(Reading breathlessly, her back to the fireplace_)

"... The Victim's Past" ... with another picture of me underneath!
(_Looking closer, dashed_) Oh, taken at Tonbridge the year before
the war; really it isn't right.... (_To_ OLIVIA, _savouring
it_) "The Bungalow of Death!... Gruesome finds.... Fiendish murderer
still at large.... The enigma of the missing head ... where is it
buried?" ... Oh, yes! (_She goes on reading silently to herself._)

DAN (_suddenly, in a clear voice_): "... Blessed is the man ...
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly ... nor standeth in the
way of sinners ... nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful...."

MRS. BRAMSON (_impatiently_): Oh, the print's too small....

DAN (_firmly_): Shall I read it to you?

MRS. BRAMSON: Yes, dear, do....

_He shuts the Bible with a bang, throws it on the sofa, and takes the
paper from her._ OLIVIA _watches him intently; he smiles at her
slowly and brazenly as he shakes out the paper._

DAN (_reading laboriously_): "... The murderer committed the crime
in the forest most--in the forest, most likely strippin' beforehand---"

_DORA comes in from the kitchen, and stands at the door, arrested by
his reading. She is dressed, in Sunday best.

(reading_) "... and cleansin' himself afterwards in the forest lake----"