CURT. But the other two?
ALICE. In the city. They couldn't stay at home. For he set them against me.
CURT. And you set them against him?
ALICE. Of course. And then parties were formed, votes bought, bribes given—and in order not to spoil the children completely we had to part from them. What should have been the uniting link became the seed of dissension; what is held the blessing of the home turned into a curse—well, I believe sometimes that we belong to a cursed race!
CURT. Yes, is it not so—ever since the Fall?
ALICE. [With a venomous glance and sharp voice] What fall?
CURT. That of our first parents.
ALICE. Oh, I thought you meant something else!
[Embarrassed silence.
ALICE. [With folded hands] Curt, my kinsman, my childhood friend—I have not always acted toward you as I should. But now I am being punished, and you are having your revenge.