Dirk promises to get Jenny a weapon. You must stay right here and wait for me, he orders her. (Yes, he orders her to stay right out there in the foyer, where anyone could find her!) He goes back into the servants’ area. Wait for me! Jenny tells her prey. Yes! Wait for me, Quentin! I'm coming to kill you! Her face is alight with mad glee.
During the opening credits, Jenny has obeyed Dirk’s instructions and stares around at the foyer until he returns with a knife (that looks more like an especially wicked letter opener). This is for you, he says as he gives it to her. Now you can go to the Old House. She takes him at his word and heads for the door, but once again he orders her to wait. [This makes no sense, but sets up the ensuing action.] Judith returns from somewhere and orders him to get the House by the Sea ready for Trask. Dirk has no choice but to obey. Judith wonders why he looks over his shoulder nervously.
Meanwhile, Jenny is waltzing around the drawing room as she hears Quentin's voice in her head (put there by Laura, I guess), cruelly mocking her. Thinking that Quentin is there, Jenny runs around the drawing room, stabbing random innocent pieces of furniture. Judith enters, and Jenny pops out of hiding to tell her she's looking for Quentin, but Judith isn't one of her favorite people either. Judith turns around, perhaps to call for help, so she doesn't see Jenny grab a candlestick holder. She hits Judith over the head, and Judith drops, unconscious, to the floor.
Quentin also returns to Collinwood and catches a glimpse of Jenny waving the knife around. He slips out of the house again and watches as she roams around, giving us a big, big clue when she murmurs, She lied to me, but I lied to her, too, about who I am. My father was a king of India, and my mother was a princess, so I am a princess too. Imperiously she declares, When I raise my hand--she brandishes the knife--and say die, then of course, someone dies! She stares wildly at the upraised dagger.
Quentin goes back in and finds Judith just coming to. Quentin doesn't even ask if Judith is all right. She tells him what Quentin already knows--that Jenny is on her way to the Old House to stab him. They quarrel about what to do about Jenny.
Jenny arrives at the Old House. After putting the knife in her pocket, she knocks at the door, over and over, while trying to smooth her out-of-control hair. Barnabas opens the door himself and stares at the strange, wild-looking woman. Where is Quentin? Jenny asks. I know he's here. No, he isn't, Barnabas says and starts to close the door. Stop lying to me! Jenny snarls. Who else lied to you? Barnabas asks calmly, beginning to realize who she must be. Edward, Jenny replies, and Judith, and sometimes Beth--but not so much. What is your name? she asks. He politely introduces himself and asks her name. Jenny Collins, she replies. Barnabas assures her, I'm not lying. Come in and see for yourself that Quentin isn't here. She enters the Old House, looking around, so she doesn’t see Barnabas locking the door after her. I don't see Quentin, she admits, but he sometimes makes himself invisible, and all I can hear is his tormenting voice. Where did you come from? Barnabas asks. I came from Collinwood, where I live. Is it lonely for you? Barnabas asks. I have my children, Jenny replies. You mean your dolls, Barnabas corrects her gently, treating her with the interested kindness he usually reserves for small children. My children, she says, smiling, then asks, What's upstairs? Why don’t you go and look, Barnabas suggests. No, I must go out and find Quentin! she insists. Quentin is coming back, Barnabas assures her. He said for you to wait for him. Surprised, Jenny asks like an eager child, Did Quentin tell you anything else about me? Yes, Barnabas says, he said how beautiful you are. Did he? she simpers, fussing with her hair in a pathetic travesty of normality and only making it look worse. That's why Quentin married me, she explains. He was very handsome. She shows Barnabas her gold locket with Quentin’s portrait in it. There were many girls in love with him, but he married me, she boasts. Barnabas looks at the photo, then carefully puts the locket down on his desk. As she starts to go upstairs, Jenny says grandly, I am Mrs. Quentin Collins. Who are you? Barnabas introduces himself again. His family disapproved, because I was a singer, Jenny tells him resentfully. Do you like singing? Yes, Barnabas says. After the children were born, Jenny tells him, I'd sing them to sleep. She sits down on a step and peers at Barnabas through the railing while she sings “All the Pretty Little Horses” in her clear, sweet contralto, but she can’t remember it all. Do you know the rest of it? she asks. No, he says regretfully. Oh, it used to soothe the babies, she says. You mean the dolls, he says again. Why do you keep calling them that? she asks angrily, then gets lost in her memories. After the children were born, I would sing to them, she recalls. The boy slept right away, but the girl whimpered like a newborn kitten. Listening in amazement and sudden realization, Barnabas murmurs, A boy and a girl. [I’m sure he didn’t insist on calling them dolls to torment the poor creature, but only to get at the truth--a truth he had never imagined.] I was afraid some harm would come to them, Jenny says. I don't know why, but _they_ took my children away. Where? Barnabas asks, but his eagerness sets her off again. They didn't take them anywhere! she cries defiantly. They're with me! She is oblivious to Barnabas’s shock as she continues, Of course, this afternoon, I dressed them for the funeral! She spots the basement door and asks, Is Quentin down there? He isn't here, Barnabas repeats patiently. You're lying, like all the others, Jenny says angrily. He isn't coming soon, he's here right now, hiding down there, waiting to kill me! Well, I'm going to kill him instead! _No_! Barnabas shouts. She pulls out the knife and waves it in his face. If you try to stop me, I'm going to kill _you_! she wails. Although he knows Jenny can’t harm him, Barnabas stares at the knife in her trembling hand.
