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and kisses her palm . Why do I think you don’t want to catch him, Felix . . . you personally?
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    FELIX, cradles his face in her palm: . . . To tell you the truth I’m not sure anymore what I want.
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    EMILY: . . . Just out of curiosity, you really think my haircut started it?
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    FELIX: Oh yes, absolutely, it went straight to my heart.
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    EMILY: Imagine. And here I was thinking it was too short.
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    FELIX: No—no, it’s perfect! I had one look and it was as though I . . . I was rising from the dead.
    EMILY: . . . Could we talk about that?
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    FELIX: About what, my dear?
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    EMILY: The . . . ah . . . difficulty you have that you’ve been . . . alluding to.
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    FELIX, fear and eager curiosity: What about it?
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    EMILY: . . . Unless you don’t feel . . .
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    FELIX, steeling himself; deeply curious: . . . No—no, of course not, I have no fear!
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    EMILY: Well, what I think, is that you have to seem invulnerable to the world, and so you suppress your feelings.
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    FELIX: I am running a country, Emily, I cannot expose my feelings to . . .
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    EMILY: I know, but that suppression has spread down and down and down . . . Running her finger up his arm and down his chest: until it’s finally clobbered . . . your willy. Quickly . You’re simply going to have to let your feelings out, Felix, is all I’m saying.
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    FELIX, aroused and confused: I am . . . I am . . . I . . . I . . . Disarming himself . . . . must talk to you . . . I can come to New York, I have money there and an apartment . . .
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    EMILY: Why wait? Like if you feel you really don’t wish to pursue this fellow, just don’t do it and see what happens.
    FELIX: Darling, the General Staff would tear me apart, they are hungry lions . . .
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    EMILY, reaches for his hand: Felix dear . . . I don’t know where this is going between us, but I must tell you now—if you go through with this outrage you’ll have to find yourself another girl.—Not that I’m promising anything in any case.
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    FELIX: But what are your feelings toward me? You never speak of them.
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    EMILY: I like a man to be a man, Felix—which you are. And I have enormous curiosity.
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    FELIX: About men.
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    EMILY: Yes. Powerful men, especially . . . to tell the truth.
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    FELIX: About what in particular?
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    EMILY: Well, frankly, for one thing—how they are making love.
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    FELIX: I have never known a woman with such courage to speak her mind.
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    EMILY: One needs it when one is not marvelous to look at.
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    FELIX, kisses her hand: You are more marvelous to look at than . . . than six mountains and a waterfall!
    EMILY: That’s very sweet of you, Felix.—I’d love to walk along the beach. Could we, without all these guards?
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    FELIX: I’m afraid not. But come, we can take a few steps through the garden.
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    They walk together.
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    EMILY: Who exactly would want to kill you, Communists?
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    FELIX: The Party is split on this question. One side thinks somebody worse would replace me if I am eliminated.
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    EMILY: And I suppose the Right Wing people love you . . .
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    FELIX: Not all—some of them think I am not hard enough on the Communists . . . those might take a shot at me too. Then there are the narco-guerillas; with some we have an arrangement, it’s no secret, but there are others who are not happy for various reasons.
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    EMILY: It all seems so utterly, utterly futile. Or do you mind?
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    He halts, holds her hand.
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    FELIX: I mind very much, in these hours since I know you. Very much. You have made me wish that I could live differently.
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    EMILY: Really!
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    FELIX: Emily, I will confess to you—when I imagine myself making love to you, entering into you, I . . . I almost hear a choir.
    EMILY: A choir! Really, Felix, that is beautiful!
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    Felix suddenly turns away, covering his eyes.
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    EMILY: What