Speaker 1: Come in.
Speaker 2: Welcome. I'm g Marshall. Could you suppose that suddenly one
of the most simple functions in the world was denied you,
that you couldn't, uh, let's say, open a door, or
get out of bed, or strike a match, or swallow
the food in front of you, even if all the
other mundane actions of life continued. Would any normal process
of living be feasible if in one area you were
completely bewitched? Our mystery drama The Unbearable Reflection was written
especially for the Mystery Theater by Ian Martin and stars
Patricia Elliott and and Dell Claimer. It is sponsored in
part by Buick Motor Division and Anheuser Busch Incorporated brewers
a Budweiser. I'll be back shortly with that one. We
are a nation that looks for idols to worship, and
one of our fetishes is beauty. Along with that goes
another success by any measure. Deborah Denton qualifies Miss America
in a not too distant year. Sometime movie star and
now wife of one of our biggest states governors. A
man who is a presidential timber. That's Debbie. She is
everything to hold up to America, man and woman as
an example, a strict religious upbringing, beauty success in many fields,
a press agent's dream, except for one thing. What we
see on the surface is exactly the opposite of the real.
Deborah Dentum.
Speaker 3: Zip me up, will you, darling?
Speaker 2: I hate to it makes it so fine, a nick.
Speaker 3: I'm already late. I'm gonna have to burn up the
parkway to get back in time for dinner.
Speaker 2: You could have it with me.
Speaker 3: Zip first, talk later, ah soon, Nicholas, my love. First,
I have to get rid of my husband divorce h
not while he's still a possible candidate. You don't want
to be named as a correspondent in a divorce suit
that hits every headline. Do you let me.
Speaker 2: Buy your husband? Author?
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, that is the one thing you can't do.
Speaker 2: I worship at your feet. How can I own you?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: You are a marvelous lover, darling, not only poetic, ah,
but so rich. And I must run.
Speaker 2: I'll see you to thes oar. Better not.
Speaker 3: Let's not take any chance of being seen together. Since
the day I took my first step, I've known just
where I wanted to go. From the beginning. Men have
been the central influence in my life. The First, my
father hard, bigoted, blindly devoted to a barren, demanding religious
fervor that he tried to force on everyone. My only
way out was to run, which I did with the
first man I could persuade. I was old enough to
take me across the state line. Fortunately, my father was
drowned in a flood shortly after, so my little mouth
of a mother came to stay with me and eventually
provided me with enough wholesomness to run for my first
beauty contest. The rest of my story has been told
in every newspaper across the country and around the world,
but the true story will only be told here as
my last concession. As soon as I returned to the
Governor's mentioned immediately crossed the halls of the private entrance
of my husband's office.
Speaker 2: John, I'm that, come in the doors up.
Speaker 3: What what are you doing here?
Speaker 1: Lewis looking for a miracle?
Speaker 3: What sort of a miracle do you expect to find
in my husband's.
Speaker 2: Filed something anything to use against the Lieutenant.
Speaker 3: Governor against Frank? Now? Why would you John's campaign manager
want to attack or head his running mate Debruh?
Speaker 1: Where have you been all afternoon?
Speaker 3: I think shopping what business is that of yours?
Speaker 2: Dear missus Denton. There's no need to look guilty. Why
should I be interested in your whatever pursuits brought you
home so glowing and the live and happy, even though
empty handed? I merely asked, because obviously you haven't heard
the news? What news?
Speaker 1: At a party lunch and our esteem?
Speaker 2: Senior Senator Water Price announced that he was withdrawing his
support for your husband in the coming campaign.
Speaker 3: Why.
Speaker 1: The stated reason.
Speaker 2: Was a disagreement over fundamental fiscal policies and governors them
lack of a firm stand on law and order. Your
husband is no better than an also ran after Price
of speech? Today? Where is John with Sam the party board?
Speaker 3: Sam Waters won't desert him.
