AGNES. [In a low voice.] Rest and pleasure—
LUCAS. We'll remain abroad. One can live unobserved abroad, without actually hiding. [She rises slowly.] We'll find an ideal retreat. No more English tourists prying around us! And there, in some beautiful spot, alone except for your company, I'll work! [As he paces the room, she walks slowly to and fro, listening, staring before her.] I'll work. My new career! I'll write under a nom de plume. My books, Agnes, shall never ride to popularity on the back of a scandal. Our life! The mornings I must spend by myself, of course, shut up in my room. In the afternoon we will walk together. After dinner you shall hear what I've written in the morning; and then a few turns round our pretty garden, a glance at the stars with my arms round your waist—[she stops abruptly, a look of horror on her face]—while you whisper to me words of tenderness, words of—[There is the distant sound of music from mandolin and guitar.] Ah! [To AGNES.] Keep your shawl over your shoulders. [Opening the window, and stepping out; the music becoming louder.] Some mandolinisti in a gondola. [Listening at the window, his head turned from her.] How pretty, Agnes! Now, don't those mere sounds, in such surroundings, give you a sensation of hatred for revolt and turmoil! Don't they conjure up alluringly pictures of peace and pleasure, of golden days and star-lit nights—pictures of beauty and love?
AGNES. [Sitting on the settee, staring before her, speaking to herself.] My marriage—the early days of my marriage—all over again!
LUCAS. [Turning to her.] Eh? [Closing the window and coming to her, as the music dies away.] Tell me that those sounds thrill you.
AGNES. Lucas—
LUCAS. [Sitting beside her.] Yes?
AGNES. For the first few months of my marriage—[Breaking off abruptly and looking into his face wonderingly.] Why, how young you seem to have become; you look quite boyish!
LUCAS. [Laughing.] I believe that this return of our senses will make us both young again.
AGNES. Both? [With a little shudder.] You know, I'm older than you.
LUCAS. Tsch!