LISA. You have tried in your way—meantime you have made the first plunge of youth, and now you shall be a man! You have looked for happiness in the wrong direction. Don't you want to go out and do good, enlighten your fellow-men, and be useful? For your clear vision can penetrate the perversion and crookedness which one finds in life.
PEHR. And be a great man!
LISA. Great or obscure, it is all one. You shall be useful—you shall be a reformer who leads humanity onward and upward.
PEHR. Yes, a reformer who will be honored and idolized by the people, and whose name will be on everyone's lips.
LISA. Oh, how far you are from the truth, Pehr! You seek greatness only for personal honor; you shall have it and you shall have a new experience.
PEHR. But how? My ring is gone!
LISA. The qualities inherent in that ring are such that it can never be away from its owner.
PEHR. [Looks at his hand.] Ah! See, there it is! Well, then, I want to be a great man—a reformer; but you, Lisa, must follow me.
LISA. Not yet. But I will follow thee at a distance, and when thou dost meet with sorrow and need and the sun of happiness is for thee o'erclouded, then I will be near thee with my weak support. Go thou out into life, see what wrongs are done there; but when 'midst filth and mire thou hast seen how even the flower of beauty thrives, then think on this: Life is made up of both good and bad.