Speaker 2: Sam Waters would cut his mother's throat without batting an eyelid.
And your husband has been standing in his way for
one term that's more than another.
Speaker 3: What do you mean standing in his way? John has
been a wonderful governor and everyone knows if this is
only a stepping stone.
Speaker 1: To the presidency. That was your dream, wasn't it.
Speaker 3: I don't intend to discuss that with you. What do
you mean about John standing in Sam waters way?
Speaker 2: Patronage? My dear lady, the name of the political game.
There's been precious little of it since John took over
the State House.
Speaker 3: Because my husband happens to prize his honesty.
Speaker 2: We've hitched our wagon to the wrong star. We'd both
better begin to break out the parachutes and start looking
for a nice soft landing.
Speaker 3: Oh so you're going to run out on John.
Speaker 2: No that I have, and maybe many of the things
you say, but don't ever make the mistake of thinking
me ridiculous.
Speaker 3: I despise you, Lewis Stock. You are contemptible, conniving, evil,
and totally dishonest. And when I tell my husband what
you say behind his back, wouldn't dare to tell him
to his faith.
Speaker 1: I'll tell him when I'm ready.
Speaker 3: We won't have to wait. I'll take care of that.
Speaker 2: I doubt it, unless, of course, you want me to
tell him where you really were this afternoon?
Speaker 3: What are you having me followed?
Speaker 1: In a sense?
Speaker 2: You were at the Woodmere Motel from approximately two until
five this afternoon.
Speaker 1: Quite a bit out of town.
Speaker 2: You know you joined him, mister Joseph Martin and his
private bungalow. Of course, we both know that that name
is only a cover his real name. That is enough.
Speaker 3: What are you trying to find out?
Speaker 1: Nothing?
Speaker 2: Yet? Patience is the one virtue I lay claimed to him.
That sounds like the governor. Now, I guess you better
leave us alone to put our together and see what
we can pull out of the fire. Oh.
Speaker 3: I went up to my room seething. From the first
moment I had laid eyes on that beady eyed, sardonic
little toad, I had hated him. I took a tranquilizer
in some aspron and I sat down before my mirror
to try to smooth out the worry lines. I opened
my makeup drawer to make some repairs, and there, staring
me in the face, was the ultimate irony, a birthday
gift that Lewis had presented me with a gun to
quote a forward protection while my husband was out campaigning.
Knowing now what he knew about me, Oh, I would
have liked to use it on this man who had
given it to me, if oh I could get away
with it, I pushed the gun back out of sight.
I knew that John disapproved of firearms. It was fortunate
that I had pushed it back, because, without his usual
polite no.
Speaker 2: John was suddenly in my room.
Speaker 3: Why, John darling, Y you surprised me.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry, I've just had some pretty bad news.
What it? Uh hah, looks as though you're not going
to be the governor's lady much longer.
Speaker 3: Oh you mean you've decided not to run again.
Speaker 2: I mean the party has decided not to support me.
If I try to.
Speaker 3: Run, then run independency not a chance.
Speaker 2: First of all, I haven't the money. I have no
personal wealth, no sources to draw them.
Speaker 3: Did it have to cough so much? If you go
to the people, you know you have their support.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had til I cut the budget, raised taxes,
tried to make the states solvent.
Speaker 3: Well you know that Sam and Lewis felt that you
could have waited.
Speaker 2: Oh sure, Sam and Lewis aren't interested in principles on
the public good, only votes. Everything I've tried to do
to help the little guy. I mean the kind of
man I consider myself and be twisted into a mistake.
If your code of honor is politics first.
Speaker 3: Well, perhaps it was a mistake to beat her the
death penalty when you knew everyone was up in arms
of the appalling crime rate.
Speaker 2: I would always beat those that in my opinion is
against the morality of both man and God.
Speaker 3: All right, my darling, we won't argue about it. Oh here,
let me sit with you for a minute.
