DONNA MATILDA (_letting herself go_). About my dyed hair! But didn't you notice that he added at once: "or the memory of your dark hair, if you were dark"? He remembered perfectly well that I was dark--then! BELCREDI. Nonsense! nonsense! DONNA MATILDA (_not listening to him, turning to the doctor_). My hair, doctor, is really dark--like my daughter's! That's why he spoke of her. BELCREDI. But he doesn't even know your daughter! He's never seen her! DONNA MATILDA. Exactly! Oh, you never understand anything! By my daughter, stupid, he meant me--as I was then! BELCREDI. Oh, this is catching! This is catching, this madness! DONNA MATILDA (_softly, with contempt_). Fool! BELCREDI. Excuse me, were you ever his wife? Your daughter is his wife--in his delirium: Bertha of Susa. DONNA MATILDA. Exactly! Because I, no longer dark--as he remembered me--but _fair_, introduced myself as "Adelaide," the mother. My daughter doesn't exist for him: he's never seen her--you said so yourself! So how can he know whether she's fair or dark? BELCREDI. But he said dark, speaking generally, just as anyone who wants to recall, whether fair or dark, a memory of youth in the color of the hair! And you, as usual, begin to imagine things! Doctor, you said I ought not to have come! It's she who ought not to have come! DONNA MATILDA (_upset for a moment by Belcredi's remark, recovers herself. Then with a touch of anger, because doubtful_). No, no ... he spoke of me... He spoke all the time to me, with me, of me.... BELCREDI. That's not bad! He didn't leave me a moment's breathing space; and you say he was talking all the time to you? Unless you think he was alluding to you too, when he was talking to Peter Damiani! DONNA MATILDA (_defiantly, almost exceeding the limits of courteous discussion_). Who knows? Can you tell me why, from the outset, he showed a strong dislike for you, for you alone? (_From the tone of the question, the expected answer must almost explicitly be: "because he understands you are my lover." Belcredi feels this so well that he remains silent and can say nothing_). DOCTOR. The reason may also be found in the fact that only the visit of the Duchess Adelaide and the abbot of Cluny was announced to him. Finding a third person present, who had not been announced, at once his suspicions.... BELCREDI. Yes, exactly! His suspicion made him see an enemy in me: Peter Damiani! But she's got it into her head, that he recognized her.... DONNA MATILDA. There's no doubt about it! I could see it from his eyes, doctor. You know, there's a way of looking that leaves no doubt whatever.... Perhaps it was only for an instant, but I am sure! DOCTOR. It is not impossible: a lucid moment....