CONFESSOR. Have you carefully considered the step you wish to take?
STRANGER. Very carefully.
CONFESSOR. Have you no more questions?
STRANGER. Questions? No.
CONFESSOR. Then stay here, whilst I fetch the Chapter and the Fathers and Brothers, so that the solemn act may begin.
STRANGER. Yes. Let it come to pass.
(The CONFESSOR goes out. The STRANGER, left alone, is sunk in thought.)
TEMPTER (coming forward). Are you ready?
STRANGER. So ready, that I've no answer left for you.
TEMPTER. On the brink of the grave, I understand! You'll have to lie in your coffin and appear to die; the old Adam will be covered with three shovelfuls of earth, and a De Profundis will be sung. Then you'll rise again from the dead, having laid aside your old name, and be baptized once more like a new-born child! What will you be called? (The STRANGER does not reply.) It is written: Johannes, brother Johannes, because he preached in the wilderness and...