As long as you are young, all doors stand open, and the world begins outside every one of them. JOHANNA But the world is wide and the sky infinite only as long as you are not clinging to anybody. And for that reason I want to go away. SALA Away--that's so easily said. But preparations are needed for that purpose, and some sort of a scheme. You use the word as if you merely had to put on wings and fly off into the distance. JOHANNA To be determined is--the same as having wings. SALA Are you not at all afraid, Johanna? JOHANNA A longing free from fear would be too cheap to be worth while. SALA Where will it lead you? JOHANNA I shall find my way. SALA You can choose your way, but not the people that you meet. JOHANNA Do you think me ignorant of the fact that I cannot expect only beautiful experiences? What is ugly and mean must also be waiting for me. SALA And how are you going to stand it?--Will you be able to stand it at all? JOHANNA Of course, I am not going to tell the truth always as I have done to you. I shall have to lie--and I think of it with pleasure. I shall not always be in good spirits, nor always sensible. I shall make mistakes and suffer. That's the way it has to be, I suppose. SALA Of all this you are aware in advance, and yet...? JOHANNA Yes. SALA And why?... Why are you going away, Johanna? JOHANNA Why am I going away?... I want a time to come when I must shudder at myself. Shudder as deeply as you can only when nothing has been left untried. Just as you have had to do when you looked back upon your life. Or have you not? SALA Oh, many times. But just in such moments of shuddering there is nothing left behind at all--everything is once more present. And the present is the past. (_He sits down on the stone seat_) JOHANNA What do you mean by that? SALA (_covers his eyes with his hand and sits silent_) JOHANNA What is the matter? Where are you anyhow? [_A light wind stirs the leaves and makes many of them drop to the ground._ SALA