Sophia's room. The colour scheme is a yellow red. Sophia, with her two children, a boy and a girl; later, Estella. CHILDREN (singing, whilst Sophia accompanies them on the piano): The light of the sun is flooding The breadths of space; The song of the birds is filling The heights of the air; The blessing of plant-life unfoldeth Elemental Beings of earth; And human souls in reverent gratitude, Rise up to the spirits of the world. SOPHIA: Now, children, go to your room and think over the words we have just practised. (Sophia leads the children out.) (Enter Estella.) ESTELLA: How do you do, Sophy? I hope I'm not intruding? SOPHIA: Oh no, Estelle. I am very glad to see you. (Asks Estella to be seated and seats herself.) ESTELLA: Have you good news from your husband? SOPHIA: Very good. He writes to me saying that he is interested in the Congress of Psychologists; though the manner in which they treat many great questions there does not appeal to him. However, as a student of souls, he is interested in just those methods of spiritual shortsightedness which make it impossible for men to obtain a clear view of essential mysteries. ESTELLA: Does he not intend speaking on an important subject, himself? SOPHIA: Yes, on a subject that seems important both to him and to me. But the scientific views of those present at the Congress prevent his expecting any results from his arguments. ESTELLA: I really came in, dear Sophy, to ask whether you would come with me this evening to a new play called Outcasts from Body and from Soul. I should so like to hear it with you. SOPHIA: I'm sorry, my dear Estelle, but tonight is the date set for the performance of the play, which our society has been rehearsing for a long time. ESTELLA: Oh yes, I had forgotten. But it would have been such a pleasure to have spent this evening with my old friend. I had set my heart on having you beside me, and gazing with you into the hidden depths of our present-day life.... I only hope that this world of ideas, in which you move, and which is so strange to me, will not finally destroy that bond of sympathy, which has united our hearts since we were at school together. SOPHIA: You have often said that before; and yet you have always had to admit that our divergent opinions need not erect barriers between those feelings which have existed between us in our companionship from our youth upwards. ESTELLA: True, I have said so. Yet it always arouses a sense of bitterness in me, when, as the years roll on, I see how your affections are estranged from those things in life that seem to me worth while. SOPHIA: Still, we may be of much mutual help to one another if we recognize and realize the various points of view which we reach through our different inclinations. ESTELLA: Yes! My reason tells me that you are right. And yet there is something in me that rebels against your view of life.