Jadwiga (passionately).--Yes. Useless tears and time made me think it was forever--therefore anger grew in my heart--anger and a desire for vengeance on you and myself. I wished to be lost, for I said to myself, "That man does not love me, has never loved me." I married in the same spirit that I should have thrown myself through a window--from despair--because, as I still believe, you never loved me. Leon.--Madam, do not blaspheme. Do not provoke me. I never loved you! Look at the precipice which you have opened before me--count the sleepless nights during which I tore my breast with grief--count the days on which I called to you as from a cross--look at this thin face, at these trembling hands, and repeat once more that I never loved you! What has become of me? What is life for me without you? To-day my head is crowned with laurels and here in my breast is emptiness and exhaustless sorrow, and tears not wept--and in my eyes eternal darkness. Oh, by the living God, I loved you with every drop of my blood, with my every thought--and I was not able to love differently. Having lost you, I lost everything--my star, my strength, faith, hope, desire for life, and not only happiness, but the capacity for happiness. Woman, do you understand the dreadful meaning of those words? I have lost the capacity for happiness. I have not loved you! Oh, despair! God alone knows for how many nights I have cried to Him: "Lord, take my talent, take my fame, take my life, but return to me for only one moment my Jadwiga as she was of old!" Jadwiga.--Enough! Lord, what is the matter with me? Leon, I love you! Leon.--Oh, my dearest! (He presses her to his breast. A moment of silence.) Jadwiga.--I have found you. I loved you always. Ah! how miserable I was without you! With love for you I defended myself from all temptations. You do not know it, but I used to see you. It caused me grief and joy. I could not live any longer without you, and I asked you to come--I did it purposely. If you had not come, something dreadful would have happened. Now we shall never separate. We shall never be angry--is it not so? (A moment of silence.) Leon (as though awakening from slumber).--Madam, you must pardon me--I mistook the present for the past, and permitted myself to be carried away by an illusion. Pardon me! Jadwiga.--Leon, what do you mean? Leon (earnestly).--I forgot for a moment that you are the wife of another.