PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Not by a hairsbreadth has all that has passed in the interval lowered
you in my eyes.


IRENE.

[With head erect.] Nor in my own!


PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Well, what then! Then we are free--and there is still time for us to
live our life, Irene.


IRENE.

[Looks sadly at him.] The desire for life is dead in me, Arnold. Now
I have arisen. And I look for you. And I find you.--And then I see
that you and life lie dead--as I have lain.


PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Oh, how utterly you are astray! Both in us and around us life is
fermenting and throbbing as fiercely as ever!