s father famous too.--That was your dream.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[More softly, with emotion.] It is to you I owe everything, everything,
Irene--and I thank you.

IRENE.

[Lost in thought for a moment.] If I had then done what I had a right to
do, Arnold--

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Well? What then?

IRENE.

I should have killed that child.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Killed it, you say?

IRENE.

[Whispering.] Killed it--before I went away from you. Crushed
it--crushed it to dust.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Shakes his head reproachfully.] You would never have been able to,
Irene. You had not the heart to do it.

IRENE.

No, in those days I had not that sort of heart.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

But since then? Afterwards?

IRENE.

Since then I have killed it innumerable times. By daylight and in the
dark. Killed it in hatred--and in revenge--and in anguish.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Goes close up to the table and asks softly.] Irene--tell me now
at last--after all these years--why did you go away from me? You
disappeared so utterly--left not a trace behind--

IRENE.

[Shaking her head slowly.] Oh Arnold--why should I tell you that
now--from the world beyond the grave.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Was there some one else whom you had come to love?

IRENE.

There was one who had no longer any use for my love--any use for my
life.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Changing the subject.] H'm--don't let us talk any more of the past--

IRENE.

No, no--by all means let us not talk of what is beyond the grave--what
is now beyond the grave for me.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Where have you been, Irene? All my inquiries were fruitless--you seemed
to have vanished away.

IRENE.

I went into the darkness--when the child stood transfigured in the
light.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Have you travelled much about the world?

IRENE.

Yes. Travelled in many lands.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Looks compassionately at her.] And what have you found to do, Irene?

IRENE.

[Turning her eyes upon him.] Wait a moment; let me see--. Yes, now I
have it. I have posed on the turntable in variety-shows. Posed as a
naked statue in living pictures. Raked in heaps of money. That was more
than I could do with you; for you had none.--And then I turned the
heads of all sorts of men. That too, was more than I could do with you,
Arnold. You kept yourself better in hand.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Hastening to pass the subject by.] And then