way--part
entirely. I shall always find something new for myself, somewhere in the
world. Something free! Free! Free!--No need to be anxious about that,
Professor Rubek! [Suddenly points off to the right.] Look there! There
we have her.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Turning.] Where?

MAIA.

Out on the plain. Striding--like a marble stature. She is coming this
way.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Stands gazing with his hand over his eyes.] Does not she look like the
Resurrection incarnate? [To himself.] And her I could displace--and move
into the shade! Remodel her--. Fool that I was!

MAIA.

What do you mean by that?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Putting the question aside.] Nothing. Nothing that you would
understand.

[IRENE advances from the right over the upland. The children
at their play have already caught sight of her and run to
meet her. She is now surrounded by them; some appear confident
and at ease, others uneasy and timid. She talks low to them
and indicates that they are to go down to the hotel; she
herself will rest a little beside the brook. The children
run down over the slope to the left, half way to the back.
IRENE goes up to the wall of rock, and lets the rillets of
the cascade flow over her hands, cooling them.

MAIA.

[In a low voice.] Go down and speak to her alone, Rubek.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

And where will you go in the meantime?

MAIA.

[Looking significantly at him.] Henceforth I shall go my own ways.

[She descends form the hillock and leaps over the brook, by aid
of her alpenstock. She stops beside IRENE.

MAIA.

Professor Rubek is up there, waiting for you, madam.

IRENE.

What does he want?

MAIA.

He wants you to help him to open a casket that has snapped to.

IRENE.

Can I help him in that?

MAIA.

He says you are the only person that can.

IRENE.

Then I must try.

MAIA.

Yes, you really must, madam.

[She goes down by the path to the hotel.

[In a little while PROFESSOR RUBEK comes down to IRENE, but stops
with the brook between them.

IRENE.

[After a short pause.] She--the other one--said that you had been
waiting for me.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

I have waited for you year after year--without myself knowing it.

IRENE.

I could not come to you, Arnold. I was lying down there, sleeping the
long, deep, dreamful sleep.

PROFESSOR RUBE