Speaker 2: Oh, debby, darling, I I really don't care for myself.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact.
Speaker 2: In a way, I'm relieved, relieved. Yes, we can live
our own lives now, start having the first of those
children we should have had already, enjoy and get the
most out of life for ourselves.
Speaker 3: What will you be doing for a living?
Speaker 2: Oh, go back to the law.
Speaker 3: Oh not that same poky little firm.
Speaker 2: I imagine they'd be glad to have me back, and
and I suppose reflected glory could get me in with
some of the bigger firms.
Speaker 3: Come on, darling, we'd uh better get dressed for the
Chamber of Commerce dinner tonight.
Speaker 2: Debbie. You know, sometimes I wonder if you really love me.
Always it just the glamour and all the expectations for
the future.
Speaker 3: Oh be careful, my darling, I don't mustna please.
Speaker 1: I'm just rubbing against your head.
Speaker 2: How beautiful you are, and look at your reflection in
the mirror.
Speaker 1: Was there ever a more beautiful woman?
Speaker 2: You know, Debbie? Sometimes I think for all my beliefs
and my hatred for violence. If I ever found out
there was anyone who wanted to steal you from me,
if I ever suspected for a moment that some other
man dared or you permitted him intimacies which are hours alone,
I I think I would revert to the animal that
lives in.
Speaker 1: All of us.
Speaker 2: And just's all three you, me and oh forgive me, Darling.
I I don't know what came over me, dogging nonsense
like that. It's just that I love you, soul.
Speaker 3: The Chamber of Commerce dinner was long and tedious. I
was sent home early with the Lieutenant Governor's wife, but
not before Lewis had informed me that John, contrary to
his normal habits, been drinking quite a bit. But he
assured me that it would be all right, and that
he would make sure he got safely home. I was
sitting at my dressing table taking off my makeup, when suddenly, impossibly,
Lewis had decided me visibly shaken and fantic, Deborah, how
the devil did you get in here?
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter for the moment he had to tell
you to lock your door when I leave, and whatever
you do, don't Let John come in and remember the
pistol I gave.
Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: He's found out about you and Nicholas.
Speaker 2: Never mind how when I left him he was loading
his hunting rifle. For Heaven's sake, when I leave, lock
your door you?
Speaker 3: Why should be afraid of CHOHn the most, Debbie?
Speaker 2: He has not himself, he's out of his mind. Good Lord,
here he comes. Defend yourself, Deborrah, get your gun. He's
out for blood.
Speaker 3: Debby.
Speaker 2: Tell me it isn't true, God says, not now not
you deserting me?
Speaker 3: John? Jump put on that, get done?
Speaker 2: What done? Tell me it isn't true about you and
Nicholas I and Joglu world By, haven't I? Oh?
Speaker 1: John, It's all right, Debrah, he's dead, quite dead.
Speaker 3: How do you know, Colla, don't you get someone here?
How do you know?
Speaker 2: Because this is exactly how I arranged it, arranged it certainly,
what better.
Speaker 1: Way to get you in my power?
Speaker 2: You feel there's something strangely out of kilter in this
sudden event, something that does not ring quite true, or
perhaps a better phrase is something unnatural, For we have
just passed the boundaries of a finite world to the
supernatural the unexplained, the terror of something beyond a human
being's ability to have foreseen, or now that it has happened,
to cope with. I'll return shortly for that too, very
very seldom in life, as Deborah Denton committed an act
not motivated by her own volition. But on this one
a very few times she has done what would have
seemed impossible to her. She has lost her head completely
and committed homicide. Not only that, but in front of
a witness, the last witness in the world she would
have wanted to be there. Instinct tells her that she
is caught in a trap. But more than that, some
unfathomable Prussians sounds a knell within her that the trap
is worse than could humanly be possible. What do you
mean in your power? You just murdered your husband in
front of me.
