JULIA.  Oh, yes, do!  Why—­just for once.

JEAN.  No, really, I cannot do it now.  Another time, perhaps.

JULIA.  Another time is no time.  Is it as bad as that?

JEAN.  It isn’t bad, but it comes a little hard.  Look at that one! [Points to CHRISTINE, who has fallen asleep on a chair by the stove.]

JULIA.  She’ll make a pleasant wife.  And perhaps she snores, too.

JEAN.  No, she doesn’t, but she talks in her sleep.

JULIA. [Cynically] How do you know?

JEAN. [Insolently] I have heard it.

[Pause during which they study each other.]

JULIA.  Why don’t you sit down?

JEAN.  It wouldn’t be proper in your presence.

JULIA.  But if I order you to do it?

JEAN.  Then I obey.

JULIA.  Sit down, then!—­But wait a moment!  Can you give me something to drink first?

JEAN.  I don’t know what we have got in the icebox.  I fear it is nothing but beer.

JULIA.  And you call that nothing?  My taste is so simple that I prefer it to wine.

JEAN. [Takes a bottle of beer from the icebox and opens it; gets a glass and a plate from the cupboard, and serves the beer] Allow me!

JULIA.  Thank you.  Don’t you want some yourself?

JEAN.  I don’t care very much for beer, but if it is a command, of course—­

JULIA.  Command?—­I should think a polite gentleman might keep his lady company.

JEAN.  Yes, that’s the way it should be. [Opens another bottle and takes out a glass.]

JULIA.  Drink my health now!

[JEAN hesitates.]

JULIA.  Are you bashful—­a big, grown-up man?

JEAN. [Kneels with mock solemnity and raises his glass] To the health of my liege lady!

JULIA.  Bravo!—­And now you must also kiss my shoe in order to get it just right.

[JEAN hesitates a moment; then he takes hold of her foot and touches it lightly with his lips.]

JULIA.  Excellent!  You should have been on the stage.

JEAN. [Rising to his feet] This won’t do any longer, Miss Julia. 
Somebody might see us.

JULIA.  What would that matter?

JEAN.  Oh, it would set the people talking—­that’s all!  And if you only knew how their tongues were wagging up there a while ago—–­

JULIA.  What did they have to say?  Tell me—­Sit down now!

JEAN. [Sits down] I don’t want to hurt you, but they were using expressions—­which cast reflections of a kind that—­oh, you know it yourself!  You are not a child, and when a lady is seen alone with a man, drinking—­no matter if he’s only a servant—­and at night—–­then—­

JULIA.  Then what?  And besides, we are not alone.  Isn’t Christine with us?

JEAN.  Yes—­asleep!

JULIA.  Then I’ll wake her. [Rising] Christine, are you asleep?

CHRISTINE. [In her sleep] Blub-blub-blub-blub!