, where
both deceive each other, and become reconciled, and deceive each other
again--just as the moment's whim happens to move them?

AMADEUS

We have neither deceived each other, nor become reconciled--we have
been free, and have merely found each other again.

CECILIA

Each other, you say?... As if that were possible! What is it then, that
has made me seem so desirable to you all at once? Not the fact that I
am Cecilia--oh, no! But the fact that I seem to have come back another
woman. And have I really become yours again? Not at all! Not unless you
have grown so modest all at once that you can be satisfied with a
happiness that might have fallen to somebody else perhaps, if he had
merely chanced to be on hand at that particular moment.

AMADEUS (_shrinking back_)

But even if last night be sacrificed to this fixed idea of yours,
Cecilia--it is daylight now--we are awake--and in this moment of clear
light you must feel, no less than I, that we love each other,
Cecilia--love as we have never loved before.

CECILIA

This moment might prove deceptive--and I am sure it would. No other
moment would be more apt to prove such. Do you think those many moments
in which we felt our tenderness gradually ebbing away--those many
moments when we felt the lure of other loves--do you think them less
worthy of consideration than this one? The only thing urging us
together now is our fear of the final leave-taking. And our feelings at
this moment make a pretty poor sample upon which to base an eternity. I
don't trust them. What has happened once, may ... nay, must repeat
itself--to-morrow--or two years from now--or five ... in a more
indiscreet manner, perhaps, or in a manner more tragical--but certainly
in a manner to be much more regretted.

AMADEUS

Oh, no--never again! Now--after what I have felt and experienced
lately, I can vouch for myself.

CECILIA

I don't feel equally certain of myself, Amadeus.

AMADEUS

That doesn't scare me, Cecilia, for now I'm prepared to fight for
you--now I'm worthy and capable of fighting for you. Hereafter you
shall never more be left unprotected as you were in the past--my
tenderness will guard you.

CECILIA

But I don't want to be guarded! I shall no longer permit you to guard
me! And I can no more give you any promises than I care to accept
yours.

AMADEUS

And if I should forgo them myself--if I should risk it on a mere
uncertainty?

CECILIA

That's more than I dar