(The TEMPTER conies in, holding a letter in his hand.)

TEMPTER. Here's a letter. It's for you. (The WOMAN takes it, reads
it and falls into a chair.) A farewell note! Oh, well! All
beginnings are hard--in love affairs. And those who lack the
patience to surmount initial difficulties--lose the golden fruit.
Pages are always impatient. Unknown youth, have you had enough?

STRANGER (rising and picking up his hat). My poor Anna!

WOMAN. Don't leave me.

STRANGER. I must.

WOMAN. Don't go. You were the best of them all.

TEMPTER. Do you want to begin again from the beginning? That would
be a sure way to make an end of this. For if lovers only find one
another, they lose one another! What is love? Say something witty,
each one of you, before we part.

WOMAN. I don't know what it is. The highest and the loveliest of
things, that has to sink to the lowest and the ugliest.

STRANGER. A caricature of godly love.

TEMPTER. An annual plant, that blossoms during the engagement, goes
to seed in marriage and then sinks to the earth to wither and die.