By the mystery that is man, and the mercy that is G.o.d, I say it is so.--

_Puts his hand on her head, and gazes into her face._

I looked into your eyes once, and they were terrible as an army with banners. I look again now, and I see they are only a girl's eyes, very weak, very pitiful. I told you of a place, high in the great mountains.

I tell you now of another place higher yet, in more mysterious mountains. Let us go there together, step by step, from faith to faith, and from strength to strength, for I see depths of life open and heights of love come out, which I never dreamed of till now!

_A song rises outside, nearer and louder than before._

RHODA.

Against your own words they trust you still.

MICHAELIS.

It was you who held them to their trust!

RHODA.

You will go out to them now.

MICHAELIS.

_As he kisses her._

Until the victory!

_The song rises to a great hymn, of martial and joyous rhythm. They go together to the threshold. They look at each other in silence.

Rhoda speaks, with suppressed meaning._

RHODA.

Shall it be--on earth?

MICHAELIS.

On the good human earth, which I never possessed till now!

RHODA.

But now--these waiting souls, prisoned in their pain--

MICHAELIS.

By faith all prisoned souls shall be delivered.

RHODA.

By faith.

MICHAELIS.

By faith which makes all things possible, which brings all things to pa.s.s.

_He disappears. Rhoda stands looking after him. The young mother hurries in._

THE YOUNG MOTHER.

_Ecstatic, breathless._

Come here--My baby! I believe--I do believe--

_She disappears._

RHODA.

_Following her._

I believe. I do believe!

_The music rises into a vast chorus of many mingled strains._

CURTAIN

WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY'S

The Great Divide

"This play stands as a noteworthy achievement in the history of American dramatic literature, not alone as a drama of absorbing interest and significance, but as a distinct achievement from a literary point of view. It is a pleasure to read the crisp, admirable English, a prose at once vigorous, clear, and balanced. In the cold black and white of print and paper, without the accessories of the stage or the personality of actors to help illusion or enforce the story told, the real strength of the drama is most impressive. Mr.

Moody has long been known as a poet of unusual gifts; he has now proven himself a dramatist of marked ability."--_Brooklyn Daily Eagle._

"It is a privilege to read at leisure and to examine in detail a play which, when presented upon the boards, sweeps the auditor along in a whirlwind of emotion.... The triumph of nature, with its impulse, its health, its essential sanity and rightness, over the cryptic formulas of convention and Puritanism, marks the meaning of the play.... Yet because it is a great drama, it may mean that to one and quite another thing to another, but meaning this, or meaning that, it must make, inevitably, an indelible impression upon any one interested in the vitality and evolution of the American drama."--_Chicago Tribune._

"This play is in a cla.s.s by itself because it has high literary merit aside from great dramatic force. The poet flashes out frequently in the terse lines of the early part of the play, and later reaches high-water mark in the scenes at Stephen Ghent's home on the mountain top. The play is worth many readings."--_San Francisco Chronicle._