IS. It"s not to be thought of! You"re forgetting yourself, Plimpton...
PLIM. [Gazing about.] This is no place to discuss it. But I tell you that if there is no support from London...
RUTH. [Starting.] Come... perhaps there may be word! [They start left.]
We may beat them yet... who can tell?
[PLIMPTON, RUTHERFORD and ISMAN go off.]
HAGEN. [Emerges with GERALD from shadows, shaking with laughter.] Hat ha! ha! Love and self-sacrifice! You see, Gerald!
GER. Yes... I see! [Looks right... then starts violently.] My sister!
HAGEN. Ah!
GER. What does this mean?
HAGEN. [To ESTELLE, who enters, right, evidently agitated.] Miss Isman!
EST. My father said...
HAGEN. Yes. Won"t you sit down?
EST. [Hesitatingly.] Why... I suppose so...
HAGEN. [To GERALD.] Will you excuse us, please, Gerald?
GER. [Amazed.] Why, yes... but Estelle...
EST. [In a faint voice.] Please go, Gerald.
GER. Oh! very well. [Exit, left.]
EST. You wished to see me.
HAGEN. Yes. [Sitting opposite.] How do you like it all?
EST. It is very beautiful.
HAGEN. Do you really think so?
EST. [Wondering.] Don"t you?
HAGEN. No.
EST. Truly?
HAGEN. No.
EST. Then why did you do it?
HAGEN. To please you.
EST. [Shrinks.] Oh!
HAGEN. [Fixes his gaze on her, and slowly leans across table; with intensity.] Haven"t you discovered yet that you are mine?
EST. [Half rising.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. How long will it be before you know it?
EST. How dare you?
HAGEN. Listen. I am a man accustomed to command. I have no time to play with conventions... I cannot dally and plead. But I love you. I cannot live without you! And I will shake the foundations of the world to get you!
EST. [Staring, fascinated; whispers.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. All this... [waving his hand] I did in the hope that it would bring you here... so that I might have a chance to tell you. Simply for that one purpose. I have broken the business world to my will... that also was to make you mine!
EST. [Wildly.] You have ruined my father!
HAGEN. Your father has played this game, and his path is strewn with the rivals he has ruined. He knows that, and you know it. Now I have played the game; and I have beaten him. It took me one day to bring him down...
[Laughs.] It will take me less time to put him back again.
EST. But why, why?
HAGEN. Listen, Estelle. I came to this civilization of yours, and looked at it. It seemed to me that it was built upon knavery and fraud ... that it was altogether a vile thing... rotten to the core of it! And I said I would smash it, as a child smashes a toy; I would toss it about... as your brother the poet tosses his metaphors. But then I saw you, and in a flash all that was changed. You were beautiful... you were interesting.
You were something in the world worth winning... something I had not known about before. But you stood upon the pinnacle of Privilege... you gathered the clouds about your head. How should I climb to you?
EST. [Frightened.] I see!
HAGEN. I came to your home... I was turned from the door. So I set to work to break my way to you.
EST. I see!
HAGEN. And that is how I love you. You are all there is in the game to me. I bring the world and lay it at your feet. It is all yours. You do not like what I do with it, perhaps. Very well... take it and do better.
The power is yours for the asking! Power without end! [He reaches out his arms to her; a pause.] You do not like my way of love-making, perhaps. You find me harsh and rude. But I love you. And where, among the men that you know, will you find one who can feel for you what I feel... who would dare for you what I have dared? [Gazes at her with intensity.] Take your time. I have no wish to hurry you. But you must know that, wherever you go, my hand is upon you. All that I do, I do for the love of you.
EST. [Weakly.] I... you frighten me!
HAGEN. All the world I lay at your feet! You shall see.
PLIM. [Off left.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. [Starting.] Ah!
PLIM. [Enters, running, in great agitation, with a telegram.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. Well?