The Lonely Way-Intermezzo-Countess Mizzie - BestLightNovel.com
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JULIAN
I hope you will, for the sake of both of us.
SALA
You say that rather distrustingly....
JULIAN
Well, yes--I am thinking of that remarkable article in the Daily Post.
SALA
Concerning what?
JULIAN
What is going on at the Caspian Sea.
SALA
Oh, are the local papers also taking that up?
JULIAN
The conditions in certain regions through which you have to pa.s.s seem really to be extremely dangerous.
SALA
Exaggerations. We have better information than that. According to my opinion there is nothing back of those articles but the petty jealousy of English scientists. What you read had been translated from the Daily News. And it's fully three weeks since it appeared there.--Have you seen Felix, by the way?
JULIAN
He was at my house only last night. And this morning I called on the Wegrats. He wanted to have a look at that picture of his mother which I painted twenty-three years ago.--And one thing and another led to my telling him everything.
SALA
Oh, you did? (_Thoughtfully_) And how did he take it?
JULIAN
It stirred him rather more than I had thought possible.
SALA
Well, I hope you didn't expect him to fall into your arms as the recovered son does in the play.
JULIAN
No, of course not.--I told him everything, without any attempt at sparing myself. And for that reason he seemed to feel the wrong done to his mother's husband more strongly than anything else. But that won't last very long. He'll soon understand that, in the higher sense, no wrong has been done at all. People of Wegrat's type are not made to hold actual possession of anything--whether it be wives or children.
They mean a refuge, a dwelling place--but never a real home. Can you understand what I mean by that? It is their mission to take into their arms creatures who have been worn out or broken to pieces by some kind of pa.s.sion. But they never guess whence such creatures come. And while it is granted them to attract and befriend, they never understand whither those creatures go. They exist for the purpose of sacrificing themselves unconsciously, and in such sacrifices they find a happiness that might seem a pretty poor one to others.... You are not saying a word?
SALA
I am listening.
JULIAN
And have no reply to make?
SALA
Oh, well--it is possible to grind out scales quite smoothly even when the fiddle has got a crack....
[_It is growing darker. