SCENE IV.--_Street. Exterior of Scrooge & Marley's
Counting House._
_Scro._ Why, here is my place of business, and has been occupied by Scrooge & Marley for many years. I see the house, let me behold what I shall be in the days to come. Why, Spirit, the house is yonder. Why do you point away? (_Goes to the window and looks in._) It is the old office still; the same furniture; but no one occupies my chair. Ah! some one comes.
_Enter James Badger from Counting House, going off right, meets Mrs. Badger at right entrance._
_Mrs. B._ Ah! James. I have waited for you so long. What news? Is it good or bad?
_James._ Bad.
_Mrs B._ We are quite ruined?
_James._ No. There is hope yet, Caroline.
_Mrs. B._ If _he_ relents, there is. Nothing is past hope, if such a miracle has happened.
_James._ He is past relenting. He is dead.
_Mrs. B._ Dead! Thank Heaven; we are saved. (_Pause._) I pray forgiveness, I am sorry that I gave expression to the emotions of my heart.
_James._ What the half drunken woman, whom I told you of last night, said to me when I tried to see him and obtain a week's delay, and what I thought was a mere excuse to avoid me, turns out to have been quite true. He was not only very ill, but dying then.
_Mrs. B._ To whom will our debt be transferred?
_James._ I don't know, and I have been unable to ascertain. At all events, before that time we shall be ready with the money; and even though we were not, it would be a bad fortune indeed to find so merciless a creditor in his successor. We may sleep to-night with light hearts, Caroline!
_Mrs. B._ Yes; and our dear children will be brighter when they find the gloom dispelled from the minds of their parents. We cannot deny that this man's death has occasioned some happiness.
_James._ Come, let us hurry home [_Exeunt_, R.]
_Scro._ Spirit, it is evident that the only emotion you can show me, caused by the event foreshadowed, is one of pleasure. Let me see some tenderness connected with the death of another, or what has just been shown me will be forever present in my mind.