PAUL (earnestly and sadly). I am the last person to hinder you,
Toinette! But I surely may look at you? Will you forbid that?

ANTOINETTE (struggling with herself). Don't talk to me in this manner!

PAUL (excited). Just look into your face, Antoinette, the few moments
that remain! Stamp upon my mind how much I have lost! Look into your
eyes, just once more! Into your wonderful eyes!

ANTOINETTE (jumps up). Don't talk to me in this manner, I say. I
haven't deserved it!

PAUL (has also risen, seizes her hand). Antoinette, I have found none
of the things that I was seeking. I have been miserably deceived! Are
you satisfied now?

[ANTOINETTE sinks back into her chair, begins to sob
spasmodically.]

PAUL (wildly). Why aren't you glad? (He strides through the hall.)

[ANTOINETTE chokes down her sobs.]

PAUL (comes back again, bows down to her). Weep, Antoinette! Weep! I
wish I could. (He softly presses a kiss upon her hair). [Silence.]

ANTOINETTE (jumps up). I must go! Where is my husband? I must have
fresh air! My head! (She looks crazed.)

PAUL (takes her arm). Yes, fresh air, Toinette, there we shall feel
less constraint. It is fine outside, the snow is falling. Everything is
white. Everything is old. Just as both of us have become, Toinette.

ANTOINETTE (leaning on him). I am so afraid! So terribly afraid!

PAUL (leading her to the door). You will feel better. Snow is soothing.
Come and I will tell you about my life. Possibly you will forgive me
then, Antoinette? (He looks at her imploringly and extends his hand to
her).

ANTOINETTE (hesitates a moment, then opening her eyes widely she lays
her hand in his). Possibly!...

PAUL (happy). Thank you, Toinette! Thank you!... And now come.

ANTOINETTE (on his arm, sadly). Where shall we go?

PAUL. To the park, Toinette, to the brook, do you remember, to the
alders?

ANTOINETTE (nods). To the alders, I remember.

PAUL. Out into the snow, to seek our childhood.

[He slowly leads her out at the right.]

ACT III

The same hall as on the preceding days. The two corners in the
foreground, on the right the fireplace with its chairs, on the left the
sofa and other furniture are both separated from the centre and
background of the hall by means of a rectangular arrangement of
oleanders in pots, thus affording two separate cozy corners, between
whose high borders of oleander a somewhat narrow passage leads to the
background. A