be for the better. And it must and shall come to
good.

RITA. [With an outburst.] You have had some adventure on your journey!
Don't deny it! I can see it in your face!

ALLMERS. [Shaking his head.] No adventure in the world--outwardly at
least. But--

RITA. [Eagerly.] But--?

ALLMERS. It is true that within me there has been something of a
revolution.

RITA. Oh Heavens--!

ALLMERS. [Soothingly, patting her hand.] Only for the better, my dear
Rita. You may be perfectly certain of that.

RITA. [Seats herself on the sofa.] You must tell us all about it, at
once--tell us everything!

ALLMERS. [Turning to ASTA.] Yes, let us sit down, too, Asta. Then I will
try to tell you as well as I can.

[He seats himself on the sofa at RITA's side. ASTA moves a chair
forward, and places herself near him.]

RITA. [Looking at him expectantly.] Well--?

ALLMERS. [Gazing straight before him.] When I look back over my
life--and my fortunes--for the last ten or eleven years, it seems to me
almost like a fairy-tale or a dream. Don't you think so too, Asta?

ASTA. Yes, in many ways I think so.

ALLMERS. [Continuing.] When I remember what we two used to be, Asta--we
two poor orphan children--

RITA. [Impatiently.] Oh, that is such an old, old story.

ALLMERS. [Not listening to her.] And now here I am in comfort and
luxury. I have been able to follow my vocation. I have been able to work
and study--just as I had always longed to. [Holds out his hand.] And all
this great--this fabulous good fortune we owe to you, my dearest Rita.

RITA. [Half playfully, half angrily, slaps his hand.] Oh, I do wish you
would stop talking like that.

ALLMERS. I speak of it only as a sort of introduction.

RITA. Then do skip the introduction!

ALLMERS. Rita,--you must not think it was the doctor's advice that drove
me up to the mountains.

ASTA. Was it not, Alfred?

RITA. What was it, then?

ALLMERS. It was this: I found there was no more peace for me, there in
my study.

RITA. No peace! Why, who disturbed you?

ALLMERS. [Shaking his head.] No one from without. But I felt as though
I were positively abusing--or, say rather, wasting--my best
powers--frittering away the time.

ASTA. [With wide eyes.] When you were writing at your book?

ALLMERS. [Nodding.] For I cannot think that my powers are confined to
that alone. I must surely have it in me to do one or two other things as
well.

RITA. Was that what you sat there brooding over