Arnold. You are not used to talk to me like this.
Mrs. Arnold. Nor you to tell me that you are a traitor.
Arnold. Perhaps some change is coming over us.
Mrs. Arnold. It may be freedom from the load of thought.
Arnold. It may be death.
[She kneels by him in silent anguish.]
Both Choruses. Surely truth is not born except through pain; and the long delay increaseth it.
It is a happiness for a young man to see his error. But for an old, only death remains. He hath no strength for new things. Let him die in his old ways, yea, though they be evil.
Very sad is repentance when it is too late; when the blight has fallen, and no fruit cometh thereafter. Very sad is the grief of an old man. I cannot lay hold of it. There is no comfort to be given him, for he knoweth the world.
Father Hudson. What causes the man to see these things now?