It is just after sunset of an August evening. The scene is a
room in a mountain hut, furnished only with a table, benches.
and a low broad window seat. Through this window three rocky
peaks are seen by the light of a moon which is slowly whitening
the last hues of sunset. An oil lamp is burning. SEELCHEN, a
mountain girl, eighteen years old, is humming a folk-song, and
putting away in a cupboard freshly washed soup-bowls and
glasses. She is dressed in a tight-fitting black velvet bodice.
square-cut at the neck and partly filled in with a gay
handkerchief, coloured rose-pink, blue, and golden, like the
alpen-rose, the gentian, and the mountain dandelion; alabaster
beads, pale as edelweiss, are round her throat; her stiffened.
white linen sleeves finish at the elbow; and her full well-worn
skirt is of gentian blue. The two thick plaits of her hair are
crossed, and turned round her head. As she puts away the last
bowl, there is a knock; and LAMOND opens the outer door. He is
young, tanned, and good-looking, dressed like a climber, and
carries a plaid, a ruck-sack, and an ice-axe.
LAMOND [With. a grave bow] At your service, then.
[He prepares to go]
SEELCHEN
Is it very nice in towns, in the World, where you come
from?
LAMOND
When I'm there I would be here; but when I'm here I would be
there.
SEELCHEN [Clasping her hands] That is like me but I am always
here.
LAMOND
Ah! yes; there is no one like you in towns.
SEELCHEN
In two places one cannot be. [Suddenly] In the towns
there are theatres, and there is beautiful fine work, and--dancing,
and--churches--and trains--and all the things in books--and--
He does not answer, but turning out the lamp, goes into an inner
room.
SEELCHEN sits gazing through the window at the peaks bathed in
full moonlight. Then, drawing the blankets about her, she
snuggles doom on the window seat.
SEELCHEN [In a sleepy voice] They kissed me--both. [She sleeps]
