Well, it seems to me, that it is a good thing you sometimes have to act in an intelligent one. ACTRESS You conceited puppy. I suppose you are thinking of one of your own plays again. POET Yes, I am. ACTRESS (_Seriously_) It is really a splendid play! POET Well, then! ACTRESS You are a great genius, Robert! POET And you might also tell me now why you didn’t turn up the day before yesterday. There was absolutely nothing the matter with you. ACTRESS Well, I wanted to annoy you. POET But why? What have I done to you?— ACTRESS You were over-bearing. POET In what way? ACTRESS Everybody at the theater thinks you are. POET Really. ACTRESS But I told them, he has a perfect right to be over-bearing. POET And what did they say? ACTRESS What could they say? I am not on speaking-terms with any of them. POET Oh, I see. ACTRESS They would like nothing better than to poison me, every one of them. But they won’t succeed. POET Don’t think now of others. Let’s be happy that we are here together, and tell me that you love me. ACTRESS What further proof can you want? POET It’s a thing that can’t be proven anyway. ACTRESS I like that! What else do you want? POET How many are there that you have tried to convince in this way … did you love all of them? ACTRESS No, I have loved only one. POET (_Embraces her_) My… ACTRESS Dick. POET My name is Robert. What can I mean to you, if you are thinking of Dick, now? ACTRESS You are a mood of mine. POET I am pleased to know it. ACTRESS Well, tell me, aren’t you proud? POET Why should I be proud? ACTRESS It seems to me that you have good reason to be. POET Oh, because of that. ACTRESS Yes, because of that, my little cricket!—What about the chirping? Are they still chirping? POET All the time. Don’t you hear them? ACTRESS Of course, I hear them. But, child, those are frogs. POET You are wrong. Frogs croak. ACTRESS Of course, they croak. POET But this is not croaking, child, this is chirping. ACTRESS You are about the most stubborn person I have ever met. Kiss me, froggie. POET Please don’t call me that. It gets on my nerves. ACTRESS Well, what shall I call you? POET My name is Robert. ACTRESS Oh, but that’s stupid. POET But won’t you please call me simply by my own name? ACTRESS Well, then, Robert, give me a kiss… Ah! (_She kisses him_) Now, are you satisfied, froggie? POET May I light a cigarette? ACTRESS Give me one too. (_He takes his cigarette-case from the dressing-table; takes two cigarettes out; lights both, and gives her one_) By the way, you haven’t said a word about my performance yesterday. POET What performance? ACTRESS Well. POET Oh, yes. I wasn’t at the theater. ACTRESS You are joking. POET Not in the least. When you didn’t turn up the day before, I assumed you hadn’t fully recovered yesterday, and so I decided not to go. ACTRESS You missed something wonderful. POET Yes. ACTRESS