for the fall of
Adam and the existence of the world and the fact that some day we shall
all have to die!

AUNT CLARA (with her apron before her face). I told you about
Antoinette! For she is at the bottom of it! I'll stake my head on that!

PAUL. Don't torture me, Aunt Clara!

AUNT CLARA. She is at the bottom of it! And I, in my stupidity, cap the
climax by leaving the two of you alone at the funeral day before
yesterday.

PAUL. I shall be grateful to you for that all of my life, Aunt Clara!

AUNT CLARA. My notion was for you to have a little talk together, and
then to think what it has led to! May God forgive what I have done.

PAUL (partly to himself). She promised me to come. And she is not
coming! She promised me to write. And she does not write. Not a word.
Not the remotest token! How do I know, but everything was a delusion?
Childish fancy and nothing more? The intoxication of a moment which
seized her and vanished again when she sat in her sleigh and rode away
in the winter night? Do I know? (He puts his hand to his head.)

AUNT CLARA (very uneasy). Paul, what are you talking about? _Tell_ me!

PAUL (jumps up without listening to her). No!... Then farewell
Ellernhof! Farewell my home and everything!

AUNT CLARA. Do be quiet! What in the world is the matter?

PAUL (walks up and down impatiently, stops again, speaks to himself in
an undertone). At that time I deceived her, deceived her without
knowing and wishing to. What if she deceives me now? What if she pays
me back? (He sinks down in the chair near the fireplace in violent
conflict with himself.)

AUNT CLARA (in despair). What a calamity! What a calamity!

PAUL (as if shaking something off). No! No! No!... it cannot but come
out right. (Heaves a sigh of relief.)

AUNT CLARA (joyful again). Do you see, my boy?

PAUL (gloomily). Don't rejoice prematurely, Auntie! It seems to me that
this house fosters misfortune! All that you need to do is to look at
those faces! They all have a suggestion of melancholy and gloom. (He
looks up at the portraits pensively.) Just as if the sun had never
shone into their hearts, you know. No air of hopefulness, no suggestion
of light and freedom! So chained to the earth! So savagely taciturn?
Can that be due to the air and soil? It will probably assert itself in
me too, after I have been here for some time. Possibly it would have
been better, Auntie, if I had never returned to this house! I should
have continued tha