ave thrown myself through a
window--from despair--because, as I still believe, you never loved me.

Leon.--Madam, do not blaspheme. Do not provoke me. I never loved you!
Look at the precipice which you have opened before me--count the
sleepless nights during which I tore my breast with grief--count the
days on which I called to you as from a cross--look at this thin face,
at these trembling hands, and repeat once more that I never loved you!
What has become of me? What is life for me without you? To-day my
head is crowned with laurels and here in my breast is emptiness
and exhaustless sorrow, and tears not wept--and in my eyes eternal
darkness. Oh, by the living God, I loved you with every drop of my
blood, with my every thought--and I was not able to love differently.
Having lost you, I lost everything--my star, my strength, faith,
hope, desire for life, and not only happiness, but the capacity for
happiness. Woman, do you understand the dreadful meaning of those
words? I have lost the capacity for happiness. I have not loved you!
Oh, despair! God alone knows for how many nights I have cried to Him:
"Lord, take my talent, take my fame, take my life, but return to me
for only one moment my Jadwiga as she was of old!"

Jadwiga.--Enough! Lord, what is the matter with me? Leon, I love you!

Leon.--Oh, my dearest! (He presses her to his breast. A moment of
silence.)

Jadwiga.--I have found you. I loved you always. Ah! how miserable
I was without you! With love for you I defended myself from all
temptations. You do not know it, but I used to see you. It caused me
grief and joy. I could not live any longer without you, and I asked
you to come--I did it purposely. If you had not come, something
dreadful would have happened. Now we shall never separate. We shall
never be angry--is it not so? (A moment of silence.)

Leon (as though awakening from slumber).--Madam, you must pardon me--I
mistook the present for the past, and permitted myself to be carried
away by an illusion. Pardon me!

Jadwiga.--Leon, what do you mean?

Leon (earnestly).--I forgot for a moment that you are the wife of
another.

Jadwiga.--Oh, you are always honest and loyal. No, there shall be no
guilty love between us. I know you, my great, my noble Leon. The hand
which I stretch out to you is pure--I swear it to you. You must also
forgive me a moment of forgetfulness. Here I stand before you, and
say to you: I will not be yours until I am free. But I