I wanted to
change her. ...
MOTHER. And remake her in your image? (Laughing.) I've been told
that country wizards carve images of their victims, and give them
the names of those they'd bewitch. That was your plan: by means of
this Eve, that you yourself had made, you intended to destroy the
whole Sex!
STRANGER (looking at the MOTHER in surprise). Those were damnable
words! Forgive me. But you have religious beliefs: how can you
think such things?
MOTHER. The thoughts were yours.
STRANGER. This begins to be interesting. I imagined an idyll in the
forest, but this is a witches' cauldron.
MOTHER. Not quite. You've forgotten, or never knew, that a man
deserted me shamefully, and that you're a man who also shamefully
deserted a woman.
STRANGER. Frank words. Now I know where I am.
MOTHER. I'd like to know where I am. Can you support two families?
STRANGER. If all goes well.
MOTHER. All doesn't--in this life. Money can be lost.
STRANGER. But my talent's capital I can never lose.
MOTHER. Really? The greatest of talents has been known to fail ...
gradually, or suddenly.
STRANGER. I've never met anyone who could so damp one's courage.
MOTHER. Pride should be damped. Your last book was much weaker.
STRANGER. You read it?
MOTHER. Yes. That's why I know all your secrets. So don't try to
deceive me; it won't go well with you. (Pause.) A trifle, but one
that does us no good here: why didn't you pay the ferryman?
STRANGER.
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