No More Learning

Have you heard the new sensation? The two Americans
are going about the streets in company with Dina Dorf.
The town is all excitement about it.

BERNICK (_looking out into the street_): They are
coming here. We must be sure to treat them well.
They will soon be away again.

[JOHAN _and_ LONA _enter. Presently all disperse into
the garden, and_ BERNICK _goes up to_ JOHAN.

BERNICK: Now we are alone, Johan, I must thank
you. For to you I owe home, happiness, position, and
all that I have and am. Not one in ten thousand would
have done all that you then did for me. I was the guilty
one. On the night when that drunken wretch came home
it was for Betty's sake that I broke off the entanglement
with Madame Dorf; but still, that you should act in such
a noble spirit of self-sacrifice as to turn appearances
against yourself, and go away, can never be forgotten
by me.

JOHAN: Oh, well, we were both young and thoughtless.
I was an orphan, alone and free, and was glad to get
away from office drudgery.
You had your old mother
alive, and you had just engaged yourself to Betty, who
was very fond of you. We agreed that you must be
saved, and I was proud to be your friend. You had
come back like a prince from abroad, and chose me for
your closest friend. Now I know why. You were
making love to Betty. But I was proud of it.

BERNICK: Are you going back to your American
farm? Not soon, I hope.

JOHAN: As soon as possible. I only came over to
please Lona. She felt homesick. You can never think
what she has been to me. You never could tolerate her,
but to me she has been a mother, singing, lecturing, writing
to support me when I was ill and could not work.
And I may as well tell you frankly that I have told her
all. But do not fear her. She will say nothing.