to indulge her senses. I should like to live
like a turtledove, too. But as long as I have been in this world I have
first obeyed my duty. If after that the opportunity offered, then, to
be sure, I've enjoyed life to the full. But if one does not follow
one's duty, one has no right to make the least claims on others.

HELEN (looking away; abstractedly). That will not bring the dead to
life again ...

[Illustration: D. MOMMSEN]

_Permission Albert Langen, Munich_
FROM OLAF GULBRANSSON'S "FAMOUS CONTEMPORARIES"

GERARDO (nervously). Why, Helen, don't you see, I want to give back
your life to you! I want to give back to you what you have sacrificed
to me. Take it, I implore you! Don't make more of it than it is! Helen,
how can a woman so disgracefully humiliate herself! What has become of
your pride? With what contempt would you have shown me my proper place
if I had fallen in love with you, if it had occurred to me to be
jealous! What am I in the eyes of the society in which you move! A man
who makes a clown of himself! Would you fling away your life for a man
whom a hundred women have loved before you, whom a hundred women will
love after you without allowing it to cause them a moment of distress!
Do you want your flowing blood to make you ridiculous in the sight of
God and man?

HELEN (looking away). I know very well that I am asking an unheard-of
thing of you but--what else can I do ...

GERARDO (soothingly). I have given you all that's in my power to give.
Even to a princess I could not be more than I have been to you. If
there is one thing further our relations, if continued, might mean to
you, it could only be the utter ruin of your life. Now release me,
HELEN! I understand how hard you find it, but--one often fears one is
going to die. I myself often tremble for my life--art as a profession
is so likely to unstring one's nerves. It's astonishing how soon one
will get over that kind of thing. Resign yourself to the fortuitousness
of life. We did not seek one another because we loved each other; we
loved each other because we happened to find one another! (Shrugging
his shoulders.) You say I must bear the consequences of my acts, Helen.
Would you in all seriousness think ill of me now for not refusing you
admittance when you came under the pretext of having me pass on your
voice? I dare say you think too highly of your personal advantages for
that; you know yourself too well; you are too proud of your beauty.