ELEONORA. But no one would believe that I wanted to take anything.
BENJAMIN [Looking hard at her]. They wouldn't?
ELEONORA [Rising]. Ah! I know what you mean! Like father, like child! How thoughtless I have been! Ah! That which must be, must be! [Sits.] It must be so.
BENJAMIN. Couldn't we say that—
ELEONORA. Hush! Let's talk of other things! Poor Elis! Poor all of us! But it is Easter, and we ought to suffer. Isn't there a recital tomorrow? [Benjamin nods his head.] And they give Haydn's Seven Words on the Cross! "Mother, behold thy son!" [She weeps with face in hands.]
BENJAMIN. What kind of illness have you had?
ELEONORA. An illness that is not mortal unless it is God's will! I expected good, and evil came; I expected light, and darkness came. How was your childhood, Benjamin?
BENJAMIN. Oh, I don't know. Kind of tiresome! And yours?
ELEONORA. I never had any. I was born old. I knew everything when I was born, and when I was taught anything it was only like remembering. I knew human weaknesses when I was four years old, and that's why people were horrid to me.
BENJAMIN. Do you know, I, too, seem to have thought everything that you say.