ANTOINETTE. We have had our damnation here on earth! PAUL (jumps up). Here on earth! But not one hour more! Now the end is at hand! ANTOINETTE. Come, dear, sit down with me. PAUL. Yes, let us ponder what we are to do now. (He sits down beside her again.) ANTOINETTE (nestles up to him). Not now! Not today! Promise me! PAUL. When, when, Toinette? It must come to an end. ANTOINETTE. It shall! But let _me_ determine the hour, dearest! PAUL. You? ANTOINETTE, Yes, the day and the hour, do you hear? PAUL. Antoinette, if you put the matter in this way ... I cannot refuse, whatever you may ask! ANTOINETTE. Only one more day! Then I will write or come and tell you. Will you be ready? PAUL. Then I shall be ready for anything! Then we shall have a reckoning. Then life shall begin all over again. ANTOINETTE. Yes, another life! PAUL (sadly). Even though the sun is already sinking.... Possibly there is still time. ANTOINETTE. I shall do anything for you and you will do anything for me.... We agree to that! (They look into each other's eyes.) PAUL (gently). Do you remember, Toinette, on this very spot ...? ANTOINETTE. Ten years ago? I do! I do! PAUL. How strangely all has come about and how necessary nevertheless! So predestined! So inexorable! Fate! Fate! ANTOINETTE (brooding). I hung upon your lips and you ignored me! I had ceased to exist for you! PAUL. And so we lost each other. ANTOINETTE. But today, today we have found each other once more, oh lover of my youth! PAUL. Late, Toinette, so late! ANTOINETTE. Heavens, how stupid I was in those days! PAUL. Stupid because you loved me, Toinette? ANTOINETTE. No, because I did not tell you. PAUL. And I did not suspect it! Now who was worse? ANTOINETTE. Both of us, dear! We were too young! PAUL. And today I am an old man! ANTOINETTE. And what of _me_ ... An old woman! PAUL. Beloved!... Young and beautiful as ever. How young you have remained all of these years! ANTOINETTE. For your sake, dear. I knew that I must remain young till you would return! That is why I insisted upon riding like a Cossack ... PAUL. That is why? ANTOINETTE. And swimming like a trout in the stream! And rowing like a sailor! PAUL. And all in order to remain young and beautiful?... You vain, vain creature! ANTOINETTE (mysteriously). And in order to forget, you foolish, foolish fellow! PAUL (to himself, bitterly). In order to forget! ANTOINETTE (taking his head in her hands). Don't think of it! Don't think of it! Now we have found each other again. That too is past! PAUL. Yes, all is past! I have you and shall never leave you!... (Looking up at the walls). Yes, look down upon me out of your frames! Father and mother, envy me! Venerable hall, rarely have you beheld such happiness!... ANTOINETTE. Happiness and death in one, lover! PAUL. Possibly they are one and the same! (The door at the left is opened, both get up.) AUNT CLARA'S (voice from the left). Paul, are you here?