[Coldly to MAIA.] So you, too, have been all night on the mountain,—as we have?
I have been hunting—yes. You gave me permission, you know.
[Pointing downward.] Have you come up that path there?
As you saw.
And the strange lady too?
Yes, of course. [With a glance at MAIA.] Henceforth the strange lady and I do not intend our ways to part.
Don't you know, then, that it is a deadly dangerous way you have come?
We thought we would try it, nevertheless. For it did not seem particularly hard at first.
No, at first nothing seems hard. But presently you may come to a tight place where you can neither get forward nor back. And then you stick fast, Professor! Mountain-fast, as we hunters call it.
[Smiles and looks at him.] Am I to take these as oracular utterances, Mr. Ulfheim?