[He hands ASTA the portfolio. She takes it, and lays it on the
chair under her outdoor things. RITA comes into the room again.]

RITA. Ugh! I feel as if that horrible old woman had brought a sort
of graveyard smell with her.

ALLMERS. Yes, she was rather horrible.

RITA. I felt almost sick while she was in the room.

ALLMERS. However, I can very well understand the sort of spellbound
fascination that she talked about. The loneliness of the
mountain-peaks and of the great waste places has something of the
same magic about it.

ASTA. [Looks attentively at him.] What is it that has happened to
you, Alfred?

ALLMERS. [Smiling.] To me?

ASTA. Yes, something has happened--something seems almost to have
transformed you. Rita noticed it too.

RITA. Yes, I saw it the moment you came. A change for the better, I
hope, Alfred?

ALLMERS. It ought to be for the better. And it must and shall come
to good.