FullReads

[Jean hesitates and then seizes her foot and kisses it lightly.]

JULIE.
Splendid! You should have been an actor.

JEAN
[Rising].

But this mustn’t go any further, Miss Julie. What if someone should come in and see us?

JULIE.
What harm would that do?

JEAN.
Simply that it would give them a chance to gossip. And if Miss Julie only knew how their tongues wagged just now–then–

JULIE.
What did they say? Tell me. And sit down now.

JEAN
[Sitting].

I don’t wish to hurt you, but they used an expression–threw hints of a certain kind–but you are not a child, you can understand. When one sees a lady drinking alone with a man–let alone a servant–at night–then–

JULIE.
Then what? And for that matter, we are not alone. Kristin is here.

JEAN.
Sleeping! Yes.

JULIE.
Then I shall wake her. [Rises]. Kristin, are you asleep?

KRISTIN.
[In her sleep].

Bla–bla–bla–bla.

JULIE.
Kristin! She certainly can sleep. [Goes to Kristin.]

KRISTIN.
[In her sleep].

The Count’s boots are polished–put on the coffee–soon–soon–soon. Oh–h-h-h–puh!

[Breathes heavily. Julie takes her by the nose.]

JULIE.
Won’t you wake up?

JEAN
[Sternly].

Don’t disturb the sleeping.

JULIE
[Sharply].

What?

JEAN.
Anyone who has stood over the hot stove all day long is tired when night comes. One should respect the weary.

JULIE.
That’s a kind thought–and I honor it. [Offers her hand.] Thanks for the suggestion. Come out with me now and pick some syringas.

[Kristin has awakened and goes to her room, right, in a sort of sleep stupified way.]

JEAN.
With Miss Julie?

JULIE.
With me.

JEAN.
But that wouldn’t do–decidedly not.

JULIE.
I don’t understand you. Is it possible that you fancy that I–

JEAN.
No–not I, but people.

JULIE.
What? That I’m in love with my coachman?

JEAN.
I am not presumptuous, but we have seen instances–and with the people nothing is sacred.

JULIE.
I believe he is an aristocrat!

JEAN.
Yes, I am.

JULIE.
But I step down– —

JEAN.
Don’t step down, Miss Julie. Listen to me–no one would believe that you stepped down of your own accord; people always say that one falls down.

JULIE
. I think better of the people than you do. Come–and try them–come!

[Dares him with a look.]

JEAN.
Do you know that you are wonderful?

JULIE.
Perhaps. But you are too. Everything is wonderful for that matter. Life, people–everything. Everything is wreckage, that drifts over the water until it sinks, sinks. I have the same dream every now and then and at this moment I am reminded of it. I find myself seated at the top of a high pillar and I see no possible way to get down. I grow dizzy when I look down, but down I must. But I’m not brave enough to throw myself; I cannot hold fast and I long to fall–but I don’t fall. And yet I can find no rest or peace until I shall come down to earth; and if I came down to earth I would wish myself down in the ground. Have you ever felt like that?

JEAN.
No, I dream that I’m lying in a dark wood under a tall tree and I would up–up to the top, where I can look far over the fair landscape, where the sun is shining. I climb–climb, to plunder the birds’ nests up there where the golden eggs lie, but the tree trunk is so thick, so smooth, and the first limb is so high! But I know if I reached the first limb I should climb as though on a ladder, to the top. I haven’t reached it yet, but I shall reach it, if only in the dream.