On his left is a deck chair. Behind them in the
gloom, Hesione is strolling about with Mangan. It is a fine still
night, moonless.
LADY UTTERWORD. What a lovely night! It seems made for us.
HECTOR. The night takes no interest in us. What are we to the
night? [He sits down moodily in the deck chair].
ELLIE [dreamily, nestling against the captain]. Its beauty soaks
into my nerves. In the night there is peace for the old and hope
for the young.
HECTOR. Is that remark your own?
ELLIE. No. Only the last thing the captain said before he went to
sleep.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. I'm not asleep.
HECTOR. Randall is. Also Mr Mazzini Dunn. Mangan, too, probably.
MANGAN. No.
HECTOR. Oh, you are there. I thought Hesione would have sent you
to bed by this time.
MRS HUSHABYE [coming to the back of the garden seat, into the
light, with Mangan]. I think I shall. He keeps telling me he has
a presentiment that he is going to die. I never met a man so
greedy for sympathy.
MANGAN [plaintively]. But I have a presentiment. I really have.
And you wouldn't listen.
MRS HUSHABYE. I was listening for something else. There was a
sort of splendid drumming in the sky. Did none of you hear it? It
came from a distance and then died away.
MANGAN. I tell you it was a train.
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