[PRIMUS and HELENA, Robots, enter from the hallway.]

HELENA. The man has fallen asleep, Primus.

PRIMUS. Yes, I know. (Examining things on table.) Look, Helena.

HELENA (crossing to PRIMUS). All these little tubes! What does he do with them?

PRIMUS. He experiments. Don't touch them.

HELENA (looking into microscope). I've seen him looking into this. What can he see?

PRIMUS. That is a microscope. Let me look.

HELENA. Be very careful. (Knocks over a test tube.) Ah, now I have spilled it.

PRIMUS. What have you done?

HELENA. It can be wiped up.

PRIMUS. You have spoiled his experiments.

HELENA. It is your fault. You should not have come to me.

PRIMUS. You should not have called me.

HELENA. You should not have come when I called you. (She goes to ALQUIST'S writing desk.) Look, Primus. What are all these figures?

PRIMUS (examining an anatomical book). This is the book the old man is always reading.

HELENA. I do not understand those things. (She goes to window.) Primus, look!

PRIMUS. What?

HELENA. The sun is rising.

PRIMUS. (still reading the book). I believe this is the most important thing in the world. This is the secret of life.

HELENA. Do come here.

PRIMUS. In a moment, in a moment.

HELENA. Oh, Primus, don't bother with the secret of life. What does it matter to you? Come and look quick--

PRIMUS (going to window). What is it?

HELENA. See how beautiful the sun is, rising. And do you hear? The birds are singing. Ah, Primus, I should like to be a bird.

PRIMUS. Why?

HELENA. I do not know. I feel so strange today. It's as if I were in a dream. I feel an aching in my body, in my heart, all over me. Primus, perhaps I'm going to die.

PRIMUS. Do you not sometimes feel that it would be better to die? You know, perhaps even now we are only sleeping. Last night in my sleep I again spoke to you.

HELENA. In your sleep?

PRIMUS. Yes. We spoke a strange new language, I cannot remember a word of it.

HELENA. What about?

PRIMUS. I did not understand it myself, and yet I know I have never said anything more beautiful. And when I touched you I could have died. Even the place was different from any other place in the world.

HELENA. I, too, have found a place, Primus. It is very strange. Human beings lived there once, but now it is overgrown with weeds. No one goes there any more-- no one but me.

PRIMUS. What did you find there?

HELENA. A cottage and a garden, and two dogs. They licked my hands, Primus. And their puppies! Oh, Primus! You take them in your lap and fondle them and think of nothing and care for nothing else all day long. And then the sun goes down, and you feel as though you had done a hundred times more than all the work in the world. They tell me I am not made for work, but when I am there in the garden I feel there may be something--What am I for, Primus?

PRIMUS. I do not know, but you are beautiful.

HELENA. What, Primus?

PRIMUS. You are beautiful, Helena, and I am stronger than all the Robots.

HELENA (looks at herself in the mirror). Am I beautiful? I think it must be the rose. My hair-- it only weights me down. My eyes-- I only see with them. My lips-- they only help me to speak. Of what use is it to be beautiful? (She sees PRIMUS in the mirror.) Primus, is that you? Come here so that we may be together. Look, your head is different from mine. So are your shoulders-- and your lips--(Primus draws away from her.) Ah, Primus, why do you draw away from me? Why must I run after you the whole day?

PRIMUS. It is you who run away from me, Helena.

HELENA. Your hair is mussed. I will smooth it. No one else feels to my touch as you do. Primus, I must make you beautiful, too. (PRIMUS grasps her hand.)

PRIMUS. Do you not sometimes feel your heart beating suddenly, Helena, and think: now something must happen?

HELENA. What could happen to us, Primus? (HELENA puts a rose in PRIMUS'S hair. PRIMUS and HELENA look into mirror and burst out laughing) Look at yourself.

ALQUIST. Laughter? Laughter? Human beings? (Getting up.) Who has returned? Who are you?

PRIMUS. The Robot Primus.

ALQUIST. What? A Robot? Who are you?

HELENA. The Robotess Helena.

ALQUIST. Turn around, girl. What? You are timid, shy? (Taking her by the arm.) Let me see you, Robotess. (She shrinks away.)

PRIMUS. Sir, do not frighten her!

ALQUIST. What? You would protect her? When was she made?

PRIMUS. Two years ago.

ALQUIST. By Dr. Gall?

PRIMUS. Yes, like me.

ALQUIST. Laughter-- timidity-- protection. I must test you further-- the newest of Gall's Robots. Take the girl into the dissecting room.

PRIMUS. Why?

ALQUIST. I wish to experiment on her.

PRIMUS. Upon-- Helena?

ALQUIST. Of course. Don't you hear me? Or must I call someone else to take her in?

PRIMUS. If you do I will kill you!

ALQUIST. Kill me-- kill me then! What would the Robots do then? What will your future be then?

PRIMUS. Sir, take me. I am made as she is-- on the same day! Take my life, sir.

HELENA (rushing forward). No, no, you shall not! You shall not!

ALQUIST. Wait, girl, wait! (To PRIMUS.) Do you not wish to live, then?

PRIMUS. Not without her! I will not live without her.

ALQUIST. Very well; you shall take her place.

HELENA. Primus! Primus! (She bursts into tears.)

ALQUIST. Child, child, you can weep! Why these tears? What is Primus to you? One Primus more or less in the world-- what does it matter?

HELENA. I will go myself.

ALQUIST. Where?

HELENA. In there to be cut. (She starts toward the dissecting room. PRIMUS stops her.) Let me pass, Primus! Let me pass!

PRIMUS. You shall not go in there, Helena!

HELENA. If you go in there and I do not, I will kill myself.

PRIMUS (holding her). I will not let you! (To ALQUIST.) Man, you shall kill neither of us!

ALQUIST. Why?

PRIMUS. We-- we-- belong to each other

ALQUIST (almost in tears). Go, Adam; go, Eve. The world is yours.

[HELENA and PRIMUS embrace and go out arm in arm as the curtain falls.]