WOMAN. [Coming to.] Alfred! all have forsaken you; but I shall remain with you.
PEHR. Yes, but why should you? I'm as poor as the poorest; soon the tax collector will be coming around for the taxes, and he'll seize everything.
WOMAN. [Snuggles up to him.] Then I want to be at your side to support you—[seizes his hand and steals ring during following speeches] and extend to you the hand—
PEHR. [Duped.] You! Can this be true?
WOMAN. True? Look at me!
PEHR. Ah, I have been told that woman is more faithless than man—
WOMAN. She is wiser than man [puts ring on], therefore she is called faithless. Oh, let me sit, I'm so unstrung! [Pehr leads her to a chair by the wall.]
PEHR. Compose yourself, my friend; I have only frightened you.
WOMAN. Give me a glass of wine; I feel so faint after all this commotion.
[Pehr goes over to table; wall back of the chair opens and woman and chair disappear. Only the hand with ring is seen as she is heard speaking.]