l living then. I met her by chance one morning when she was
dressing. Dr. Goll had been called for a consultation. Her
hair-dresser had read my first poem, that I'd had printed in
"Society": "Follow thy pack far over the mountains; it will return
again, covered with sweat and dust--"

SCHIGOLCH. Oh, ya!

ALVA. And then she came, in rose-colored muslin, with nothing under
it but a white satin slip--for the Spanish ambassador's ball. Dr.
Goll seemed to feel his death near. He asked me to dance with her, so
she shouldn't cause any mad acts. Papa meanwhile never turned his
eyes from us, and all thru the waltz she was looking over my
shoulder, only at him.... Afterwards she shot him. It is
unbelievable.

SCHIGOLCH. I've only got a very strong doubt whether anyone will bite
any more.

ALVA. I shouldn't like to advise it to anybody! (_Schigolch grunts._)
At that time, tho she was a fully developed woman, she had the
expression of a five-year-old, joyous, utterly healthy child. And she
was only three years younger than me then--but how long ago it is
now! For all her immense superiority in matters of practical life,
she let me explain "Tristan and Isolde" to her--and how entrancingly
she could listen! Out of the little sister who at her marriage still
felt like a school-girl, came the unhappy, hysterical artist's wife.
Out of the artist's wife came then the spouse of my blessed father,
and out of *her* came, then, my mistress. Well, so that is the way of
the world. Who will prevail against it?

SCHIGOLCH. If only she doesn't skid away from the gentlemen with
honorable intentions and bring us up instead some vagabond she's
exchanged her heart's secrets with.

ALVA. I kissed her for the first time in her rustling bridal dress.
But afterwards she didn't remember it.... All the same, I believe she
had thought of me even in my father's arms. It can't have been often
with him: he had his best time behind him, and she deceived him with
coachman and boot-black; but when she did give herself to him, then
_I_ stood before her soul. Thru that, too, without my realizing it,
she attained this dreadful power over me.

SCHIGOLCH. There they are! (_Heavy steps are heard mounting the
stairs._)

ALVA. (_Starting up._) I will not endure it! I'll throw the fellow
out!

SCHIGOLCH. (_Wearily picks himself up, takes Alva by the collar and
cuffs him toward the left._) Forward, forward! How is the young man
to confess his trouble to her w