lds, taking
ditches, helter skelter as it were, right through the dense snow.

HELLA (as before). Can you really ride, Paul?

PAUL. I? Well, I should say! I supposed I had forgotten how, during all
of these empty years, but when I had mounted, for a moment I was
unsteady, but only for a moment, then I felt my old power. The bay
realized that I still know how, and off we were like destruction
itself.

GLYSZINSKI (from the sofa). I should like to try it myself sometime.

PAUL (without heeding him). And curiously enough Hella, strange as the
way had naturally become to me, I nevertheless got along easily. After
all, one does not forget the things with which one has once been
familiar, and, you see, my father took me with him often enough in my
boyhood. (Smiling.) Possibly in order that, some day in the future, I
might get my bearings in the old fields! At last I got into the forest
and when I was out of that, I saw the houses of Klonowken, all covered
with snow ...

HELLA (has listened very attentively, interrupts). Klonowken, you say!
Isn't that the estate where--what is his name?--your relative lives?

PAUL. LASKOWSKI, you mean?

HELLA. Quite right, LASKOWSKI ... But you did not call on him, did you?

PAUL. No, then I came back.

HELLA. The ride has certainly agreed with you. Your color is much
better than yesterday.

PAUL (joyously). _Is_ it?... Well that is just the way I feel.

HELLA. Then you can see more clearly today, what you wish to do and
what is necessary?

PAUL. Much more clearly, Hella! As I trotted along in the snowstorm,
many things dawned upon me. My head has became clear, Hella.

HELLA. I am glad for you and both of us!

PAUL (seizes her hand). Yes, for both of us. We must come to an
agreement, Hella!

HELLA (cautiously). I hope we are agreed. And, moreover, you know how
we can remain so!

PAUL (thoughtful again). Well, as I rode along, strange! So many years
of desk work, I thought to myself, and nothing but desk work. My bones
have almost become stiff as a result and, after all, what has come of
it? Little enough! You surely must admit that.

HELLA (seriously). I can _not_ admit that, Paul.

PAUL. But we do live in a continual turmoil, Hella, in an everlasting
struggle the outcome of which we can not foresee and from which we
shall reap no rewards. We are working for strangers, are sacrificing
our best years and have forgotten to consider ourselves. Do you suppose
they will than