I'm perfectly sober all through it. Do you imagine that I surround my darling with a kind of a--well, how shall I put it--a kind of an aureole? Not In the least. She lias her faults; she isn't remarkably beautiful, at least--well, she's certainly not exactly homely either. Judging her quite objectively--of course it's entirely a matter of taste--I haven't seen such a sweet girl before in my life. So when you talk of mere intoxication--nonsense! I am as sober as possible. But, my friend, this is the remarkable thing: I simply can't imagine myself without her any longer. It seems to me like an amalgam, as when two metals are so intimately welded together that you can't say any longer, here's the one, there's the other. And it all seems so utterly inevitable. In short--maybe I'm talking rot--or what I say may seem rot to you, but so much is certain: a man who doesn't know _that_ is a kind of cool-blooded fishy creature. That's the kind of creature I was up till now, and that's the kind of wretched thing you are still. DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG That's a very complete set of symptoms. Queer how you fellows always slide up to the very ears into the particular things that you've long ago rejected theoretically--like yourself into marriage. As long as I've known you, you've struggled with this unhappy mania for marriage. LOTH It's instinct with me, sheer instinct. God knows, I can wriggle all I please--there it is. DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG When all's said and done one can fight down even an instinct. LOTH Certainly, if there's a good reason, why not? DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG Is there any good reason for marrying? LOTH I should say there is. It has a purpose; it has for me! You don't know how I've succeeded in struggling along hitherto. I don't want to grow sentimental. Perhaps I didn't feel it quite so keenly either; perhaps I wasn't so clearly conscious of it as I am now, that in all my endeavour I had taken on something desolate, something machine-like. No spirit, no fire, no life! Heaven knows whether I had any faith left! And all that has come back to me to-day--with such strange fullness, such primal energy, such joy ... Pshaw, what's the use ... You don't understand. DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG The various things you fellows need to keep you going--faith, love, hope. I consider all that trash. The thing is simply this: humanity lies in its death throes and we're merely trying to make the agony as bearable as we can by administering narcotics. LOTH Is that your latest point of view? DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG It's five or six years old by this time and I see no reason to change it. LOTH I congratulate you on it. DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG Thank you. _A long pause ensues._ DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG [_After several disquieted and unsuccessful beginnings._] The trouble is just this. I feel that I'm responsible ... I absolutely owe you an elucidation. I don't believe that you will be able to marry Helen Krause. LOTH [_Frigidly._] Oh, is that what you think?