training-
STEVENS
It was Gowan who knew the moonshiner and insisted on going there.
TEMPLE
-and even then-
STEVENS
He was driving when you wrecked.
TEMPLE
(to Stevens: quick and harsh)
And married me for it. Does he have to pay for it twice? It wasn't really
worth paying for once, was it?
(to Governor)
And even then-
GOVERNOR
How much was it worth?
TEMPLE
Was what worth?
GOVERNOR
His marrying you.
TEMPLE
You mean to him, of course. Less than he paid for it.
GOVERNOR
Is that what he thinks too?
(they stare at one another, Temple alert, quite watchful, though rather
impatient than anything else) You're going to tell me something that he
doesn't know, else you would have brought him with you. Is that right?
TEMPLE Yes.
GOVERNOR Would you tell it if he were here?
(Temple is staring at the Gover-
REQUIEM FOR A NUN 255
nor. Unnoticed by her, Stevens makes a faint movement. The
Governor stops him with a slight motion of one hand which also
Temple does not notice)
Now that you have come this far, now that, as you said, you have got to
tell it, say it aloud, not to save Nan-this woman, but because you decided
before you left home tonight that there is nothing else to do but tell it.
TEMPLE
How do I know whether I would or not?
GOVERNOR
Suppose he was here-sitting in that chair where Gav
-your uncle is-
TEMPLE
-or behind the door or in one of your desk drawers, maybe? He's not. He's
at home. I gave him a sleeping pill.
GOVERNOR
But suppose he was, now that you have got to say it. Would you still say
it?
TEMPLE
All right. Yes. Now will you please shut up too and let me tell it? How
can 1, if you and Gavin wont hush and let me? I cant even remember where
I was.-Oh yes. So I saw the murder, or anyway the shadow of it, and the
man took me to Memphis, and I know that too, I had two legs and I could
see, and I could have simply screamed up the main street of any of the
little towns we passed, just as I could have walked away from the car
after Gow-we ran it into the tree, and stopped a wagon or a car which
would have carried me to the nearest town or railroad station or even back
to school or, for that matter, right on back home into my father's or
brothers' hands. But not me, not Temple. I chose the murderer-
STEVENS
(to Governor)
He was a psychopath, though that didn't come out in the trial, and when
it did come out, or could have come out, it was too late. I was there; I
saw that too: a little black thing with an Italian
256 WILLIAM FAULKNER
name, like a neat and only slightly deformed cockroach: a hybrid,
sexually incapable. But then, she will tell you that too.
TEMPLE
(with bitter sarcasm) Dear Uncle Gavin.
(to Governor)
Oh yes, that too, her bad luck too: to plump for a thing which didn't
even have sex for his weakness, but just murder-
(she stops, sitting motionless, erect, her hands clenched on
her lap, her eyes closed)
If you both would just hush, just let me. I seem to be like trying to
drive a hen into a barrel. Maybe if you would just try to act like you
wanted to keep her out of it, from going into it-
GOVERNOR
Dont call it a barrel. Call it a tunnel. That's a thoroughfare, because
the other end is open too. Go through with it. There was no-sex.
TEMPLE
Not from him. He was worse than a father or uncle. It was worse than
being the wealthy ward of the most indulgent trust or insurance company:
carried to Memphis and shut up in that Manuel Street sporting house like
a ten-year-old bride in a Spanish convent, with the madam herself more
eagle-eyed than any mama-and the Negro maid to guard the door while the
madam would be out, to wherever she would go, wherever the madams of cat
houses go on their afternoons out, to pay police-court fines or
protection or to the bank or maybe just visiting, which would not be so
bad because the maid would unlock the door and come inside and we
could-
(she falters, pauses for less than a second; then quickly)
Yes, that's why-talk. A prisoner of course, and maybe not in a very
gilded cage, but at least the prisoner was. I had perfume by the quart;
some salesgirl chose it of course, and it was the wrong kind, but at
least I had it, and he bought me a fur coat-with nowhere to wear it of
course because he wouldn't let me out, but I had the coat-and snazzy
underwear and negligees, selected also by salesgirls but at least the
best
REQUIEM FOR A NUN 257
or anyway the most expensive-the taste at least of the big end of an
underworld big shot's wallet. Because he wanted me to be contented,
you see; and not only contented, he didn't even mind if I was happy
too: just so I was there when or in case the police finally connected
him with that Mississippi murder; not only didn't mind if I was happy;
he even made the effort himself to see that I was. And so at last we
have come to it, because now I have got to tell you this too to give
you a valid reason why I waked you up at two in the morning to ask you
to save a murderess.
She stops speaking, reaches and takes the unlighted cigarette from the
tray, then realises it is unlit. Stevens takes up the lighter from the
desk and starts to get up. Still watching Temple, the Governor makes to
Stevens a slight arresting signal with his hand. Stevens pauses, then
pushes the lighter along the desk to where Temple can reach it, and sits
back down. Temple takes the lighter, snaps it on, lights the cigarette,
closes the lighter and puts it back on the desk. But after only one puff
at the cigarette, she lays it back on the tray and sits again as before,
speaking again.
TEMPLE
Because I still had the two arms and legs and eyes; I could have
climbed down the rainspout at any time, the only difference being that
I didn't, I would never leave the room except late at night, when he
would come in a closed car the size of an undertaker's wagon, and he
and the chauffeur on the front seat, and me and the madam in the back,
rushing at forty and fifty and sixty miles an hour up and down the
back alleys of the redlight district. Which-the back alleys -was all
I ever saw of them too. I was not even permitted to meet or visit with
or even see the other girls in my own house, not even to sit with them
after work and listen to the shop talk while they counted their chips
or blisters or whatever they would do sitting on one another's beds
in the elected dormitory....
(she pauses again, continues in a sort of surprise,