Speaker 3: It doesn't murder self defense, which you saw he was
going to kill me, kill you with? What with the
hunting rifle?
Speaker 2: What rifle?
Speaker 3: The one he had in his hands.
Speaker 2: I don't see any gum in his hands or anywhere
near him. But you said that you die. I don't
think I remember that, but you must.
Speaker 3: Now you burst in here and you said that John
had been drinking at the dinner and that he was
loading his rifle, and that he knew about Nickols.
Speaker 2: Dear Debraah, John stants and drunk and loading a rifle
when you knew his a version of the guns of
any kind. I wouldn't believe he would.
Speaker 1: Could even use a gun. And how could he have
found out about you and Nicholas?
Speaker 2: I don't know from you, I suppose now, Really, why
should I make trouble between you and John? And I
didn't burst in here.
Speaker 3: At least that's the truth. How did you get in here?
That's another matter which I don't care about for the moment.
You are a witness and hostile or not. Any good
lawyer will catch you in your lies and your tricks
as soon as he gets you on a stand.
Speaker 2: Only he won't. Why not because I'm not here. The
servants have heard the shops and sent for the police.
When they come, they'll find you and the dead man alone.
Speaker 3: You can't get out of this house without being seen.
Speaker 1: Can't I watch?
Speaker 3: Goois Lewis?
Speaker 2: Who's where are you here?
Speaker 1: I am debe.
Speaker 3: I don't know what's happening here. I'm must be going crazy.
Speaker 2: That's all a dream. Oh no, it isn't, not at all,
but it can be. I'm quite aware how you feel
about me, But have you ever wondered how I feel
about you?
Speaker 1: Of course you haven't.
Speaker 2: I'm dead under your feet. I warn you not to
underestimate me. Now I might be able to help.
Speaker 3: You if who are you?
Speaker 2: Sure you're a human? I think perhaps that's a fair statement.
It was really amusing when you first saw me in
your room that you should have chosen to say, what
the devil are you doing here? Is that who you are?
Speaker 1: Satan himself?
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, my dear, nothing quite so grandiose. Just
a minor demon, a faithful henchman of the Anpti faith
has a dream. There can be no changing the fact
that John is dead. That's a fate of complete But
the manner of his death is the place where it happened.
And the time can be arranged to suit our convenience,
or rather yours, in such a way that you will
appear to have had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 3: And in return, I sign a paper in blood selling
you my soul.
Speaker 2: Oh no, really, dever, surely you don't subscribe to that
old fashioned medieval nonsense.
Speaker 1: This is the twentieth century. Why would I want your soul?
Speaker 3: I I don't know. I I mean, isn't that what
is always required when you.
Speaker 1: pressIt with the devil? I wouldn't know.
Speaker 2: I told you I'm only a minor league. Besides, your
soul is committed to hell already, my dear, Then what
do you ask in exchange your body, my beautiful one?
Your soul has no interest for me.
Speaker 3: You must be mad. All right, we'll play it your way.
We'll pretend this farce is real. Now, what could you
do about John?
Speaker 1: Set the clock back?
Speaker 2: John did have a couple of drinks. He left the
hotel alone in his car. On the way home, he
lost control and smashed into a wall. The car was totaled,
and he was instantly killed. And me, you were already
at home. You were having a long talk with the
housekeeper when it happened about getting a new maid. Could
you know that I put the idea in your head
for reasons of my own, which you will discover later.
You can arrange all this in exchange for you.
Speaker 1: No, I was afraid of that.
Speaker 3: You are loathsome and disgusting to me. I don't need
your help and I can get through this by myself.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't put it past You'd be hard to find
a jury to convict you, or at least condemn you
to death.
Speaker 3: John does have a rifle. It'll be beside him by
the time the police get here, and then you'd better hurry.
No hah, I might as well be dead or in hell.
