JULIA. [With modesty and true womanly feeling] Miss?  Call me Julia. 
Between us there can be no barriers here after.  Call me Julia!

JEAN. [Disturbed] I cannot!  There will be barriers between us as long as we stay in this house—­there is the past, and there is the count—–­and I have never met another person for whom I felt such respect.  If I only catch sight of his gloves on a chair I feel small.  If I only hear that bell up there, I jump like a shy horse.  And even now, when I see his boots standing there so stiff and perky, it is as if something made my back bend. [Kicking at the boots] It’s nothing but superstition and tradition hammered into us from childhood—­but it can be as easily forgotten again.  Let us only get to another country, where they have a republic, and you’ll see them bend their backs double before my liveried porter.  You see, backs have to be bent, but not mine.  I wasn’t born to that kind of thing.  There’s better stuff in me—­character—­and if I only get hold of the first branch, you’ll see me do some climbing.  To-day I am a valet, but next year I’ll be a hotel owner.  In ten years I can live on the money I have made, and then I’ll go to Roumania and get myself an order.  And I may—­note well that I say may—­end my days as a count.

JULIA.  Splendid, splendid!

JEAN.  Yes, in Roumania the title of count can be had for cash, and so you’ll be a countess after all.  My countess!

JULIA.  What do I care about all I now cast behind me!  Tell me that you love me:  otherwise—­yes, what am I otherwise?

JEAN.  I will tell you so a thousand times—­later.  But not here.  And above all, no sentimentality, or everything will be lost.  We must look at the matter in cold blood, like sensible people. [Takes out a cigar, cuts of the point, and lights it] Sit down there now, and I’ll sit here, and then we’ll talk as if nothing had happened.

JULIA. [In despair] Good Lord!  Have you then no feelings at all?

JEAN.  I?  No one is more full of feeling than I am.  But I know how to control myself.

JULIA.  A while ago you kissed my shoe—­and now!

JEAN. [Severely] Yes, that was then.  Now we have other things to think of.

JULIA.  Don’t speak harshly to me!

JEAN.  No, but sensibly.  One folly has been committed—­don’t let us commit any more!  The count may be here at any moment, and before he comes our fate must be settled.  What do you think of my plans for the future?  Do you approve of them?

JULIA.  They seem acceptable, on the whole.  But there is one question:  a big undertaking of that kind will require a big capital have you got it?

JEAN. [Chewing his cigar] I?  Of course!  I have my expert knowledge, my vast experience, my familiarity with several languages.  That’s the very best kind of capital, I should say.

JULIA.  But it won’t buy you a railroad ticket even.