SALA

What do you mean by that?

JOHANNA

Oh, I suppose that where you go they have no winter like ours.

SALA (_pensively_)

No, not like ours. (_Pause_) And you?

JOHANNA

I...?

SALA

What are you going to do, I mean, when I am gone?

JOHANNA

When you are gone...? (_She looks at him, and he stands staring into
the distance_) Haven't you gone long ago? And at bottom, are you not
far away from me even now?

SALA

What are you saying? I am here with you.... What are you going to do,
Johanna?

JOHANNA

I have already told you. Go away--just like you.

SALA (_shakes his head_)

JOHANNA

As soon as possible. I have still the courage left. Who knows what may
become of me later, if I stay here alone.

SALA

As long as you are young, all doors stand open, and the world begins
outside every one of them.

JOHANNA

But the world is wide and the sky infinite only as long as you are not
clinging to anybody. And for that reason I want to go away.

SALA

Away--that's so easily said. But preparations are needed for that
purpose, and some sort of a scheme. You use the word as if you merely
had to put on wings and fly off into the distance.

JOHANNA

To be determined is--the same as having wings.

SALA

Are you not at all afraid, Johanna?

JOHANNA

A longing free from fear would be too cheap to be worth while.

SALA

Where will it lead you?

JOHANNA

I shall find my way.

SALA

You can choose your way, but not the people that you meet.

JOHANNA

Do you think me ignorant of the fact that I cannot expect only
beautiful experiences? What is ugly and mean must also be waiting for
me.

SALA

And how are you going to stand it?--Will you be able to stand it at
all?

JOHANNA

Of course, I am not going to tell the truth always as I have done to
you. I shall have to lie--and I think of it with pleasure. I shall not
always be in good spirits, nor always sensible. I shall make mistakes
and suffer. That's the way it has to be, I suppose.

SALA

Of all this you are aware in advance, and yet...?

JOHANNA

Yes.

SALA

And why?... Why are you going away, Johanna?

JOHANNA

Why am I going away?... I want a time to come when I must shudder at
myself. Shudder as deeply as you can only when nothing has been left
untried. Just as you have had to do when you looked back upon your
life. Or have you not?

SALA

Oh, many times. But just in such moments of shuddering there is