ecure when the King is with me. I hope it
may be he coming. (Goes to the window.)

(The MAID comes in.)

Maid. A lady wishes to speak to you, Miss Ernst--

Baroness. A lady?

Clara. Didn't she give her name?

Maid. She is veiled--and very handsomely dressed.

Clara (with decision). No! I can see no one.

Baroness. No one that we do not know. (To the MAID.) You ought to know
that.

Maid (hesitatingly). But I think it is--. (The door opens and the
PRINCESS comes in.)

Baroness. What does this mean? Clara! leave us, my dear.

Princess (drawing aside her veil). Do you know me?

Clara and Baroness. The Princess!

Princess. Are you Clara Ernst?

Clara. Yes.

Princess (haughtily, to the BARONESS). Leave us alone! (The BARONESS
goes out.) Before going to the palace I wanted to come here--even at the
risk of meeting the King.

Clara. He has not come yet. (A long pause.)

Princess. Have you thought well over what you are going to do?

Clara. I think so.

Princess. I don't think you have. Have you read what the papers say
about it--every one of them--to-day?

Clara. No. The King has advised me not to.

Princess. But the letters that have been sent to you? I know letters
have been written to you.

Clara. The King has advised me not to read them either. He takes all the
letters.

Princess. Do you know that they are rioting in the streets close to
here?

Clara (in alarm). No!

Princess. You will be received with hisses, hooting--perhaps with stone
throwing. You didn't expect anything like that, did you?

Clara. No.

Princess. What shall you do?

Clara (after a moment, quietly). I shall go with the King.

Princess. A nice road you are dragging him along, truly! And I assure
you that the farther you go along it, the worse it will become. You
cannot possibly have prepared yourself for all that you will have to go
through.

Clara. I think I have.

Princess (in surprise). What do you mean? How?

Clara (bending her head). I have prayed to God.

Princess. Pshaw! I mean that you cannot have considered the misery into
which you are dragging the King--and the disgrace and trouble you are
bringing upon all his people. (CLARA is silent.) You are young still;
your heart cannot be altogether hardened yet, whatever your past may
have been.

Clara (proudly). I have no reason to be ashamed of my past.

Princess. Indeed? What sort of a past has it been, then?

Clara. One full of suffering, princess--an