tax collector will be coming around for the taxes, and he'll seize
everything.

WOMAN. [Snuggles up to him.] Then I want to be at your side to
support you--[seizes his hand and steals ring during following
speeches] and extend to you the hand--

PEHR. [Duped.] You! Can this be true?

WOMAN. True? Look at me!

PEHR. Ah, I have been told that woman is more faithless than man--

WOMAN. She is wiser than man [puts ring on], therefore she is
called faithless. Oh, let me sit, I'm so unstrung! [Pehr leads her
to a chair by the wall.]

PEHR. Compose yourself, my friend; I have only frightened you.

WOMAN. Give me a glass of wine; I feel so faint after all this
commotion.

[Pehr goes over to table; wall back of the chair opens and woman
and chair disappear. Only the hand with ring is seen as she is
heard speaking.]

Ha, ha--schoolboy! Learn from this not to trust a woman whom you
have tricked!

[Alone, Pehr runs to window and looks out, as he draws back his