Kirstin. You needn't to send me away again. I'm going off myself. But first I want to tell you that I've heard what you was saying. I didn't know where to go as your housekeeper was upstairs—and so I just waited in the passage and I couldn't help hearing what you said. I have terrible good ears, as you know, and I heard you tell these two ladies that I'm not in my right mind. I suppose that means I'm mad. [To Lady Gairloch]. I want to tell you that I'm not mad.
[Lady Betty, evidently alarmed, draws nearer to her mother. Lady Gairloch not quite sure].
Lady Gairloch. I am afraid, Dr Merton, we must not wait any longer.
Kirstin. Will you wait for one moment while I tell you the truth, instead of what you've been told? I am in my right mind, and it's a lie to say I am not—even if you do think I look so. I want to tell you why I came here. I came because he asked me.
[Lady Gairloch starts, and looks at Merton for corroboration].
Fifteen years ago he was nearly killed in Australia. My father and I found him lying by the roadside and picked him up for dead. We took him home and kept him and looked after him. When we had made him well and he went away back to England, he told me I was to come and see him in London, at his house. I am a rough woman and know nothing of fine folks' ways, and I didn't know but they spoke the truth like us. So I came.
[Betty draws near to her mother and looks at her as much as to say, 'Can this be true?']
Kirstin [answering Betty's gesture]. It's all true. Here is the paper he wrote out for me with his name on it, and the street he lived in, and the number of his house and all for me to come. It's got very rubbed out—it was written fifteen years ago, you see. [Reads aloud from paper] 'Henry Merton, 147 Devonshire Street, London. Come to London, Kirstin. Don't forget.'
[She hands the paper to Lady Gairloch, who reads it to herself, Betty looking over her shoulder].
Lady Gairloch [returning paper to Kirstin]. Yes, I see. [A pause].