RAN's house; the same as in Act I, Scene II. GRAN
is standing at his desk on the right. FLINK comes in carrying a
pistol-case, which he puts down upon the table.)

Gran. You?

Flink. As you see. (Walks up and down for a little without speaking.)

Gran. I haven't seen you since the day the King was here.

Flink. No.--Have you taken your holidays?

Gran. Yes; but, anyway, I am likely to have perpetual holidays now! The
elections are going against us.

Flink (walking about). So I hear. The clerical party and the
reactionaries are winning.

Gran. That would not have been so, but for her unhappy death--. (Breaks
off, and sighs.)

Flink. A judgment from heaven--that is what the parsons say, and the
women, and the reactionaries--

Gran.--and the landlords. And they really believe it.

Flink (stopping). Well, don't you believe it?

Gran (after a pause). At all events I interpret it differently from--

Flink.--from the parson? Naturally. But can any one doubt the fact that
it was the finger of fate?

Gran. Then fate assumed her father's shape?

Flink. Whether her father appeared to her at the moment of his death or
not (shrugs his shoulders) is a matter in which I am not interested.
I don't believe in such things. But that she was suffering pangs of
conscience, I do believe. I believe it may have brought painful visions
before her eyes.

Gran. I knew her pretty well, and I will answer for it she had no guilty
conscience. She was approaching her task with enthusiasm. Any one
that knew her will tell you the same. With her the King was first and
foremost.

Flink. What did she die of, then? Of enthusiasm?

Gran. Of being overwrought by the force of her emotions. Her task was
too great for her. The time was not ripe for it. (Sadly.) Our experiment
was bound to fail.

Flink. You condemn it when you say that!--But with her last breath she
called out: "My father!" And, just at that moment, he died, fifty miles
away from her. Either she _saw_ him, or she _imagined_ she saw him,
standing before her. But his bloodstained, maltreated, crippled form
standing in the way of her criminal advance towards the throne--is that
not a symbol of maltreated humanity revolting against monarchy at the
very moment when monarchy wishes to atone! Its guilt through thousands
of years is too black. Fate is inflexible.

Gran. But with what result? Are we rid of monarchy yet?

Flink. We are rid of that treacherous attempt to reconcile