PAUL. We are here. Aunt Clara! (Noise from the left.) AUNT CLARA (comes forward). Our guests are about to go, Paul. ANTOINETTE. Very well! Then we'll go too. (The two walk erectly into the center passage.) HELLA (has opened the door at the right, enters and sees PAUL and ANTOINETTE with AUNT CLARA). Paul! PAUL (turning around very calmly). Is it you, Hella? HELLA. As you see! (She stands immediately before them, looks at them with a hostile expression; to ANTOINETTE.) I beg your pardon, madam! ANTOINETTE (nods her head). Please! PAUL (coldly). What do you wish? HELLA (looks at him nonplussed, is silent a moment and then says curtly). Where is Glyszinski? I need him! PAUL (as before). There, if you please. If you will take the trouble to step into the next room ... (LASKOWSKI and GLYSZINSKI, arm in arm, enter from the left, followed by the other guests.) LASKOWSKI (very tipsy, but not completely robbed of his senses). Brother! Polish brother! Don't leave me in the lurch ... Help me find my dearie! ANTOINETTE (with head erect). Here I am. LASKOWSKI (sobered at the sight of her). Why dearie, where have you been? Have you had a long talk with Paul? ANTOINETTE (extends her hand to PAUL). Good-by, Doctor! PAUL. Good-by, madam! We shall see each other again! (He looks squarely into her eye.) ANTOINETTE (significantly). We _shall_ see each other again. LASKOWSKI. Shan't we go, dearie? Why, it's almost evening. ANTOINETTE. Yes, almost evening. I am ready. (She walks over to the right calmly and goes out. The guests prepare to go.) HELLA (has been standing silently witnessing the scene, and now approaches PAUL). What does this mean, Paul? PAUL (about to go, frigidly). A woman whom I knew in the old days!... Good-by. (He leaves her and goes out at the right with the guests.) HELLA (partly to herself, partly calling after him). Paul! What _does_ this mean?... Paul! ACT IV Afternoon, two days later. The banquet hoard and oleanders have been removed, every trace of the funeral has been carefully obliterated. Clear sunlight comes in from the garden windows in the background and lights up the spacious, sombre hall. The bushes and trees of the garden are coated with ice. The fire is burning as usual. Toward the end of the act the sunlight gradually vanishes and a light, gray dusk fills the hall. AUNT CLARA stands at the fireplace with her arms folded over her waist, and looks into the fire. PAUL (who has been pacing the floor, stops and passes his hand over his hair nervously). So no letter has come, Aunt Clara? AUNT CLARA (looking up). No, no, my boy. PAUL (impatiently). And no messenger either? AUNT CLARA. From where do you expect one? PAUL (in agony). Great God, from where? From where? From anywhere? Some tiding! Some word! A letter! (Paces the floor again excitedly.) AUNT CLARA. Why I can't tell. Are you expecting anything from some source or other? PAUL (impetuously). Would I be _asking_, Aunt Clara? [Silence.]