Chapter 6

_Dawn of the next day. At the rise of the curtain JINNY is by the open window, whose curtains she has thrown aside. The sky is blood-red and streaked with gold the moment before sunrise. JINNY is worn and haggard, with hair dishevelled._

JINNY. [_Turning and leaning against the window._] Day at last! What a night--what a night--but now it's morning and he hasn't come back! He means it! And it's my own fault--it's my own fault! [_She shivers. She closes the window and comes away. After a moment's pause she goes deliberately and looks at the several gas fixtures in the room. She then closes all the doors and locks them. She carefully draws down the shade and closes in the curtains of the window. She hesitates, then pulls aside the curtains and the shade, and takes a long, last look at the dawn. She closes it all in again. She gets Austin's picture from the desk and places it on the table near the centre of the room. She then goes to the gas bracket at the Right and turns on the gas. She lights it to see if the gas is all right; then blows it out. She then crosses to the other bracket and turns that on; she goes to the chandelier at centre, and, mounting a chair, turns on its three jets. She then sits down by the table with AUSTIN'S picture before her, and looking into its eyes, her elbows on the table, her head in her hands, she waits._] Oh, Jack, my beloved! I couldn't help it--I never for one minute stopped loving you better than everything else in my life, but no more than I could stop loving you could I stop or help being jealous! Once the cruel idea has got hold of me it seems to _have_ to work its way out! Everything gets red before me and I don't seem to know what I say or do! It's no excuse, I know. I've got no excuse, only I _love_ you! You'll forgive me when I'm gone, won't you, Jack? You'll know I _loved_ you!--loved you so I couldn't _live_ without you!--loved you!--_loved_ you! [_She kisses the photograph tenderly, adoringly, slowly, in tears._] Loved--you--loved you!--loved--

[_Her head drops forward, as_

THE CURTAIN FALLS