a beauty that is strange to me--a beauty not surpassing
what the other had, except in being more cruel possibly--and yet a
beauty that should confer much greater happiness, I think.

CECILIA

Don't look at me like that!... Don't talk to me like that!... That's
not the way to talk to a friend! Don't forget I am no more the one I
used to be. When you talk to me like that, Amadeus, it is as if here,
too, I should be fanned by those cajoling breaths that nowadays so
often touch me like caresses--breaths that make life seem incredibly
light, and that make you feel ready for so much that formerly would
have appeared incomprehensible.

AMADEUS

If you could guess, Cecilia, how your words hurt me and excite me at
the same time!

CECILIA (_brusquely_)

You must not talk like that, Amadeus. I don't want it. Be sensible, for
my sake as well as your own. Good-night.

AMADEUS

Are you going, Cecilia?

CECILIA

Yes. And bear in mind that we are friends and want to remain such.

AMADEUS

Bear in mind that we have always wanted to be _honest_. And it is not
honest--either for you or me--to say that we stand face to face as
friends in this moment.... Cecilia--the _one_ thing I can feel at this
moment is that you are beautiful ... beautiful as you have never been
before!

CECILIA

Amadeus, Amadeus, are you forgetting all that has happened?

AMADEUS

I could forget it--and so could you.

CECILIA

Oh, I remember--I remember! (_She wants to leave_)

AMADEUS

Stay, Cecilia, stay! The day after to-morrow I shall be gone--stay!

CECILIA

Please don't speak to me like that! I am no longer what I used to
be--no longer proud, or calm, or good. Who knows how little might be
needed to make me the victim of a certain unscrupulous seducer!

AMADEUS

Cecilia!

CECILIA

Have you so many friends to lose? One is all I have.--Good-night.
(_She tries to get away_)

AMADEUS (_seizing her by the hand_)

Cecilia, we have long ago bidden each other good-by as man and
wife--but we have also made up our minds to take life lightly, to be
free, and to lay hold of every happiness that comes within our reach.
Should we be mad enough, or cowardly enough, to shrink from the highest
happiness ever offered us...?

CECILIA

And what would it lead to ... my friend?

AMADEUS

Don't call me that! I love you and I hate you, but in this moment I am
not your friend. What you have been to me--wife, comrade ... what do I
care! T