ALLAN goes out to the right.
ALICE takes a seat on the sofa to the left.
CURT sits down on a chair near her.
ALICE. [In some confusion] He will be here in a moment, so you need not feel embarrassed.
CURT. And why should I?
ALICE. You, with your strictness——
CURT. Toward myself, yes——
ALICE. Of course—Once I forgot myself, when in you I saw the liberator, but you kept your self-control—and for that reason we have a right to forget—what has never been.
CURT. Forget it then!
ALICE. However—I don't think he has forgotten——
CURT. You are thinking of that night when his heart gave out and he fell on the floor—and when you rejoiced too quickly, thinking him already dead?
ALICE. Yes. Since then he has recovered; but when he gave up drinking, he learned to keep silent, and now he is terrible. He is up to something that I cannot make out——