ZORAYA. Sleep! I want you to!
[Joana falls asleep with her head resting on Zoraya's shoulder.]
FATOUM. (In a low voice) Is she asleep?
ZORAYA. It is a sleep like that in which she walks at night.
FATOUM. Joana!--Señorita!--My child!
[Joana does not move.]
ZORAYA. She does not hear your voice!--Does she also speak of taking
the veil?
FATOUM. Ah, God!--It is her only dream. But she is her father's only
child. He will not consent to it and is obliging her to marry, which
makes her disconsolate.
ZORAYA. Does she object to the marriage, or to the man who is to be
her husband? (Calling) Joana! (Joana moves. Zoraya continues.)
Answer!--Do you feel tenderly for him whom you are to marry?
JOANA. (Feebly) I do not love him.
ZORAYA. Then, it is a feeling of aversion?
JOANA. No! (Sadly) I do not want to marry!--I want to be a nun.
FATOUM. Do you hear that!--To me, to her father, to the abbess and to
the sisters at Mercy--she has nothing to say but: "I want to be a
nun." Do you think that they have encouraged her with that idea in
the convent and pictured marriage as something frightful? She is
afraid that she will fall into one of those sleep-walking dreams
tonight, which would cause a scandal!
ZORAYA. Perhaps marriage would cure this malady.