earth I cling to. (Going to the left.)
Good-bye, girl or woman, whatever I should call you. There's no need to
weep!

DAUGHTER. I wasn't thinking of weeping, though I dare say good breeding
would demand I should. Well, good-bye! (She goes out right.)

STRANGER (to the CONFESSOR). I think I came out of that well! It's a
mercy to part with content on both sides. Mankind, after all, makes
rapid progress, and self-control increases as the flow of the tear-ducts
lessens. I've seen so many tears shed in my lifetime, that I'm almost
taken aback at this dryness. She was a strong child, just the kind I
once wished to be. The most beautiful thing that life can offer! She
lay, like an angel, wrapped in the white veils of her cradle, with a
blue coverlet when she slept. Blue and arched like the sky. That was the
best: what will the worst look like?

CONFESSOR. Don't excite yourself, but be of good cheer. First throw away
that foolish guide-book, for this is your last journey.

STRANGER. You mean this? Very well. (He opens the book, kisses one of
the pages and then throws it into the river.) Anything else?

CONFESSOR. If you've any gold or silver, you must give it to the poor.

STRANGER. I've a silver watch. I never got as far as a gold one.

CONFESSOR. Give that to the ferryman; and then you'll get a glass of
wine.

STRANGER. The last! It's like an execution! Perhaps I'll have to have my
hair cut, too?

CONFESSOR. Yes. Later. (He takes the watch and goes to the door of the
ferryman's hut, speaking a few whispered words to someone within. He
receives a bottle of wine and a glass in exchange, which he puts on the
table.)

STRANGER (filling his glass, but not drinking it.) Shall I never get
wine up there?

CONFESSOR. No wine; and you'll see no women. You may hear singing; but
not the kind of songs that go with women and wine.

STRANGER. I've had enough of women; they can't tempt me any more.

CONFESSOR. Are you sure?

STRANGER. Quite sure.... But tell me this: what do you think of women,
who mayn't even set their feet within your consecrated walls?

CONFESSOR. So you're still asking questions?

STRANGER. And why may an abbess never hear confession, never read mass,
and never preach?

CONFESSOR. I can't answer that.

STRANGER. Because the answer would accord with my thoughts on that
theme.

CONFESSOR. It wouldn't be a disaster if we were to agree for once.

STRANGER. Not at all!

CONFESSOR. Now drink up you