Barn easily gets the knife away from Jenny, who is now afraid that Quentin will hurt her. Barn manages to reassure her that he won't because he's still in love with her. This cheers Jenny up, and Barn tells her to wash her face and comb her hair to get ready to see Quentin. Barnabas raises her to her feet and leads her toward the stairs, but she is still racked with doubt. Are you sure Quentin won't hurt me when he gets back? she asks. I promise he won't, Barnabas says--no one will. Jenny willingly goes upstairs with him, her only thought now to make herself beautiful for her husband.
Jenny's husband, meanwhile, is loading a gun. Judith is properly horrified and actually attempts to do a good deed by talking him out of what he's planning. She's a poor, mad creature, Judith reminds him. I view her in a different light, Quentin retorts implacably. She's an animal that has to be struck down as soon as possible--an animal with a knife. _You’re_ an animal with a gun! Judith argues. Step aside, Quentin orders her as he comes down the stairs. This is my problem, and I prefer to handle it alone.
Jenny tells Barn how much she likes the room he's brought her to--Josette's room, of course. For a moment she mistakes him for a bellboy (LOL!). Suddenly she is startled and horrified when she catches her reflection in the mirror. Who is that? she asks Barnabas. That stranger, she scares me! Barnabas says, You can make her go away. Find a comb and some powder. There are some dresses in the chest--wear one of them, he says as he indicates the white trunk at the foot of the bed. Of course, she says. I always make myself beautiful for Quentin. She sits down at the dressing table and looks for the comb but can't find it. Barnabas finds it on the tabletop, then hands it to her. She thanks him and begins trying to comb out her wild mane of hair. Once again she glimpses her reflection and gives a little scream. The mirror! she exclaims. I am in the mirror! Then where am I?
Judith and Quentin continue arguing, now with Dirk chiming in. Quentin pretty blatantly implies that Laura had something to do with Jenny's escape. Dirk suggests looking for Jenny. Quentin suggests that Dirk start looking near the cottage--which is apparently in the opposite direction from the Old House.
Jenny has combed her hair, which is now smooth and shining. She ties it back with a narrow black ribbon. Barnabas returns and tells her, I must go now, but you must stay until Quentin comes for you. Some people will be here to look after you, he explains. Do you like the way I look? Jenny asks. I do, Barnabas says. Teasingly she warns him, You shouldn't flirt with me--Quentin is very jealous. Quentin will be here soon, Barnabas assures her, then locks her in. In the hallway outside the room, he calls softly to Magda. Jenny hears him. Magda? she repeats. She takes a gown out of the trunk and says, Magda--and Sandor!
As the rooster crows its warning, Barnabas scribbles a note to Magda and puts it with the key to Josette’s room on the little table against the bookcase. Then he must go downstairs. We see a shot of the closed coffin with a candelabrum on top. (Who put it there??!!)
Holding the gun, Quentin arrives at the Old House and finds the key and Barnabas’s note, the beginning of which he thoughtfully reads to us: “Dear Magda: The woman in Josette’s room.” Throwing the note into the fire, he takes the key and heads upstairs. Now he looks as cruel and implacable as the ghost who torments David and Amy in our own time.
Jenny has cleaned up rather nicely and has put on one of Josette’s high-waisted gowns, lavender with darker trim and white lace on the bodice. (This is no mean feat, because Marie Wallace would make two of Kathryn Leigh Scott.) Holding a hand mirror up to her face, she gives herself a pep talk. Don’t be frightened, she assures her reflection. It doesn't matter that Quentin's family doesn't like you. Quentin loves you--that's all that matters. Suddenly she says, Fool! Fool! She throws herself onto the bed in despair. Quentin knocks and calls to her from the other side of the door. Is that you? she asks eagerly. Yes, it’s me, he replies. You were away so long, I was beginning to worry, she says. I’m sorry, Jenny, Quentin says, but you’ll never worry again. Gun in hand, he starts to unlock the door....
The stage is set, and all the characters are in place for the terrible events that are about to ensue.
