- Jason Foster: [dying] ... It's what you've all been waiting for, I believe. Now you can dig deep in the treasury.
- Emily Harper: Are you feeling weaker, father?
- Jason Foster: At last, a note of hope in your voice, Emily.
- Emily Harper: Why must you always say such miserable, cruel things to me?
- Wilfred Harper: I quite agree, Father!
- Jason Foster: Why indeed, Emily. Because you're cruel and miserable people. Because none of you respond to love. Emily responds only to what her petty hungers dictate, a prime example being her marriage to Wilfred... a marriage which broke her dear late mother's heart, in every sense! Wilfred responds only to things that have weight and bulk and value. He feels books; he doesn't read them. He appraises paintings; he doesn't seek out their truth or their beauty. And Paula there lives in a mirror. The world is nothing to her than a reflection of herself. And her brother. Humanity to him is a small animal caught in a trap to be tormented. His pleasure is the giving of pain, and from this, he receives the same sense of fulfillment most human beings get from a kiss or an embrace! You're caricatures. All of you. Without your masks, you're caricatures.
- Emily Harper: [of the Mardi Gras masks he's presented them with] Father, you don't mean... We have to WEAR these ugly things?
- Jason Foster: Only for a few hours. Only 'til the unmasking at midnight.
- Paula Harper: Well, I won't wear mine.
- Wilfred Harper, Jr.: Me, neither. It's stupid.
- Wilfred Harper: Well, Father, it seems that we're somewhat at odds here.
- Jason Foster: Not really, Wilfred. You all came here for one purpose: To watch me go and cry "bon voyage." To put coins on my closed eyes and with your free hands, start grabbing things from my shelves.
- Emily Harper: Father, that's cruel.
- Jason Foster: That's truth! You came like the IRS: to reap everything I've sown; to collect everything I've earned; to claim everything I've built. Well, I shall not disappoint you. Everything is yours. Everything is prepared. The will is made. The four of you inherit everything I own. Everything. Money. House. Property holdings, stocks, bonds. Everything.
- Wilfred Harper: Father, you're breaking our hearts.
- Jason Foster: That is indeed the most touching thing you ever dredged up by way of conversation, Wilfred. But I must include this addendum, this small proviso: You shall wear your masks until midnight. If even one of you should commit the slightest or briefest deviation from said proviso - take them off, refuse to wear them, etcetera - from my estate, you shall each receive train fare back to Boston. And that's it!
- Wilfred Harper: Well, we won't be spoilsports. If this is your pleasure, Father, we'll indulge you.
- [slowly, they all don the masks]
- Jason Foster: You know, Wilfred, I think the only book you ever read was a ledger. I think if someone cut you open, they would find a cash register.
- Emily Harper: I don't like being so ill, Father, if that's what you mean.
- Jason Foster: Don't you? Well, I find that hard to believe. Considering that in the past twenty-five years, you've been at death's door so often, it's a wonder you haven't worn a hole in the mat.
- Paula Harper: [doing her makeup in the mirror] Delighted to see you, Grandfather.
- Jason Foster: Well, that's friendly of you to tell me that, considering that you haven't seen me yet. All you've seen is your mirror image.
- [opening narration]
- Narrator: Mr. Jason Foster, a tired ancient who on this particular Mardi Gras evening will leave the Earth. But before departing, he has some things to do, some services to perform, some debts to pay - and some justice to mete out. This is New Orleans, Mardi Gras time. It is also the Twilight Zone.
- Dr. Samuel Thorne: ...Well, it's too fast, it's too weak, and it's too uneven. But that's to be expected at this stage.
- Jason Foster: Where were you when they were teaching bedside manner at your medical school? Trying out for the soccer team?
- Dr. Samuel Thorne: Jason, I've been your physician and physical therapist for 25 years. The first thing I ever treated you for was a head-cold. As soon as I allowed myself one compassionate cluck, you threw a lamp at me. That established the pattern right then and there.
- Dr. Samuel Thorne: [Observing the face on Jason's body] This must be death. No horror, no fear... nothing but peace.
- [closing narration]
- Narrator: Mardi Gras incident, the dramatis personae being four people who came to celebrate. And, in a sense, let themselves go. This they did with a vengeance. They now wear the faces of all that was inside them, and they'll wear them for the rest of their lives. Said lives now to be spent in shadow. Tonight's tale of men, the macabre, and masks - on The Twilight Zone.
- Paula Harper: The whole city of New Orleans is dancing, and what do we do? We have a death watch for a crazy old man!
- Emily Harper: Can you believe she said that, Father? The younger generation! "They jest at scars which never felt a wound"!
- Jason Foster: Emily, I believe my trouble is hardening of the arteries and a very weak heart. But if you don't stop massacring Sarah Bernhardt, I believe I shall succumb to an intestinal disorder!
- Wilfred Harper: Tell me, the old boy's in bad shape?
- Dr. Samuel Thorne: "The old boy" is dying. Good afternoon!