ADOLPH. How can you see what doesn"t exist, unless your fear of something has stirred up your fancy into seeing what has never existed? What is it you fear? That I might borrow somebody else"s eyes in order to see you as you are, and not as you seem to be?
TEKLA. Keep your imagination in check, Adolph! It is the beast that dwells in man"s soul.
ADOLPH. Where did you learn that? From those chaste young men on the boat--did you?
TEKLA. [Not at all abashed] Yes, there is something to be learned from youth also.
ADOLPH. I think you are already beginning to have a taste for youth?
TEKLA. I have always liked youth. That"s why I love you. Do you object?
ADOLPH. No, but I should prefer to have no partners.
TEKLA. [Prattling roguishly] My heart is so big, little brother, that there is room in it for many more than him.
ADOLPH. But little brother doesn"t want any more brothers.
TEKLA. Come here to p.u.s.s.y now and get his hair pulled because he is jealous--no, envious is the right word for it!
(Two knocks with a chair are heard from the adjoining room, where GUSTAV is.)
ADOLPH. No, I don"t want to play now. I want to talk seriously.
TEKLA. [Prattling] Mercy me, does he want to talk seriously?
Dreadful, how serious he"s become! [Takes hold of his head and kisses him] Smile a little--there now!
ADOLPH. [Smiling against his will] Oh, you"re the--I might almost think you knew how to use magic!
TEKLA. Well, can"t he see now? That"s why he shouldn"t start any trouble--or I might use my magic to make him invisible!
ADOLPH. [Gets up] Will you sit for me a moment, Tekla? With the side of your face this way, so that I can put a face on my figure.
TEKLA. Of course, I will.
[Turns her head so he can see her in profile.]
ADOLPH. [Gazes hard at her while pretending to work at the figure]
Don"t think of me now--but of somebody else.
TEKLA. I"ll think of my latest conquest.
ADOLPH. That chaste young man?
TEKLA. Exactly! He had a pair of the prettiest, sweetest moustaches, and his cheek looked like a peach--it was so soft and rosy that you just wanted to bite it.
ADOLPH. [Darkening] Please keep that expression about the mouth.
TEKLA. What expression?
ADOLPH. A cynical, brazen one that I have never seen before.
TEKLA. [Making a face] This one?
ADOLPH. Just that one! [Getting up] Do you know how Bret Harte pictures an adulteress?
TEKLA. [Smiling] No, I have never read Bret Something.
ADOLPH. As a pale creature that cannot blush.
TEKLA. Not at all? But when she meets her lover, then she must blush, I am sure, although her husband or Mr. Bret may not be allowed to see it.
ADOLPH. Are you so sure of that?
TEKLA. [As before] Of course, as the husband is not capable of bringing the blood up to her head, he cannot hope to behold the charming spectacle.
ADOLPH. [Enraged] Tekla!
TEKLA. Oh, you little ninny!
ADOLPH. Tekla!
TEKLA. He should call her p.u.s.s.y--then I might get up a pretty little blush for his sake. Does he want me to?
ADOLPH. [Disarmed] You minx, I"m so angry with you, that I could bite you!
TEKLA. [Playfully] Come and bite me then!--Come!
[Opens her arms to him.]
ADOLPH. [Puts his hands around her neck and kisses her] Yes, I"ll bite you to death!
TEKLA. [Teasingly] Look out--somebody might come!
ADOLPH. Well, what do I care! I care for nothing else in the world if I can only have you!
TEKLA. And when, you don"t have me any longer?
ADOLPH. Then I shall die!
TEKLA. But you are not afraid of losing me, are you--as I am too old to be wanted by anybody else?
ADOLPH. You have not forgotten my words yet, Tekla! I take it all back now!
TEKLA. Can you explain to me why you are at once so jealous and so c.o.c.k-sure?
ADOLPH. No, I cannot explain anything at all. But it"s possible that the thought of somebody else having possessed you may still be gnawing within me. At times it appears to me as if our love were nothing but a fiction, an attempt at self-defence, a pa.s.sion kept up as a matter of honor--and I can"t think of anything that would give me more pain than to have _him_ know that I am unhappy.
Oh, I have never seen him--but the mere thought that a person exists who is waiting for my misfortune to arrive, who is daily calling down curses on my head, who will roar with laughter when I perish--the mere idea of it obsesses me, drives me nearer to you, fascinates me, paralyses me!
TEKLA. Do you think I would let him have that joy? Do you think I would make his prophecy come true?