SCENE--A section of the interior of an old church. A side wall runs diagonally back from left, front, two-thirds of the width of the stage, where it meets an end wall that extends back from right, front. The walls are old gray stone. In the middle of the side wall is a great cross, its base about five feet from the floor, with a life-size figure of Christ, an exceptionally fine piece of wood carving. In the middle of the end wall is an arched doorway. On either side of this door, but high up in the wall, their bases above the level of the top of the doorway, are two narrow, stained-glass windows.
It is a few minutes after the close of the preceding scene. The church is dim and empty and still. The only light is the reflection of the dawn, which, stained by the color in the windows, falls on the wall on and around the Cross.
The outer doors beyond the arched doorway are suddenly pushed open with a crash and John and Loving appear in the doorway. Loving comes first, retreating backward before John whom he desperately, but always without touching him, endeavors to keep from entering the church. But John is the stronger now and, the same look of obsessed resolution in his eyes, he forces Loving back.
LOVING--(as they enter--desperately, as if he were becoming exhausted by the struggle) You fool! There is nothing here but hatred!
JOHN--No! There was love! (His eyes fasten themselves on the Cross and he gives a cry of hope.) The Cross!
LOVING--The symbol of hate and derision!
JOHN--No! Of love! (Loving is forced back until the back of his head is against the foot of the Cross. John throws himself on his knees before it and raises his hands up to the figure of Christ in supplication.) Mercy! Forgive!
LOVING--(raging) Fool! Grovel on your knees! It is useless! To pray, one must believe!
JOHN--I have come back to Thee!
LOVING--Words! There is nothing!
JOHN--Let me believe in Thy love again!
LOVING--You cannot believe!
JOHN--(imploringly) O God of Love, hear my prayer!
LOVING--There is no God! There is only death!
JOHN--(more weakly now) Have pity on me! Let Elsa live!
LOVING--There is no pity! There is only scorn!
JOHN--Hear me while there is still time! (He waits, staring at the Cross with anguished eyes, his arms outstretched. There is a pause of silence.)
LOVING--(with triumphant mockery) Silence! But behind it I hear mocking laughter!
JOHN--(agonized) No! (He gives way, his head bowed, and sobs heartbrokenly--then stops suddenly, and looking up at the Cross again, speaks sobbingly in a strange humble tone of broken reproach.) O Son of Man, I am Thou and Thou art I! Why hast Thou forsaken me? O Brother Who lived and loved and suffered and died with us, Who knoweth the tortured hearts of men, canst Thou not forgive--now--when I surrender all to Thee--when I have forgiven Thee--the love that Thou once took from me!
LOVING--(with a cry of hatred) No! Liar! I will never forgive!
JOHN--(his eyes fixed on the face of the Crucified suddenly lighting up as if he now saw there the answer to his prayer--in a voice trembling with awakening hope and joy) Ah! Thou hast heard me at last! Thou hast not forsaken me! Thou hast always loved me! I am forgiven! I can forgive myself--through Thee! I can believe!
LOVING--(stumbles weakly from beneath the Cross) No! I deny! (He turns to face the Cross with a last defiance.) I defy Thee! Thou canst not conquer me! I hate Thee! I curse Thee!
JOHN--No! I bless! I love!
LOVING--(as if this were a mortal blow, seems to sag and collapse--with a choking cry) No!
JOHN--(with a laugh that is half sob) Yes! I see now! At last I see! I have always loved! O Lord of Love, forgive Thy poor blind fool!
LOVING--No! (His legs crumple under him, he slumps to his knees beside John, as if some invisible force crushed him down.)
JOHN--(his voice rising exultantly, his eyes on the face of the Crucified) Thou art the Way--the Truth--the Resurrection and the Life, and he that believeth in Thy Love, his love shall never die!
<!--pagebreak-->LOVING--(faintly, at last surrendering, addressing the Cross not without a final touch of pride in his humility) Thou hast conquered, Lord. Thou art--the End. Forgive--the damned soul--of John Loving! (He slumps forward to the floor and rolls over on his back, dead, his head beneath the foot of the Cross, his arms outflung so that his body forms another cross. John rises from his knees and stands with arms stretched up and out, so that he, too, is like cross. While this is happening the light of the dawn on the stained-glass windows swiftly rises to a brilliant intensity of crimson and green and gold, as if the sun had risen. The gray walls of the church, particularly the wall where the Cross is, and the face of the Christ shine with this radiance.
(John Loving--he, who had been only John--remains standing with his arms stretched up to the Cross, an expression of mystic exaltation on his face. The corpse of Loving lies at the foot of the Cross, like a cured cripple's testimonial offering in a shrine.
(Father Baird comes in hurriedly through the arched doorway. He stops on seeing John Loving, then comes quietly up beside him and stares searchingly into his face. At what he sees there he bows his head and his lips move in grateful prayer. John Loving is oblivious to his presence.)
FATHER BAIRD--(finally taps him gently on the shoulder) Jack.
JOHN LOVING--(still in his ecstatic mystic vision--strangely) I am John Loving.
FATHER BAIRD--(stares at him--gently) It's all right now, Jack. Elsa will live.
JOHN LOVING--(exaltedly) I know! Love lives forever! Death is dead! Ssshh! Listen! Do you hear?
FATHER BAIRD--Hear what, Jack?
JOHN LOVING--Life laughs with God's love again! Life laughs with love!
(Curtain)