I ask it for
your sake and for _mine_! Tell us here the truth now--it will spare me
much to-morrow, perhaps--me whom you love--for love of me--
STERLING. [_In an agony._] I'm afraid I'll lose you--
BLANCHE. No, I'll promise to stand by you if you'll only tell _us all_
the truth.
STERLING. [_In a low, shamed voice._] I'll tell _you_, but not
_now_--not before all these others.
[BLANCHE _looks up questioningly to_ MASON. MASON _shakes his head._
BLANCHE. It _must_ be _now_, Dick.
STERLING. No! no! I can't look you in the face and tell it! Let me tell
it to you _alone_, later, in the dark.
[BLANCHE _looks up questioningly to_ MASON. _He shakes his head._
BLANCHE. It must be now.
STERLING. No, no, I'm too ashamed, I can't face you; in the dark I'll
make a clean breast of it--let me tell you in the dark.
[WARDEN _moves and puts his hand on the electric-light button beside the
doorway at back._
WARDEN. In the DARK, then, _tell it_!
[_He presses the button and all the lights go out. The stage is in
complete darkness; only the voices are heard from the different places
in which the actors are last seen._
BLANCHE. [_Quickly._] Remember, to help you to help ourselves, we must
know everything. Go on.
STERLING.
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