I know. Why do you repeat it? Do you think, perhaps, that all at once I may begin to clutch at you like a love-sick thing, dreaming of eternities?--No, that isn't my way--oh, no!... But I want to tell you once at least that I am fond of you. May I not for once?--Do you hear? I love you. And I wish that sometime later on you may hear it just as I am saying it now--at some other moment no less beautiful than this--when we two shall no longer be aware of each other. SALA Indeed, Johanna, of one thing you may be sure: that the sound of your voice shall never leave me.--But why should we talk of parting forever? Perhaps we shall meet again sooner or later ... in three years ... or in five.... (_With a smile_) Then you have become a princess perhaps, and I may be the ruler of some buried city.... Why don't you speak? JOHANNA (_pulls the cape more closely about her_) SALA Do you feel cold? JOHANNA Not at all.--But now I must go. SALA Are you in such a hurry? JOHANNA It is getting late. I must be back before my father gets home. SALA How strange! To-day you are hurrying home, fearful of being too late, lest your father get worried. And in a couple of days.... JOHANNA Then he will no longer be waiting for me. Farewell, Stephan. SALA Until to-morrow, then. JOHANNA Yes, until to-morrow. SALA You'll come through the garden gate, of course? JOHANNA Wasn't that a carriage that stopped before the house? SALA The doors are locked. Nobody can get out into the garden. JOHANNA Good-by, then. SALA Until to-morrow. JOHANNA Yes. (_She is about to go_) SALA Listen, Johanna.--If I should say to you now: stay! JOHANNA No, I must go now. SALA That was not what I meant. JOHANNA What then? SALA I mean, if I should beg you to stay--for--a long time? JOHANNA You have a peculiar way of jesting. SALA I am not jesting. JOHANNA Do you forget, then, that you--are going away? SALA I am not bound in any respect. There is nothing to prevent me from staying at home if I don't feel like going away. JOHANNA For my sake? SALA I didn't say so. Maybe for my own sake. JOHANNA No, you mustn't give it up. You would never forgive me if I took that away from you. SALA Oh, you think so? (_Watching her closely_) And if both of us were to go? JOHANNA What? SALA If you should risk going along with me? Well, it takes a little courage to do it, of course. But you would probably not be the only woman. The Baroness Golobin is also going along, I hear. JOHANNA Are you talking seriously? SALA Quite seriously. I ask if you care to go with me on that journey ... as my wife, of course, seeing that we have to consider externals like that, too. JOHANNA I should...? SALA Why does that move you so deeply? JOHANNA With you?--With you...? SALA