[_Draws nearer to her and takes her hand in his._] Ah, you mustn't let _that_ trouble you.

HELEN

[_Sighing._] Oh, if Sister Schmittgen knew of that--I dare not imagine it.

LOTH

Who is Sister Schmittgen?

HELEN

One of my teachers at boarding-school.

LOTH

How can you worry about Sister Schmittgen!

HELEN

She was very good.

[_Laughing heartily to herself suddenly._

LOTH

Why do you laugh all at once?

HELEN

[_Half between respect and jest._] Oh, when she stood in the choir and sang--she had only one long tooth left--then she was supposed to sing: "Trouble yourselves not, my people!"--and it always sounded like: "'Rouble, 'rouble yourselves not, my people!" It was too funny. And we always had to laugh so ... when it sounded through the chapel: "'Rouble, 'rouble!" [_She laughs more and more heartily. LOTH becomes infected by her mirth. She seems so sweet to him at this moment that he wants to take the opportunity to put his arms about her. HELEN wards him off._] An, no!

no! Just think! I threw myself at you!

LOTH

Oh, don't say such things!

HELEN

But it isn't my fault; you have only yourself to blame for it. Why do you demand ...

_LOTH puts his arm about her once more and draws her closer to him.

At first she resists a little, then she yields and gazes, with frank blessedness, into the joyous face of LOTH which bends above her.

Involuntarily, in the awkwardness of her very timidity, she kisses his mouth. Both grow red; then LOTH returns her kiss. His caress is long and heartfelt. A giving and taking of kisses--silent and eloquent at once--is, for a time, all that pa.s.ses between them. LOTH is the first to speak._

LOTH

Nellie, dearest! Nellie is your name, isn't it?

HELEN

[_Kisses him._] Call me something else ... call me what you like best ...

LOTH

Dearest!...

_The exchange of kisses and of mutual contemplation is repeated._

HELEN

[_Held tight in LOTH'S arms, resting her head on his shoulder, looking up at him with dim, happy eyes, whispers ecstatically._] Oh, how beautiful!

How beautiful!

LOTH

To die with you--thus ...

HELEN

[_Pa.s.sionately._] To live!... [_She disengages herself from his embrace._] Why die now?... now ...

LOTH

Yon must not misunderstand me. Always, in happy moments, it has come over me with a sense of intoxication--the consciousness of the fact that it is in our power, in my power, to embrace--you understand?

HELEN

To embrace death, if you desired it?

LOTH

[_Quite devoid of sentimentality._] Yes! And the thought of death has nothing horrible in it for me. On the contrary, it seems like the thought of a friend. One calls and knows surely that death will come. And so one can rise above so many, many things--above one's past, above one's future fate ... [_Looking at HELEN'S hand._] What a lovely hand you have.

[_He caresses it._

HELEN

Ah, yes!--so!...

[_She nestles anew in his arms._

LOTH

No, do you know, I haven't really lived--until now!

HELEN

Do you think I have?... And I feel faint--faint with happiness. Dear G.o.d, how suddenly it all came ...