Scene: "Marian Searches for Hartright"

(The next day, late afternoon. We are in a populous and dirty street of London, near Holborn. A street of rotten tenements. People mill to and fro—poverty-stricken and malnourished people, washer women, beggars, children. An organ grinder plays)

[ALL]
Lost souls
All of us searching
Never finding
What we are seeking

(Suddenly we see Marian in the midst of the teeming crowds. She looks lost and unsure of herself)

[ALL]
All hope
Long ago buried
Here in London
In a sea of strangers

We're prisoners
In darkness
Rats in a cage
With anger
And hunger
To fuel our rage
More of the same each bloody day
Best you should stay out of our way
We drink to
Let go of
The life that we know
It’s hopeless
We're caught in the undertow
Drowning in gin each endless night
Endlessly spoiling for a fight

(Marian tries to stop a passing woman. The woman laughs at her, moves on. During the next, another woman points her in the right direction and she travels towards the first pub. Marian arrives in the first bar—a seedy cavernous place that has only a few stragglers in it. She approaches a man)

[MARIAN]
Can you help me?
There's a man I’m searching for

(She approaches yet more customers, who all rebuff her)

[MARIAN]
Can you help me
Walter Hartright
Is the name

(She is driven to the second bar during the next)

[ALL]
Questions
All without answers
And our business
Is to forget them
Lost souls
All of us searching
Here in London
In a sea of strangers

We're here to
Let go of
Our worries
Fill your bitter cup
No need to
Look forward
Or backwards
Only bottoms up!

(She arrives in the second bar. This is slightly livelier, but no less forbidding. She approaches another stranger)

[MARIAN]
Please, sir, help me?
There's a man that I must find
Can you help me
Walter Hartright
Is his name

(Another man who is sitting at the back overhears her and steps forward. He takes her by the arm and during the next whisks her to the last pub)

[CONMAN]
Hartright
Did you say Walter Hartright?
Yes, I know him
I'll take you to him
I know him
I'll take you to where he will be
Delighted to help you
Believe you me
(They arrive at bar three—a heaving, loud, riotous place that immediately shocks Marian. During the next the conman pushes her into the crowd and people grab at her and steal things from her, assault her and push her to the floor. She is thoroughly humiliated and out of her depth)

[ALL]
Here among the missing
A city with no answers
We're looking for salvation
In endless desperation
With gin to dull our senses
And chase away our demons
And though we'll never find it
We drink until we're blinded

Lost souls
All of us searching
Never finding
What we are seeking
All hope
Long ago buried
Here in London
In a sea of strangers

(At the same time some of the crowd sing)

[ALL]
Lost souls
All of us searching
Never finding
What we are seeking
All hope
Long ago buried
Here in London
In a sea of strangers

(A necklace of Marian’s has been stolen by the crowd. The conman laughs; Marian struggles free and escapes to the alleyway, where she sinks down, utterly forlorn. Degraded and alone, she starts to cry. She rests her head against the pavement. The sun starts to rise on a new day)


Scene: "Marian Sees the Sketch"

(She walks forlornly along the streets. Suddenly she sees the pawnbroker’s shop. There is Laura's portrait. She stops, her heart in her mouth. She enters the shop)

[MARIAN]
How did you get that picture?!
I need to know who brought it
Was it Walter Hartright?
I must find him, you must help me!

The subject is my sister
I can’t believe I found it

(The pawnbroker takes his ledger down, looks through it, finds the address)

[MARIAN]
I'll redeem it
Take this bag!

[PAWNBROKER]
It's not enough!

[MARIAN]
Then take this coat
I have got to find the owner!
You must tell me where he's living!

(He gives her an address)

[PAWNBROKER]
I wouldn’t be too hopeful
It might be a false address

(The pawnbroker takes the portrait down, gives it to her. She exits. She has an address in one hand, the portrait in another. Marian moves off with new resolve)


Scene: "Marian Finds Hartright"

(Marian arrives at the address—it looks like a house of ill-repute. She knocks. No-one comes to the door. Then as luck would have it, a young girl, who looks like a prostitute arrives back with a client. She is wearing a low-cut red dress Marian and the girl lock eyes for a moment before Marian looks away, faintly embarrassed. The girl opens the door—and before it closes, Marian follows her in. She finds Hartright's lodgings. She opens the door on a squalid bedsit. There is no sign of life. A makeshift bed. Empty bottles and detritus but no Hartright. Marian sinks down in despair. A desolate pause—and then we see Hartright arrive home. He is nursing a half-drunk bottle of gin)

[HARTRIGHT]
Have you no mercy?
Why are you haunting me?
How can you show your face?

(She goes to hand him the portrait)

[MARIAN]
I redeemed your pledge!

[HARTRIGHT]
And take that picture
I cannot bear to look
You spoke the truth
That she was never mine to keep

[MARIAN]
How do I tell you
I have such awful news

[HARTRIGHT]
That story's everywhere:
The tragic passing of Lady Laura Glyde!

[MARIAN]
I know they killed her!
Although I have no proof
Glyde and Fosco
How can we let them get away?
There is no justice while they're free
You've got to help me
I've nowhere else to turn

(Hartright turns away from her. She puts the picture on the easel)