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The truth! Everything!

[Reflects.] No, Bertha. I am a man speaking to a man. I cannot tell him everything.

He will believe that you are going away because you are afraid to face him after last night.

[After a pause.] Well, I am not a coward any more than he. I will see him.

[Rises.] I will call him.

[Catching her hands.] Bertha! What happened last night? What is the truth that I am to tell? [He gazes earnestly into her eyes.] Were you mine in that sacred night of love? Or have I dreamed it?

[Smiles faintly .] Remember your dream of me. You dreamed that I was yours last night.

And that is the truth—a dream? That is what I am to tell?

Yes.

[Kisses both her hands.] Bertha! [In a softer voice.] In all my life only that dream is real. I forget the rest. [He kisses her hands again.] And now I can tell him the truth. Call him.