Maia.
No, I have seen it for long.
Professor Rubek.
[Shrugging his shoulders.] One doesn't grow younger. One doesn't grow younger, Frau Maia.
Maia.
It's not that sort of ugliness that I mean at all. But there has come to be such an expression of fatigue, of utter weariness, in your eyes—when you deign, once in a while, to cast a glance at me.
Professor Rubek.
Have you noticed that?
Maia.
[Nods.] Little by little this evil look has come into your eyes. It seems almost as though you were nursing some dark plot against me.
Professor Rubek.
Indeed? [In a friendly but earnest tone.] Come here and sit beside me, Maia; and let us talk a little.
Maia.
[Half rising.] Then will you let me sit upon your knee? As I used to in the early days?
Professor Rubek.
No, you mustn't—people can see us from the hotel. [Moves a little.] But you can sit here on the bench—at my side.
