DOCTOR (_quickly, energetically_). No, no! That won't do at all. It would ruin everything. The impression from the confrontation must be a sudden one, give a shock! No, no, Marchioness, you will appear again as the Duchess Adelaide, the mother of the Empress. And then we'll go away. This is most necessary: that he should know we've gone away. Come on! Don't let's waste any more time! There's a lot to prepare. (_Exeunt the doctor. Donna Matilda, and Landolph, Right_). FRIDA. I am beginning to feel afraid again. DI NOLLI. Again, Frida? FRIDA. It would have been better if I had seen him before. DI NOLLI. There's nothing to be frightened of, really. FRIDA. He isn't furious, is he? DI NOLLI. Of course not! he's quite calm. BELCREDI (_with ironic sentimental affectation_). Melancholy! Didn't you hear that he loves you? FRIDA. Thanks! That's just why I am afraid. BELCREDI. He won't do you any harm. DI NOLLI. It'll only last a minute.... FRIDA. Yes, but there in the dark with him.... DI NOLLI. Only for a moment; and I will be near you, and all the others behind the door ready to run in. As soon as you see your mother, your part will be finished.... BELCREDI. I'm afraid of a different thing: that we're wasting our time.... DI NOLLI. Don't begin again! The remedy seems a sound one to me. FRIDA. I think so too! I feel it! I'm all trembling! BELCREDI. But, mad people, my dear friends--though they don't know it, alas--have this felicity which we don't take into account.... DI NOLLI (_interrupting, annoyed_). What felicity? Nonsense! BELCREDI (_forcefully_). They don't reason! DI NOLLI. What's reasoning got to do with it, anyway? BELCREDI. Don't you call it reasoning that he will have to do--according to us--when he sees her (_indicates Frida_) and her mother? We've reasoned it all out, surely! DI NOLLI. Nothing of the kind: no reasoning at all. We put before him a double image of his own fantasy, or fiction, as the doctor says. BELCREDI (_suddenly_). I say, I've never understood why they take degrees in medicine. DI NOLLI (_amazed_). Who? BELCREDI. The alienists! DI NOLLI. What ought they to take degrees in, then? FRIDA. If they are alienists, in what else should they take degrees? BELCREDI. In law, of course! All a matter of talk! The more they talk, the more highly they are considered. "Analogous elasticity," "the sensation of distance in time!" And the first thing they tell you is that they don't work miracles--when a miracle's just what is wanted! But they know that the more they say they are not miracle-workers, the more folk believe in their seriousness!