Admirably. But he's been going about with such a long face lately that he's rather got on my nerves.--I heard you had told him to come back when the returns are in--may I wait for him here?--When one thinks that something will come in at that door presently--something dressed like Holtzmann, looking like Holtzmann--and that that something will be Fate--nothing more or less than Fate! Beata. And if he comes in and says--or rather, if he doesn't say anything? Remember, Richard, even if _that_ happens, you've got to go on living! Richard. Of course. Why not? It's all in the day's work. An Indian penitent was once asked: "Why do you go on living?" And his answer was: "Because I am dead."--Oh, I don't mean to be ungrateful. As long as I have you, dear--as long as you are here to live my life with me, to give it colour and meaning and purpose--let come what may, nothing else matters. Beata. Don't say that--don't---- Richard. Am I exaggerating? Why, ever since we-- How long ago is it that we met for the first time, in the wood at Tarasp? Fifteen years? Beata. It seems like yesterday. Richard. You passed between the dark pine-trunks like an apparition. You wore a pink dress and had Ellen by the hand. Beata. She was tired and had begun to cry. Richard. I saw that she wanted to be carried. Beata. And I was just recovering from an illness, and was too weak to lift her. You raised your hat--no, it was the white cap you wore---- Richard. Do you remember that? Beata. Good heavens, what was I then, and what have you made of me? My own--let me call you that just once, Richard, as I used to do--just once, on this great day--my own! (Richard _looks nervously toward the door_.) Beata. There is no one coming. Richard. _Let_ you! Beata. What a quiet happy little woman I was! That "happy" is not meant as a reproach, dearest! I have a boundless capacity for happiness, and it kept me company even in the loneliness of my early married life--for in those days Michael didn't take much notice of me. It was you who showed him that I was worth noticing. And so you built up my new life--a hard life to carry, at times, a life bowed under its own wealth as the vine is bowed under its fruit--but how it has grown under your hand, dearest, how it has spread and strengthened!--Now you're laughing at me, Richard. Richard.