start a
cooking school?

FRIEDRICH (_with a gentle reproach_): But, Erna! Don't you understand
me? Could you think of anything else than---- Of course, I shall marry
you then.

(_Rita looks at him puzzled._)

FRIEDRICH: But that is self-evident. Why should I have looked you up
otherwise? Why should I be here? But, dear Erna, don't look so stunned.

RITA (_still stares at him_): "Simply--marry." Strange. (_She turns
around towards the open piano, plays and sings softly_) Farilon, farila,
farilette.

FRIEDRICH (_has risen_): Erna! Do not torment me!

RITA: Torment? No. That would not be right. You are a good fellow. Give
me a kiss. (_She rises._)

FRIEDRICH (_embraces and kisses her_): My Erna! Oh, you have grown so
much prettier! So much prettier!

(_Rita leans her head on his shoulder._)

FRIEDRICH: But now come. Let us not lose one moment.

(_Rita does not move_.)

FRIEDRICH: If possible let everything be.... Come! (_He pushes her with
gentle force_) You cry?

RITA (_hastily wipes the tears from her eyes, controls herself_): O,
nonsense. Rita Revera does not cry--she laughs. (_Laughs forcedly._)

FRIEDRICH: Erna, do not use that name. I do not care to hear it again!

RITA: Oh--you do not want to hear it any more. You would like to command
me. You come here and assume that that which life and hard times have
made of me you can wipe out in a half hour! No! You do not know life and
know nothing of me. (_Harshly_) My name is Revera, and I shall not marry
a merchant from Rudolstadt.

FRIEDRICH: How is that? You still hesitate?

RITA: Do I look as though I hesitated? (_She steps up closer to him._)
Do you know, Fred, that during the years after my escape I often went
hungry, brutally hungry? Do you know that I ran about in the most
frightful dives, with rattling plate, collecting pennies and insults? Do
you know what it means to humiliate oneself for dry bread? You see; that
has been my school. Do you understand that I had to become an entirely
different person or go to ruin? One who owes everything to himself, who
is proud of himself, but who no longer respects anything, above all, no
conventional measures and weights? And do you understand, Fred, that it
would be base on my part were I to follow you to the Philistine?

FRIEDRICH (_after a pause, sadly_): No, I do not understand that.

RITA (_again gaily_): I thought so. Shall I dread there every suspicion
and tremble before every fool, whereas I can