A DRAMATIC EPILOGUE.
PROFESSOR ARNOLD RUBEK, a sculptor.
MRS. MAIA RUBEK, his wife.
THE INSPECTOR at the Baths.
ULFHEIM, a landed proprietor.
A STRANGER LADY.
A SISTER OF MERCY.
Servants, Visitors to the Baths, and Children.
The First Act passes at a bathing establishment on the coast; the Second and Third Acts in the neighbourhood of a health resort, high in the mountains.
ACT FIRST.
[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.
[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—!
[Looks up from his paper.] Well, Maia? What is the matter with you?
Just listen how silent it is here.
[Smiles indulgently.] And you can hear that?
What?