mustn't be like that. It makes me sad.

SALA (_with a return to present things_)

Why?... It shouldn't, Johanna. It is in hours like those we know, that
we have lost nothing, and that in reality we cannot lose anything.

JOHANNA

Oh, I wish you had lost and forgotten everything, so that I might be
everything to you!

SALA (_somewhat astonished_)

Johanna....

JOHANNA (_passionately_)

I love you. (_Pause_)

SALA

In a few days I shall be gone, Johanna. You know it--you have known it
right along.

JOHANNA

I know. Why do you repeat it? Do you think, perhaps, that all at once I
may begin to clutch at you like a love-sick thing, dreaming of
eternities?--No, that isn't my way--oh, no!... But I want to tell you
once at least that I am fond of you. May I not for once?--Do you hear?
I love you. And I wish that sometime later on you may hear it just as I
am saying it now--at some other moment no less beautiful than
this--when we two shall no longer be aware of each other.

SALA

Indeed, Johanna, of one thing you may be sure: that the sound of your
voice shall never leave me.--But why should we talk of parting forever?
Perhaps we shall meet again sooner or later ... in three years ... or
in five.... (_With a smile_) Then you have become a princess perhaps,
and I may be the ruler of some buried city.... Why don't you speak?

JOHANNA (_pulls the cape more closely about her_)

SALA

Do you feel cold?

JOHANNA

Not at all.--But now I must go.

SALA

Are you in such a hurry?

JOHANNA

It is getting late. I must be back before my father gets home.

SALA

How strange! To-day you are hurrying home, fearful of being too late,
lest your father get worried. And in a couple of days....

JOHANNA

Then he will no longer be waiting for me. Farewell, Stephan.

SALA

Until to-morrow, then.

JOHANNA

Yes, until to-morrow.

SALA

You'll come through the garden gate, of course?

JOHANNA

Wasn't that a carriage that stopped before the house?

SALA

The doors are locked. Nobody can get out into the garden.

JOHANNA

Good-by, then.

SALA

Until to-morrow.

JOHANNA

Yes. (_She is about to go_)

SALA

Listen, Johanna.--If I should say to you now: stay!

JOHANNA

No, I must go now.

SALA

That was not what I meant.

JOHANNA

What then?

SALA

I mean, if I should beg you to stay--for--a long time?

JOHANNA

You have a peculiar way of jesting.

SALA

I am not jesting