THE SON (_exasperated_). Why on earth do you insist? It's horrible! (_The Mother trembles, sobs, and looks towards the fountain_). THE MANAGER (_slowly observing the glance and turning towards the Son with increasing apprehension_). The baby? THE SON. There in the fountain.... THE FATHER (_pointing with tender pity to the Mother_). She was following him at the moment.... THE MANAGER (_to the Son anxiously_). And then you.... THE SON. I ran over to her; I was jumping in to drag her out when I saw something that froze my blood ... the boy there standing stock still, with eyes like a madman's, watching his little drowned sister, in the fountain! (_The Step-Daughter bends over the fountain to hide the Child. She sobs_). Then.... (_A revolver shot rings out behind the trees where the Boy is hidden_). THE MOTHER. (_With a cry of terror runs over in that direction together with several of the actors amid general confusion_). My son! My son! (_Then amid the cries and exclamations one hears her voice_). Help! Help! THE MANAGER (_pushing the actors aside while they lift up the Boy and carry him off_). Is he really wounded? SOME ACTORS. He's dead! dead! OTHER ACTORS. No, no, it's only make believe, it's only pretence! THE FATHER (_with a terrible cry_). Pretence? Reality, sir, reality! THE MANAGER. Pretence? Reality? To hell with it all! Never in my life has such a thing happened to me. I've lost a whole day over these people, a whole day! _Curtain._ "HENRY IV." (_Enrico Quarto_) A TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS BY LUIGI PIRANDELLO TRANSLATED BY EDWARD STORER CHARACTERS. "HENRY IV." THE MARCHIONESS MATILDA SPINA, HER DAUGHTER FRIDA. THE YOUNG MARQUIS CHARLES DI NOLLI. BARON TITO BELCREDI. DOCTOR DIONYSIUS GENONI. THE FOUR PRIVATE COUNSELLORS: HAROLD (FRANK), LANDOLPH (LOLO), ORDULPH (MOMO), BERTHOLD (FINO). (_The names in brackets are nick-names_). JOHN, THE OLD WAITER. THE TWO VALETS IN COSTUME. A SOLITARY VILLA IN ITALY IN OUR OWN TIME. "HENRY IV." A TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS ACT I _Salon in the villa, furnished and decorated so as to look exactly like the throne room of Henry IV. in the royal residence at Goslar. Among the antique decorations there are two modern life-size portraits in oil painting. They are placed against the back wall, and mounted in a wooden stand that runs the whole length of the wall. (It is wide and protrudes, so that it is like a large bench). One of the paintings is on the right; the other on the left of the throne, which is in the middle of the wall and divides the stand._