Take a man who has left it all behind him . . . who was serving his country in some high and difficult post? ADENE. I shall report anything I think ought to be known to the proper authorities. I am not a police agent nor a spy; but I am a historian, and I do not intend to hide things in order to oblige people! VERA. Peace and war the same? ADENE. Of course there is great latitude allowed in war, but---- VERA. [_Interrupting._] I know you will do harm! I wish you would wait and think. . . . Wait for six months. ADENE. Six months!! VERA. You are doing evil work there! You are upsetting the work of government. . . . It is all being reformed. You will be killed yourself . . . . I shall never ask anything but this of you: only wait! Wait till you can think it over! [_Comes a little to him._ ADENE. [_Mastering some impatience._] My dear Miss Carlyon. I have thought it over long ago. You don't suppose I have worked for years towards this scheme and never asked myself whether it was right? VERA. It is not too late to think again. ADENE. I cannot understand why you are so troubled. VERA. I have told you why. ADENE. You can't want to screen any one! VERA. Whom could I screen? I know no one but father. [_She moves a little away from him._ ADENE. [_Goes to her._] Is it possible that it is my life you care for? I should never have dared to hope it. If it is really that, may I, when I come back---- VERA. Will you go or will you stay? ADENE. I will take every possible care. My life never seemed so precious to me as it does now. If only when I return I may come to you---- VERA. Will you go or will you stay? ADENE. You are unreasonable. [_Takes her hand._] Surely one must take the risks---- VERA. [_Interrupting._] Leave go, leave go! You are mad! [_He recoils from her._] Your life may well seem precious; you have barely a year of it left! ADENE. What do you mean? VERA. I have watched you day by day. I saw it in your eyes with that glass. There are a dozen symptoms to make it as clear as daylight. You don't feel much yet, but you're going blind, you're going paralysed, you are dying slowly under my eyes. . . . [ADENE, _incredulous but horror-struck, grasps the back of the chair_.] Dr. Rheinhardt knows it. He has seen my notes and watched you. First blind, then paralysed, then dead! Now go if you can; cross the mountains and ruin good men by raking up their old wrongdoings. ADENE. It can't be true! [_Calling out._] Reinhardt, Rheinhardt! Here! Come at once! RHEINHARDT _appears on the steps_ L. RHEINHARDT. Why, what in this world . . . ADENE. Is this true? Have you seen anything in me?---- RHEINHARDT. Woman, woman! you have not told him? ADENE. Then it is true. Is there no chance for me? RHEINHARDT. My friend, your case is somewhat serious. ADENE. She says there is no hope; is a true? What is it? RHEINHARDT.