arly this morning. The coffin is to be there till
tomorrow. I suppose you were afraid?

GLYSZINSKI, Why you know that I sometimes see things.

HELLA. You modern creature, you! Look at me! I _try_ to see _things_ by
daylight. I can battle with _them_! Not with the other kind.

GLYSZINSKI. Oh you don't realize how I have envied you for that.

HELLA. Why don't you follow my example then? Do not lose yourself
deeper and deeper in your riddles. Enter the conflict! Just as I do!

GLYSZINSKI. You, Hella ...! I cannot vie with you.

HELLA. Don't be a weakling! Try it! You are old enough.

GLYSZINSKI (grumbling). _Too_ old.

HELLA (more and more impassioned). Too old! Ridiculous. When Paul was
of your age he was already in the fray, founding our _Women's Rights_.
And I, I helped him.

GLYSZINSKI. You must have been of firmer fiber than we of the younger
generation.

HELLA (gets up, stands up straight, folds her hands over her head).
Possibly! I was scarcely twenty at the time, but I felt strong enough
to throw down the gauntlet to the whole world, when it was a question
of my rights. I had an uncontrollable thirst for freedom, and it is not
too much to assert that I gave Paul the incentive for all that
followed.

GLYSZINSKI. That's just like you, Hella! I suppose he would simply have
remained in his old trot if it had not been for you.

HELLA (supporting herself on the chair). I should not go that far. He
had already freed himself, but did not know in what direction to move.
He was still groping. He might have followed an utterly wrong course,
might have fooled away his time with literature and impractical things
like that. His rescue from all that was my work. I guided him! You know
he was a pupil of my father. When we became acquainted, I had no
difficulty in showering things upon him. You see I had spent my whole
childhood in this intellectual atmosphere. And he ... well, you can see
from where he had come. (She sweeps her hand around.) That is just why
I was ahead of him.

GLYSZINSKI (lamenting). Why was I not born ten years earlier? Then I
should have found what he now has and fails to value!

HELLA (walks through the hall slowly, engrossed in memories). Yes it
was a joyous time! All of us young, vigorous and certain of victory!
(Her manner becomes gloomy.)

GLYSZINSKI (has followed her with his eyes). Are you so no longer,
Hella?

HELLA (morosely). I?... (Collects herself.) More than ever ... But I
hav