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day?
ALI
Start early and you will be here before midnight.
JOHN
Would eight o'clock do!
ALI You could be back by eleven that evening.
JOHN
I don't quite see how ten years could go in a single day.
ALI
They will go as dreams go.
JOHN
Even so, it seems rather unusual, doesn't it?
ALI
Time is the slave of my master
MARY
John! JOHN
All right, Mary. [In a lower voice.] I'm only trying to see what he'll say.
MARY
All right, John, only . . .
ALI
Is there no step that you would wish untrodden, nor stride that you
would make where once you faltered?
JOHN
I say, why don't you use it yourself?
ALI
I? I am afraid of the past. But you Engleesh, and the great firm of
Briggs, Cater, and Beal; you are afraid of nothing.
JOHN
Ha, ha. Well--I wouldn't go quite as far as that, but--well, give me the
crystal.
MARY
Don't take it, John! Don't take it.
JOHN
Why, Mary? It won't hurt me.
MARY
If it can do all that--if it can do all that . . .
JOHN

Well?
MARY
Why, you might never have met me.
JOHN
Never have met you? I never thought of that.
MARY
Leave the past alone, John.
JOHN
All right, Mary. I needn't use it. But I want to hear about it, it's so odd,
it's so what-you-might-call queer; I don't think I ever----- [To ALI.]
You mean if I work hard for ten years, which will only be all
to-morrow, I may be Governor of the Bank of England to-morrow
night.
ALI
Even so.
MARY
O, don't do it, John.
JOHN
But you said--I'll be back here before midnight to-morrow.
ALI
It is so.
JOHN
But the Governor of the Bank of England would live in the City, and
he'd have a much bigger house anyway. He wouldn't live in Lewisham.
ALI
The crystal will bring you to this house when the hour is accomplished,
even tomorrow night. If you be the great banker you will perhaps come
to chastise one of your slaves who will dwell in this house. If you be
head of Briggs and Cater you will come to give an edict to one of your
firm. Perchance this street will be yours and you will come to show
your power unto it. But you will come.
JOHN
And if the house is not mine?
MARY
John! John! Don't.
ALI
Still you will come.

JOHN Shall I remember?
ALI
No.
JOHN
If I want to do anything different to what I did, how shall I remember
when I get back there?
MARY
Don't. Don't do anything different, John.
JOHN
All right.
ALI
Choose just before the hour of the step you desire to change. Memory
lingers a little at first, and fades away slowly.
JOHN
Five minutes?
ALI
Even ten.
JOHN
Then I can change one thing. After that I forget.
ALI
Even so. One thing. And the rest follows.
JOHN
Well, it's very good of you to make me this nice present, I'm sure.
ALI
Sell it not. Give it, as I gave it, if the heart impels. So shall it come
back one day to the hills that are brighter than grass, made richer by the
gratitude of many men. And my master shall smile thereat and the vale
shall be glad.
JOHN
It's very good of you, I'm sure.
MARY
I don't like it, John. I don't like tampering with what's gone.
ALI
My master's power is in your hands. Farewell.
[Exit.]
JOHN
I say, he's gone.

MARY
O, he's a dreadful man.
JOHN
I never really meant to take it.
MARY
O, John, I wish you hadn't
JOHN
Why? I'm not going to use it.
MARY
Not going to use it, John?
JOHN
No, no. Not if you don't want me to.
MARY
O, I'm so glad.
JOHN
And besides, I don't want things different. I've got fond of this little
house. And Briggs is a good old sort, you know. Cater's a bit of an ass,
but there's no harm in him. In fact, I'm contented, Mary. I wouldn't
even change Aunt Martha now.
[Points at frowning framed photograph centrally hung.]
You remember when she first came and you said "Where shall we hang
her?" I said the cellar. You said we couldn't. So she had to go there. But
I wouldn't change her now. I suppose there are old watch-dogs like her
in every family. I wouldn't change anything.
MARY
O, John, wouldn't you really?
JOHN
No, I'm contented. Grim old soul, I wouldn't even change Aunt Martha.
MARY
I'm glad of that, John. I was frightened. I couldn't bear to tamper with
the past. You don't know what it is, it's what's gone. But