[_Hums very softly._] "Thou in my heart art lying ..."

LOTH

But now you must confess too.

HELEN

Anything you like.

LOTH

Confess now! Am I the first?

HELEN

No.

LOTH

Who?

HELEN

[_Laughing out in the fullness of her joy._] w.i.l.l.y Kahl!

LOTH

[_Laughing._] Who else?

HELEN

Oh, no, there's no one else really. You must believe me ... Truly there wasn't. Why should I tell you a falsehood?

LOTH

So there _was_ someone else?

HELEN

[_Pa.s.sionately._] Oh, please, please, please, don't ask me now.

[_She hides her face in her hands and weeps apparently without any reason._

LOTH

But ... but Nellie! I'm not insistent; I don't want to ...

HELEN

Later ... I'll tell you later ... not now!

LOTH

As I said before, dearest.

HELEN

There was some one--I want you to know--whom I ... because ... because among wicked people he seemed the least wicked. Oh, it is so different now. [_Weeping against LOTH'S neck: stormily._] Ah, if I only didn't have to leave you at all any more! Oh, if I could only go away with you right here on the spot!

LOTH

I suppose you have a very unhappy time in the house here?

HELEN

Oh, dear!--It's just frightful--the things that happen here. It's a life like--that ... like that of the beasts of the field--Oh, I would have died without you. I shudder to think of it!

LOTH

I believe it would calm you, dearest, if you would tell me everything quite openly.

HELEN

Yes, to be sure. But I don't think I can bear to. Not now, at least, not yet. And I'm really afraid to.

LOTH

You were at boarding-school, weren't you?

HELEN

My mother decided that I be sent--on her death-bed.

LOTH

Was your sister there with you?

HELEN

No, she was always at home ... And so when, four years ago, I came back from school, I found a father--who ... a step-mother--who ... a sister ... guess, can't you guess what I mean!

LOTH

I suppose your step-mother is quarrelsome? Perhaps jealous? unloving?

HELEN

My father...?