Speaker 2: If I belong to you, very well, I'll make you
one last offer. What if I can't have you yourself,
I'll settle to the vicarious. Tell me your reflection, my
reflection that other self looks back at you from the
mirror horror.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it's almost too late.
Speaker 2: Quickly, yeah, quickly, sign here, and the pact is made.
Speaker 3: There was a shuddering flash and a wild feeling as
though the world had stopped spinning on its axis. I
was conscious that the police siren had cut off, as
though by a switch being thrown, and that John's body
Aunt Louis had disappeared. The last thing I remember in
my half consciousness was the fantastic sight of the glass
fragments from the broken vanity mirror which one of my
shops had flattered, lifting and gathering in the air and
coming together into the mirror again, and then I must
have fainted. I was awakened by a soft but insisting
knocking at my doors. Just admit, who is it? It's else,
that's missus Benson man who mister Lewis Stark said you'd
be needing me?
Speaker 4: It's dark.
Speaker 3: I d just a moment. I I I'll unlock the
door and let you in.
Speaker 2: Oh that won't be necessary.
Speaker 3: Here, let me help you out.
Speaker 2: No, no, don't don't touch me.
Speaker 3: Who are you why? Mister Stark told me you and
your housekeeper had been discussing your needing a lady's maid,
so I came to apply ah at this time of night.
He said it might be sort of urgent, and that
you might be needing someone with my special sort of references?
And what are those? You should sit down man here
here by your vanity table. Thank you. I I I
am a bit shaky. It's why mister Stark thought of me.
Speaker 2: What are you a nurse?
Speaker 3: Nothing like that? Just what I am?
Speaker 2: Just what you need?
Speaker 3: Well, if I do, it's not tonight. I don't want
you here tonight. Are you sure, ma'am? Of course?
Speaker 2: I what do you mean?
Speaker 3: Look in the mirror, missus Denton. I don't want to
look in the mirror. I can imagine after the nightmares,
I've been having one look in the mirror. Oh anything
for a little piecea ah, now do you see why
you need someone like me?
Speaker 2: Or and what else? Show me?
Speaker 3: In the mirror was sing reflected in the background for
all the normal things I expected to see, the Austrian
curtains strapped by the window sampler which my mother had
needle pointed for me, the great canopy bad to my left,
to the right, the H's lodge, and part of the
closet door in the center of the wall in the central
more where I should have been. Nothing. I don't mean
a blank or the outline of a shape, just nothing
at all, as though the mirror reflected only an empty room.
Speaker 2: You see, but has it can't be? How give me
my hand glass.
Speaker 3: Year, madam?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: Nothing the same? Oh my, what am I going to do?
That's why mister Lewis Stark thought you might have need
of me.
Speaker 2: How can you help? Can you bring my likeness back? No?
But I can protect you?
Speaker 3: How this by keeping people away from you are more
important you away from them. But if John is dead,
I I I can't just tie. But you could have
need for a nurse someone to take care of you.
We can establish the shock of this passing has brought
down a skin disease you wish to cloak from anyone's eyes,
particularly from your own.
Speaker 2: How will that help?
Speaker 3: A logical reason for getting rid of all the mirrors
in the house, for guarding against the surprise photographer, for
concealing the truth, as long as you must be in
the public eye, Shall I get it for you? N No, No,
I'll get it at least I'm safe. On the phone.
It's er Hello maybe, Oh it's you. Can you talk
just a moment?
Speaker 2: Would you mind leaving me alone?
Speaker 3: Please to talk to me close? Or should I use
the cover name you? Since we are sisters under the skin,
I shall quietly disappear now Hello, all right? No, I
A A but but but we can talk now. Nikki
w What is it?
Speaker 2: I just heard the news news.
Speaker 5: About John am I caring?
Speaker 2: Is it true?
Speaker 3: What did they say?
Speaker 5: Just that he apparently lost control of his car on
the parkway and smashed into the wall of underpass and
that he must have been killed instantly?
