[He goes.]
Vine:
I wish there were someone who had done me wrong,
Like Huff with his wife and Shale; I wish there were
Somebody I would like to see go crazed
With staring fright. I'ld have my pleasure then
Of living on into the End of the World.
But there is no one at all for me, no one
Now my poor wife is gone.
Merrick:
Why, what did she
To harm you?
Vine:
Didn't she marry me?--It's true
She made it come all right. She died at last.
Besides, it would be wasting wishes on her,
To be in hopes of her weeping at this.
She'ld have her hands on her hips and her tongue jumping
As nimble as a stoat, delighting round
The way the world's to be terrible and tormented.--
Ay, but I'll have a thing to tell her now
When she begins to ask the news! I'll say
'You've misst such a show as never was nor will be,
A roaring great affair of death and ruin;
And I was there--the world smasht to sparkles!'
O, I can see her vext at that!
[MERRICK has been sunk in thought during this, but VINE seems to
brighten at his notion, and speaks quite cheerfully to HUFF, who now
comes in, looking mopish, and sits down.
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