SCENE: Before the curtain. A street corner in Nauvoo across from the Mansion House.

(Enter Eliza Snow, dressed for traveling.)

Eliza S.: The day is weary, and the wind that sweeps through the streets is more than a winter storm. It cries out the wrongs and pain of a people. Ah, Nauvoo, once a bride, and now a widow, in the pain of your late years, you bring forth a new day for us all.

(Melissa enters, dressed for traveling.)

Melissa: (extending her hand.) Sister Snow.

Eliza S.: Melissa, you are going, too. We go with the wind, before the storm, as we have done before.

Melissa: I’m glad. This place is too full of memories, too full of the sound of his laughter and the thunder of his voice.

Eliza S.: (gesturing) And she stays for those hollow echoes.

Melissa: Isn’t she coming with us?

Eliza S.: I’ve stood here this hour intending to go in and beg her to come…but her pride stands a keeper at the door.

Melissa: I think she must come. He loved her so much.

(Emily and Eliza Partridge enter and exchange greetings.)

Emily P.: Sister Snow, Melissa. Good Evening.

Eliza S.: Good evening, dear sisters.

Emily P.: We came to see her…. How cold the house looks.

Eliza P.: She must be very lonely. But we are banished friends and can do nothing.

Melissa: Oh, she loved him so desperately; she could never have stopped fearing us.

Eliza S.: We all loved him.

Eliza P.: And yet, it was always her.

Emily P.: She tried, remember how she tried.

(Enter Brigham Young.)

Brigham Young: Good evening, sisters.

Sisters: Good evening, Brother Young. (Not in unison)

(He passes on. Lights fade. Ladies exit.)