. _A pause. He looks at her._ DAN: O.K. MRS. BRAMSON (_as he goes smartly to the sofa, fetches the Bible, pulls up a chair to the right of her, sits, and looks for the place_): That piece you were reading.... It's Sunday.... Isn't that nice ... all the aches and pains quiet for once ... pretty peaceful.... DAN (_reading_): "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 (_drowsily_): You read so nicely, Danny. DAN: Very kind of you, my lady. (_Reading a little breathlessly_) "But his delight is in the Law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night--" MRS. BRAMSON: Sh! DAN: What? MRS. BRAMSON: What's that? DAN: Can you hear something? MRS. BRAMSON: Yes! A sort of--thumping noise.... _She looks at him suddenly, leans forward, and puts her right hand inside his jacket._ Why, Danny, it's you! It's your heart ... beating! _He laughs_. Well! Are you all right, dear? DAN: Fine. I been running along the path, see.... (_Garrulously_) I been out of training, I suppose; when I was at sea I never missed a day running round the decks, o' course.... MRS. BRAMSON (_sleepily_): Of course. DAN (_speaking quickly, as if eager to conjure up a vision_): I remember those mornings--on some sea--very misty pale it is, with the sun like breathing silver where he's comin' up across the water, but not blowing on the sea at all ... and the sea-gulls standing on the deck-rail looking at themselves in the water on the deck, and only me about and nothing else ... MRS. BRAMSON (_nodding sleepily_): Yes ... DAN: And the sun. Just me and the sun. MRS. BRAMSON (_nodding_): There's no sun now, dear; it's night! _A pause. He drums his fingers on the Bible._ DAN: Yes ... it's night now. (_Reading, feverishly_) "The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away----" MRS. BRAMSON: I think I'll go to bye-byes.... We'll have the rest to-morrow, shall we? (_Testily_) Help me, dear, help me, you know what I am----