JEAN. The Count--has returned. Think if Kristin has-- [Goes up to speaking tube and listens.]
JEAN [Speaking in the tube]. It is Jean, Excellency. [Listens]. Yes, Excellency. [Listens].Yes, Excellency,--right away--immediately, Excellency. Yes--in half an hour.
JULIE [In great agitation]. What did he say? In Heaven's name, what did he say?
JEAN. He wants his boots and coffee in a half hour.
JULIE. In half an hour then. Oh, I'm so tired--I'm incapable of feeling, not able to be sorry, not able to go, not able to stay, not able to live--not able to die. Help me now. Command me--I will obey like a dog. Do me this last service--save my honor. Save his name. You know what I have the will to do--but cannot do. You will it and command me to execute your will.
JEAN. I don't know why--but now I can't either.--I don't understand myself. It is absolutely as though this coat does it--but I can't command you now. And since the Count spoke to me-- --I can't account for it--but oh, it is that damned servant in my back--I believe if the Count came in here now and told me to cut my throat I would do it on the spot.
JULIE. Make believe you are he--and I you. You could act so well a little while ago when you knelt at my feet. Then you were a nobleman--or haven't you ever been at the theatre and seen the hypnotist--[Jean nods] He says to his subject "Take the broom," and he takes it; he says, "Sweep," and he sweeps.
JULIE [Ecstatically]. I sleep already. The whole room is like smoke before me--and you are like a tall black stove, like a man clad in black clothes with a high hat; and your eyes gleam like the hot coals when the fire is dying; and your face a white spot like fallen ashes. [The sunshine is coming in through the windows and falls on Jean. Julie rubs her hands as though warming them before a fire]. It is so warm and good--and so bright and quiet!
JEAN [Takes razor and puts it in her hand]. There is the broom, go now while it's bright--out to the hay loft--and--[He whispers in her ear.]
JULIE [Rousing herself]. Thanks. And now I go to rest. But tell me this--the foremost may receive the gift of Grace? Say it, even if you don't believe it.
JEAN. The foremost? No, I can't say that. But wait, Miss Julie--you are no longer among the foremost since you are of the lowliest.