help now, it is because my ministry has been
taken from me and given to another, who will be strong where I am weak,
and faithful where I am unfaithful.

_Another song rises outside, distant._

RHODA.

_Comes closer to him._

Tell me this. Speak plainly to me. Is it because of me that your
weakness and unfaith have come upon you? Is it because of me?

MICHAELIS.

_Looking at her steadily._

Yes.--

_He comes nearer._

Before creation, beyond time, God not yet risen from His sleep, you
stand and call to me, and I listen in a dream that I dreamed before
Eden.

RHODA.

_Shrinking from him._

You must not say such things to me.--You must not think of me so.--You
must not!

_He follows her, his passion mounting._

MICHAELIS.

All my life long I have known you, and fled from you, I have heard you
singing on the hills of sleep and have fled from you into the waking
day. I have seen you in the spring forest, dancing and throwing your
webs of sunlight to snare me; on moonlit mountains, laughing and
calling; in the streets of crowded cities, beckoning and disappearing
in the crowd--and everywhere I have fled from you, holding above my
head the sign of God's power in me, my gift and my mission.--What use?
What use? It has crumbled, and I do not care!

RHODA.

Oh, don't speak such words, I beseech you. Let me go. This must not,
shall not be!

_She makes another attempt to escape. He presses upon her until she
stands at bay._

MICHAELIS.

You are all that I have feared and shunned and missed on earth, and now
I have you, the rest is as nothing.

_He takes her, feebly resisting, into his arms._

I know a place out there, high in the great mountains. Heaven-piercing
walls of stone, a valley of trees and sweet water in the midst--grass
and flowers, such flowers as you have never dreamed could grow.--There
we will take our happiness. A year--a month--a day--what matter? We
will make a lifetime of each hour!

RHODA.

_Yielding to his embrace, whispers._

Don't talk. Don't think. Only--love me. A little while. A little while.

_The deep hush of their embrace is broken by a cry from within. The
young mother opens the hall door, in a distraction of terror and
grief._

MOTHER.

Come here! Come quick!

_Michaelis and Rhoda draw apart. He stares at the woman, as if not
remembering who she is._

I can't rouse him! My baby's gone. Oh, my Go