Fanny. Put all your bundles aside.
Hindes [hesitates for a moment, then puts down his books and packages].
Fanny [as if in embarrassment]. Everything.... Everything....
Hindes [bluntly]. Don't be ashamed. Say just what you mean: Lay aside the crutch, too.
[He lays aside the crutch.]
Fanny [arises, takes his hand]. Hindes, you know my attitude toward you. You know how highly I esteem you, how happy I've always been to possess in you a good, true friend.... [Nestles her head against him, coyly.] Embrace me, and give me a kiss, a hot, passionate kiss. Put into it your whole love, make it express your whole true soul. [Brokenly, and in tears.] I tell you, our life will be—happy. We souls, forgotten by happiness, will yet find it—in our own way—as best we can. [Less tearfully.] You'll see how it'll soon be. Lizzie will come home and she'll play us a march of jubilation, a march of joy.... [Brokenly.] She owes it to me!... I'll dance, I tell you; I'll dance for two. You'll see. And I'll sing. I'll turn things upside down. Hindes, kiss me, hotly, hotly.
Hindes [passionately, through tears]. You.... You....
[He gives her a long kiss, as if entranced.]
[Slow Curtain.]