AUDR. Just what you like to make of me. Don't think I'm flattering you. Don't think I'm bold and unwomanly. I'm only speaking the truth. You have changed me. I'm ready to do anything, believe anything, suffer anything that you bid me! To-night I'm on a pinnacle! I shall either be snatched up to the skies, or tumble into the abyss. Which will it be, I wonder? MICH. (_after a struggle, in a calm voice_). Neither, I trust. I hope you will take your boat back in ten minutes, have a good passage across, a comfortable dinner from your pretty blue china, and a sound night's rest. And to-morrow you will wake and forget this rather imprudent freak. AUDR. Oh, you won't tread the clouds with me! Very well! Down to the earth we come. I can be as earthly as the very clay itself. But I thought you wanted me to be spiritual. MICH. I want you to be sincere, to be yourself. AUDR. Very well. Tell me how. You are my ghostly father. MICH. No, you've never allowed me to be a priest to you. AUDR. I've never allowed you? MICH. And I've never dared. AUDR. Why not? MICH. Because you've never allowed me to forget that I am a man. AUDR. Very well. Don't be a priest to me--at least not now. Tell me some one thing that you would wish me to do, and I'll do it! MICH. In that letter you wrote me---- AUDR. Did you keep it? MICH. No, I destroyed it. AUDR. Destroyed it! MICH. In that letter you said it would be better for us if we did not meet again---- AUDR. No. I said it would be better for _you_ if we did not meet again. MICH. Better for me? AUDR. Yes, and worse for me. I came here tonight to warn you---- MICH. Against what? AUDR. Myself. I've done something that may endanger your peace for ever. MICH. What do you mean? AUDR. Sometimes I laugh at it, sometimes I'm frightened. I daren't tell you what I've done. I'll go. (_Goes to door, opens it._) MICH. No. (_Stops her._) Mrs. Lesden, what have you done against me? You don't mean your gifts to the Minster? AUDR. My gifts--what gifts? MICH. During the last four months I've constantly received large sums for the restoration of the Minster, and last week a very large sum was sent me, enough to carry out all the work just as I wished. AUDR. Well? MICH. It was you who sent it all. AUDR. I must see if my boatman has come. MICH. (_stopping her_). No. Why did you send the money--so many different sums from so many different places? AUDR. Because that gave me dozens of pleasures instead of one, in sending it. And I thought it would give you dozens of pleasures instead of one, in receiving it. MICH. I knew it was you! How glad I am to owe it all to you! Words couldn't tell you how grateful I am. AUDR. And yet you wouldn't walk the clouds with me for a few minutes? MICH. You know that I would do anything in my power for your best, your heavenly welfare.