_Grasps her arm, speaks low._

You must remember! Did I--succeed?

RHODA.

_Helplessly._

I--it's all a blur in my mind.

MICHAELIS.

_Darkly._

You don't want me to know that, in your dream, I failed.

RHODA.

No, no. That is not so.

_Pause. She speaks with hesitation._

Perhaps this is not the time. Perhaps you are not ready.

MICHAELIS.

What does that matter? _He_ is ready.

_He points at the map._

RHODA.

_Gazing at the map, with mystic conviction._

You will succeed! You must succeed!

_He paces the room. She stops him, pointing toward the hall door._

How is the child?

_He hesitates. She repeats the words anxiously._

How is the child?

_He shakes his head gloomily for answer._

It will get well, I am sure.

MICHAELIS.

If it does not, I am judged.

RHODA.

Oh, don't say that or think it!

MICHAELIS.

I am weighed in the balance and found wanting!

RHODA.

You cannot hang the whole issue and meaning of your life upon so slight a thread.

MICHAELIS.

The whole issue and meaning of the world hang on threads as slight. If this one is slight. To the mother it is not slight, nor to the G.o.d who put into her eyes, as she looked at me, all the doubt and question of the suffering earth.

RHODA.

You must remember that it is only a little child. Its mind is not open.

You cannot influence it--can you?

MICHAELIS.

Once that little life in my hand would have been as clay in the hands of the potter. If I cannot help now, it is because my ministry has been taken from me and given to another, who will be strong where I am weak, and faithful where I am unfaithful.

_Another song rises outside, distant._

RHODA.

_Comes closer to him._

Tell me this. Speak plainly to me. Is it because of me that your weakness and unfaith have come upon you? Is it because of me?

MICHAELIS.

_Looking at her steadily._

Yes.--

_He comes nearer._

Before creation, beyond time, G.o.d not yet risen from His sleep, you stand and call to me, and I listen in a dream that I dreamed before Eden.

RHODA.

_Shrinking from him._