Speaker 3: Oh, thanks, Peter, what did you say? Uh?
Speaker 2: Oh, Debby, you know don't you.
Speaker 3: I mean I, I yes, I I it's it's all right,
I I I I know.
Speaker 6: Oh, for a moment there, I thought i'd made well.
I I don't mean to be goolish, but uh, I
have a wonderful idea for us.
Speaker 5: What you are a grieving widow. What is more natural
that you just want to get away? You go to
Europe on a trip and steal away to my island. Oh,
I have such a room for us, all glass. What
is not windows to the sun and see is mirrors.
I can't see you there, my darling, not just the
magic of you alone, but.
Speaker 3: For reflection after a fleab.
Speaker 2: Oh, oh, I'm sorry. I can't carry it away. You'll
forgive me.
Speaker 5: But I I I want you so, I I need
you so, and I want you to be my bride.
Once you are, I.
Speaker 2: Will buy you the worst m m.
Speaker 3: M, my darling, I I want that too. I don't
give me time to to think. I'll call you tomorrow.
What am I going to do? You see what I meant?
Speaker 2: Especially what, especially.
Speaker 3: If you have a lover or wish to take another husband,
how do you explain you have no reflection in a mirror.
I'm a still palm, or a a store window passing by,
or even no shadow in the brightest sunlight. You don't
have to keep reminding me. I know how I've been cheated,
not cheated, man, just outmaneuvered. How good you expect to win?
When the devil held the nice.
Speaker 2: All that Deborah Denton schemed to gain well beyond imagining.
As Nikosa and Juglo's wife seems now denied her. Can
she out with the devil?
Speaker 1: Or is she already doomed?
Speaker 2: A haunted figure who casts neither shadow nor reflection, set
apart forever from everyone else. I shall return shortly with
Act three. The next three days with the most difficult
of Deborah Denton's life, heavily veiled, even though it was summer,
constantly on the lookout for a revealing mirror or the
flash of a camera before she had a chance to
hide behind someone. She was physically exhausted by the time
the body was at last entered, and of all the interviews,
the most unsettling and frightening to her was a stolen
a few minutes with Nicholas. My deepest condolences, Missus Denton.
Speaker 3: Thank you Nicholas.
Speaker 2: I waited till the end of the line. Can't we
be alone for a moment?
Speaker 3: So kind of you to send those lovely flowers.
Speaker 2: I can't Nick not here. I had nothing but admiration
for the governor said it's important. It was a fine man,
and the state will mourn his laws.
Speaker 3: We all will you can walk me to the hall.
Speaker 2: I pretend to be a faint Missus Denton. Are you
all right?
Speaker 3: Oh, just a little faint. Ah, I'm all right, ladies
and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: I just need to rest.
Speaker 3: Nicholas. If you will be good enough to give me
your arm to the stairs, please please forgive me. I'll
try to join you again later.
Speaker 2: Just lean on me, Missus Denton. Let me get the door.
Speaker 3: Oh thank you. Who is that young woman you brought
with you.
Speaker 4: That is my niece. It is why I have to
talk to you. I have to get her back to
Grease very small.
Speaker 3: No, wait, wait for me.
Speaker 2: I can meet you there as we planned, or come back.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, don't leave me now. I need you.
Speaker 2: Oh you're not well, baby, not yourself.
Speaker 4: Maybe we should wait until you know what till well, till.
Speaker 2: The rash or whatever it is that makes you wear
that way, that is nothing.
Speaker 3: I oh, can't I see you tonight, my darling?
Speaker 2: Well, why don't you phone me after? What is it?
Speaker 4: I don't know, crazy, but I happen to be looking
at that mirror as we passed, and I could swear
mirror that one hanging over the chest.
Speaker 2: To put that back?
Speaker 4: I don't know, but it was so strange. I could swear,
looking in it that I was all alone.
Speaker 3: Don't be silly. No, the moment I have got to
lie down.
