Doctor.--How warm it is here! My head is splitting. (He rings--a servant enters.) Ask Mr. Pretwic to come here. (The servant goes out.) My head is bursting--but then I will have a long peace. SCENE VII. Jozwowicz. George Pretwic. George (entering).--What do you wish with me? Doctor.--I wish to give you good advice about the princess's health. George.--How is she? Doctor.--Better. I allowed her to leave bed because she and Drahomir asked me to. George.--Drahomir? Doctor.--Yes. He wishes to talk with her. They will be here in a quarter of an hour. George.--Jozwowicz, I am choking with wrath and pain. Drahomir avoids me. Doctor.--But you do not suspect him. George.--I swear to you that I have defended myself from suspicions as a man dying on the steppe defends himself from the crows--that I have bitten my hands with pain and despair--that I still defend myself. But I cannot any more. I cannot. The evidence pounds on my brain. He avoids me. He tells me that I have become an idiot--that I have become a madman, because-- Doctor.--Keep your temper. Even if he were in love with the princess, nobody rules his own heart. George.--Enough! You were right when you coupled his name with hers. At that moment I repulsed the thought, but it was there just the same (he strikes his breast). The fruit is ripened. Oh, what a ridiculous and dreadful part I am playing here-- Doctor.--But he saved your life. George.--In order to take it when it began to have a certain value. His service is paid with torture, with a slain happiness, with a broken hope, with destroyed faith in myself, in him and in her. Doctor.--Be easy. George.--I loved that man. Tell me that I am a madman and I shall be calmed. How dreadful to think that it is he! Forgive me everything I said to you before and help me. Evil thoughts are rushing through my head. Doctor.--Be calm--you are mistaken. George.--Prove to me that I am mistaken and I will kneel before you. Doctor.--You are mistaken, because Drahomir is going away. George.--He is going away. (A moment of silence.) Oh, Lord! Then I can live without such tortures, I may hope! Doctor (coolly and slowly).--But he is not going away forever. He said he would return. George.--You put me on the cross again. Doctor.--Come to your senses and do not let yourself be carried away by madness. At any rate you gain time. You can win her heart back again. George.--No--it is done. I am sinking into a precipice. Doctor.--Everything will be straightened out by his absence. George (with an outburst).--But did you not tell me that he will return? Doctor.--Listen: I agree with you that you have repaid Drahomir for the services of saving your life with your tortures. Drahomir has betrayed you and has broken the friendship between you by winning her heart. But I do not think that he is going away in order to avoid your vengeance.