ot think of you thus.

ANTOINETTE. How?

PAUL. Cold and dead.

ANTOINETTE. But I can. Very well indeed. I am so now!

PAUL. That isn't true, Antoinette. Your eyes tell a different story!

ANTOINETTE (shrugging her shoulders). Never mind my eyes!

PAUL. But I can't help it. I must look into them! I feel as if I must
find something there.

ANTOINETTE (turning away). Don't go to any trouble!

PAUL. Indeed, indeed, Antoinette!

ANTOINETTE. What in the world could you find?

PAUL. ... Possibly my lost life?

ANTOINETTE (excited). Why do you speak so to me, Paul?

PAUL. Do I hear it from your lips, Paul, Paul, as of old?

ANTOINETTE (frightened). Paul! Paul! Desist!

PAUL. It has been a long time since I have heard that sound!

ANTOINETTE. Desist, at least for today, I beg of you! It seems like a
sin to me!

PAUL. Why like a sin?

ANTOINETTE. You were just remarking about the rest, and now you are
doing the same thing, forgetting the dead.

PAUL. I--forget him? I am thinking of him incessantly! And of his last
words, before we parted forever! Do you know what they were, Toinette?

ANTOINETTE (subdued). Tell me!

PAUL. "Go! Some day you will be sorry!" ... Possibly he was right, the
dear old man! Today it kept resounding from his open grave, as the
clods and lumps of snow rumbled down on his coffin. "Are you sorry now?
Are you sorry now?" ... I have tried to get rid of it, but it refuses
to go. It keeps pursuing me and cries into my ears!

LASKOWSKI (has approached the two). Well, dearie, how are you? What are
you doing?

ANTOINETTE (turns around, as if recoiling from something poisonous).
Oh, it's you!

LASKOWSKI. Who would it be? Ain't it up to me to look after my dearie
now and then. Shan't we eat? They are all sitting down.

PAUL (has become composed). Your husband is quite right, madam. We are
the last. Unfortunately Mrs. Warkentin is not very well. May I request
you to play the part of the hostess a bit?

ANTOINETTE (distressed). If it must be, Doctor ...

PAUL (looks at her). Yes, there is no help for it, madam. (Escorts her
through the passage to the table.)

LASKOWSKI (following them). And I, old boy. Where am I to go?

PAUL (grimly). Wherever you please! The world is wide and there is room
for all. (He leads Antoinette around the table to her place.)

LASKOWSKI. I guess the shortest way is the best! I'm going to sit right
here. (He sits down beside MRS. VON TIEDEMANN, all the rest