Speaker 2: Are you trying to change the subject.
Speaker 3: No, I'm not about tonight.
Speaker 2: Call me later and trick you know where.
Speaker 3: I doubt many men could appreciate, but I'm sure every
woman can. The agonizing frustration of being deprived of the
use of a mirror or anything in which one can
view oneself, the terror of feeling that you are alive
no longer, that you only exist for yourself. Certainly, I
found a small mirror from an old pocketbook and checked.
Speaker 4: Ah.
Speaker 3: No matter what the angle, there was still no answering
image of my face, and I could not rid myself
at the sight of the beautiful young woman that Nicholas
called his niece. I doubted her, hated her, was sick
with jealousy for her. Not for Nick himself, but for
the wealth and power he meant to me. Now that
John was gone, I was ready to crawl, to beg,
to plead for any small chance from the vile thing
that had become my master. You wanted to see me, Deborah, Yes,
Lewis someone hung a mirror in the hall?
Speaker 2: Do you know about it?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 2: Yes, I had it replaced by hundreds of people have
come to pay their respects to the late governor, half
of them women. Mirror may not be a necessity, but
the total absence of any is.
Speaker 1: Miss.
Speaker 3: I don't believe you you had it hung to torture me,
or just to remind you. I want my reflection back.
Speaker 1: Are you sure?
Speaker 3: Sure? I am sure of nothing thanks to you.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: I know I made some kind of pact with you,
and I don't expect any mercy.
Speaker 2: But I hope I beg that there.
Speaker 3: Is some life left for me. If if I am
to be dragged at last into a hell that is
a tote and is as devastatingly destructive as the last days,
and then I am asking you for some last fling
at life before you and yours swallow me up forever.
Speaker 2: You're worried about Nicholas and his niece. Yes, and quite right.
The relationship is close, but not familial, do you mean it?
Of course she's not his niece, But then, in spite
of her desires, she's not yet been able to capture
his entirely.
Speaker 3: You are a master at this, aren't you? To turn
a person slowly on the spit, never burning, only scorching.
Speaker 2: We're two of the kind. How many men have you
turned on a spit, hopelessly bound and tied by your beauty,
and promise only to abandon them after their purpose had
served yours?
Speaker 3: Supposing I admit it, will that gain me any comradeship
with you?
Speaker 1: What is it you want?
Speaker 2: So little? My mirror image back again?
Speaker 1: You're sure?
Speaker 2: That's all?
Speaker 3: That is all I dare to ask it?
Speaker 2: And how will it serve you?
Speaker 3: Even at the simplest level. A woman cannot live without
a reflection. She needs it to begin live, end her day, and.
Speaker 2: For your sort of woman, to reaffirm your strength. For
what are you without beauty? Oh?
Speaker 3: You knew so well when you took it from me,
I would be back on my knees to beg for it.
I was damned the day I agreed I can't live
as ordinary people do. I need Nikki's money.
Speaker 2: Position power. Neither can the rest of us. The rest
of us we the powers of darkness, the strength of
the world, which will ultimately.
Speaker 1: Make it our own.
Speaker 3: I don't mean to align myself with you.
Speaker 1: How can you help it anymore? Just let me warn you, Deborah.
Speaker 2: If I return your image, it may not be what
you expect to see.
Speaker 3: It will be what I want the world to see.
Speaker 1: Can you be so sure.
Speaker 2: It will be me?
Speaker 3: Won't it? Of course I'll sign anything more for that chance.
Speaker 1: There's no need for that.
Speaker 2: Call your lover, win him back from his niece if
you can. By the time you two can meet, your
mirror image will have returned. I want it now. Some
things are possible, but not all. You must wait until
you meet him again.
Speaker 5: Maybe maybe we shouldn't rush things.
Speaker 2: There is still time too.
