The light goes out again and Granillo re-enters the room, shutting the door. He takes his seat again. Slight pause.
Granillo. Well, go on.
Brandon. There are then Kenneth Ragland and Leila Arden. They have been asked for their youth, innocence, and good spirits alone. Also, in Raglan, who went to the same school and is at the same University as ourselves, you have about the most perfect specimen of ordinary humanity obtainable, and therefore a suitable witness to this so extraordinary scene. Unintellectual humanity is represented. The same applies to Leila, his female counterpart. . . . We then come to Rupert. . . . Now in Rupert, Granno, we have a very intriguing pro- position. Rupert, in fact, is about the one man alive who might have seen this thing from our angle, that is, the artistic one. You will recall that we even con- templated, at one time, of inviting him to share our dangers, and we eventually turned the notion down, not necessarily because it would have been too much for him to swallow intellectually, but simply because he would not have had the nerve. Rupert is a damnably brilliant poet, but perhaps a little too fastidious. . . . He could have invented and admired, but he could not have acted. So he is in the same blissless ignorance as the rest. Never- theless he is intellect’s representative, and valued at that. (Pause.) Granno . . .
[No answer.
Granno.
Granillo. Yes.
Brandon. What’s the time?
Granillo (going up to the clock with a lighted match). Ten to.
Brandon. Sabot will be here in five minutes.
Granillo. I know.
Brandon. May I put on the light?
Granillo. Must you? Can’t you go on talking?
Brandon. No, I can’t, I’m afraid.
[ 14 ]
