GUSTAV.  You can be quite sure of that.  But don’t get scared afterward, when you watch me dissecting a human soul and laying out its various parts on the table.  They say it is rather hard on a beginner, but once you have seen it done, you never want to miss it.—­And be sure to remember one thing:  not a word about having met me, or having made any new acquaintance whatever while she was away.  Not one word!  And I’ll discover her weak point by myself.  Hush, she has arrived—­she is in her room now.  She’s humming to herself.  That means she is in a rage!—­Now, straight in the back, please!  And sit down on that chair over there, so that she has to sit here—­then I can watch both of you at the same time.

ADOLPH.  It’s only fifteen minutes to dinner—­and no new guests have arrived—­for I haven’t heard the bell ring.  That means we shall be by ourselves—­worse luck!

GUSTAV.  Are you weak?

ADOLPH.  I am nothing at all!—­Yes, I am afraid of what is now coming!  But I cannot keep it from coming!  The stone has been set rolling—­and it was not the first drop of water that started it—­ nor wad it the last one—­but all of them together.

GUSTAV.  Let it roll then—­for peace will come in no other way.  Good-bye for a while now! [Goes out]

(ADOLPH nods back at him.  Until then he has been standing with the photograph in his hand.  Now he tears it up and flings the pieces under the table.  Then he sits down on a chair, pulls nervously at his tie, runs his fingers through his hair, crumples his coat lapel, and so on.)

TEKLA. [Enters, goes straight up to him and gives him a kiss; her manner is friendly, frank, happy, and engaging] Hello, little brother!  How is he getting on?

ADOLPH. [Almost won over; speaking reluctantly and as if in jest] What mischief have you been up to now that makes you come and kiss me?

TEKLA.  I’ll tell you:  I’ve spent an awful lot of money.

ADOLPH.  You have had a good time then?

TEKLA.  Very!  But not exactly at that creche meeting.  That was plain piffle, to tell the truth.—­But what has little brother found to divert himself with while his Pussy was away?

(Her eyes wander around the room as if she were looking for somebody or sniffing something.)

ADOLPH.  I’ve simply been bored.

TEKLA.  And no company at all?

ADOLPH.  Quite by myself.

TEKLA. [Watching him; she sits down on the sofa] Who has been sitting here?  ADOLPH.  Over there?  Nobody.

TEKLA.  That’s funny!  The seat is still warm, and there is a hollow here that looks as if it had been made by an elbow.  Have you had lady callers?

ADOLPH.  I?  You don’t believe it, do you?

TEKLA.  But you blush.  I think little brother is not telling the truth.  Come and tell Pussy now what he has on his conscience.

(Draws him toward herself so that he sinks down with his head resting in her lap.)