Speaker 3: Are a fantastically attractive man, my darling, but I don't
quite trust that niece of yours. Oh, come to me,
make it ten o'clock. It'll be nice and dark by then,
and Elspeth will be waiting. Do I expect you?
Speaker 2: You know? All you have to do is ask. I'll
be there.
Speaker 3: I hung up the phone and sat for a long time,
thinking I couldn't rest, so I called Elf this and
made arrangements for Nicholas to be admitted to the house.
If you're sure you won me too? Are you talking
about Elspas? I told you I did. Why wouldn't I
want you to? And I'm sure it's none of my business?
But if I were you, I might talk it over
with mister Stark. Why. Oh, he's the only one who
could answer that, ma'am. Something about that long set, grim
face troubled me. I realized suddenly that it was the
almost imperceptibly twisted, evil smile breaking the tight line of
her mouth. I could feel my heart dropped like a
stone into a dark and bottomless pit. And suddenly Lewis Stark,
whoever or whatever he was, was standing before me.
Speaker 2: Lewis, it's nine o'clock.
Speaker 1: I thought you should have time to think things over.
Speaker 3: What are you doing here?
Speaker 1: Don't worry?
Speaker 2: I shall be gone along before your lover appears. If
you are sure you want.
Speaker 3: Him to, why don't you leave me alone?
Speaker 2: Haven't you done enough to me?
Speaker 1: I thought I would do a kindness. You wanted your.
Speaker 2: Reflection back, you promised me as you are. I thought,
perhaps you'd better look at it before your lover comes. Look.
I promise you it is a perfect mirror image of
your For some reason, I am afraid to look what
you see. Everyone else who will see remember it is
your true reflection, and you live or die by it.
Speaker 3: What does that mean?
Speaker 2: See for yourself?
Speaker 3: I will, but by myself this time. The gun is loaded.
I want you out of here.
Speaker 2: Look on yourself, Deborah.
Speaker 3: I had no will of my own for that moment.
Standing with the gun in my hand, I turned to
the mirror which else had restored to the vanity, And
there I saw, ah, some parody of myself, the hair
twisting and writhing about my face like black snakes, the iris.
But my eyes dull, muddy brown, with great dark bruises
beneath them, my nose hooked as fiercely as an eagle,
my lips drawn in the snow, the purple color stretched
to a death white over two great canine teeth leering
back at me as lasciviously as any vampires.
Speaker 4: Is that what you want your lover to see?
Speaker 3: You?
Speaker 2: If you do, you kill yourself. God? No, John, Oh John,
It's all right, Deborah.
Speaker 1: He's dead.
Speaker 2: Just as dead as always, only one difference what it
will take time, the trial, the headlines, jail, and then
a long wait for the death sentence to be carried out.
Everything your husband fought again.
Speaker 3: How do you know? How can you be so sure?
Speaker 2: Because we are right back where we started. This is
exactly how I arranged it, arranged it. What better way
to get you in my power, Deborah, this time forever.
No need to dwell on a sensational trial. And the
most ironical of circumstance that a governor who was forced
to sign a bill re establishing the death sentence in
the estate made his wife the first victim, as he
himself was the first victimized. I'll be back in a moment.
The most damaging witness at the trial of Missus Denton,
wife of the former governor, was Lewis Stark, who reluctantly
but devastatingly, under questioning, sealed her death want The audience
was sorry for this seemingly sympathetic and unhappy man, But then,
as Elizabeth Barrett Browning said, the devil's most devilish when respectable.
Our cast included Patricia Elliott, Mandel Kramer, Robert Dryden, and
Carol Tytell. The entire production was under the direction of
Hyman Brown Radio. Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by
Anhuser Busch Incorporated, brewers of Budweiser and Bwet Motor Division.
This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to
our Mystery Theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until
next time, pleasant dreams. Tonight's wor Mystery Theater was also
brought to you in part by Shopright Supermarkets, where you
get a lot more for a little less. The preceding
program was furnished by CBS Radio