| The
Orator,
who has remained motionless and impassive during the scene of
the double suicide
[the Old Couple have jumped through the windows to their deaths,
plunging into the water
below], decides after a few moments' effort to speak; as
he faces the rows of empty chairs,
he indicates to the invisible crowd that he is deaf and dumb;
he uses sign language; desperate
efforts to make himself understood; then from his throat come
moans and groans and the sort
of guttural sounds made by deaf mutes. |
