EVE [_throwing herself on the ground beside him, and grasping his knee_] You must be careful. Promise me you will be careful. ADAM. What is the good of being careful? We have to live here for ever. Think of what for ever means! Sooner or later I shall trip and fall. It may be tomorrow; it may be after as many days as there are leaves in the garden and grains of sand by the river. No matter: some day I shall forget and stumble. EVE. I too. ADAM [_horrified_] Oh no, no. I should be alone. Alone for ever. You must never put yourself in danger of stumbling. You must not move about. You must sit still. I will take care of you and bring you what you want. EVE [_turning away from him with a shrug, and hugging her ankles_] I should soon get tired of that. Besides, if it happened to you, _I_ should be alone. I could not sit still then. And at last it would happen to me too. ADAM. And then? EVE. Then we should be no more. There would be only the things on all fours, and the birds, and the snakes. ADAM. That must not be. EVE. Yes: that must not be. But it might be. ADAM. No. I tell you it must not be. I know that it must not be. EVE. We both know it. How do we know it? ADAM. There is a voice in the garden that tells me things. EVE. The garden is full of voices sometimes. They put all sorts of thoughts into my head. ADAM. To me there is only one voice. It is very low; but it is so near that it is like a whisper from within myself. There is no mistaking it for any voice of the birds or beasts, or for your voice. EVE. It is strange that I should hear voices from all sides and you only one from within. But I have some thoughts that come from within me and not from the voices. The thought that we must not cease to be comes from within. ADAM [_despairingly_] But we shall cease to be. We shall fall like the fawn and be broken. [_Rising and moving about in his agitation_]. I cannot bear this knowledge. I will not have it. It must not be, I tell you. Yet I do not know how to prevent it. EVE. That is just what I feel; but it is very strange that you should say so: there is no pleasing you. You change your mind so often. ADAM [_scolding her_] Why do you say that? How have I changed my mind? EVE. You say we must not cease to exist. But you used to complain of having to exist always and for ever. You sometimes sit for hours brooding and silent, hating me in your heart. When I ask you what I have done to you, you say you are not thinking of me, but of the horror of having to be here for ever. But I know very well that what you mean is the horror of having to be here with me for ever.