STRANGER. Terribly real. But you see what a curse is on me. I feel I must describe it, and to no one else but you. Yet I daren't tell you, for it would be rattling at the door of the locked chamber....
LADY. The past!
STRANGER. Yes.
LADY (simply). It's foolish to have any such secret place.
STRANGER. Yes. (Pause.)
LADY. And now tell me!
STRANGER. I'm afraid I must. I dreamed your first husband was married to my first wife.
LADY. Only you could have thought of such a thing!
STRANGER. I wish it were so. (Pause.) I saw how he ill-treated my children. (Getting up.) I put my hands to his throat.... I can't go on.... But I shall never rest till I know the truth. And to know it, I must go to him in his own house.
LADY. It's come to that?