SCENE V.--_A chamber. SCROOGE and SPIRIT on L. H.

_Enter ELLEN, R. H., second dress, followed by EUSTON, L. H._

ELLEN. What news my love--is it good or bad?

EUS. Bad!

ELLEN. We are quite ruined!

EUS. No! there is hope yet, Ellen!

ELLEN. If he relents, there is--nothing is past hope if such a miracle has happened.

EUS. He is past relenting! He is dead!

ELLEN. Dead! It is a crime but heaven forgive me, I almost feel thankful for it!

EUS. What the half drunken-woman told me last night, when I tried to see him and obtain a week's delay, and which I thought a mere excuse to avoid me, was true,--he was not only ill, but dying then!

ELLEN. To whom will our debt be transferred!

EUS. I don't know, but before that time we shall be ready with the money, and were we not, we can hardly find so merciless a creditor in his successor. We may sleep to-night with light hearts, Ellen. Come! (_Exeunt R. H._)

SCR. This is terrible! Let me see some tenderness connected with a death in that dark chamber, which we left just now, Spirit--it will be for ever present to me. (SPIRIT _points onward and slowly exits followed by SCROOGE._)