Outside the Bath Hotel. A portion of the main building can be seen to the right. An open, park-like place with a fountain, groups of fine old trees, and shrubbery. To the left, a little pavilion almost covered with ivy and Virginia creeper. A table and chair outside it. At the back a view over the fjord, right out to sea, with headlands and small islands in the distance. It is a calm, warm and sunny summer morning.
Professor Rubek and Mrs. Maia Rubek are sitting in basket chairs beside a covered table on the lawn outside the hotel, having just breakfasted. They have champagne and seltzer-water on the table, and each has a newspaper. Professor Rubek is an elderly man of distinguished appearance, wearing a black velvet jacket, and otherwise in light summer attire. Maia is quite young, with a vivacious expression and lively, mocking eyes, yet with a suggestion of fatigue. She wears an elegant travelling dress.
Maia.
[Sits for some time as though waiting for the Professor to say something, then lets her paper drop with a deep sigh.] Oh dear, dear, dear——!
Professor Rubek.
[Looks up from his paper.] Well, Maia? What is the matter with you?
Maia.
Just listen how silent it is here.
Professor Rubek.
[Smiles indulgently.] And you can hear that?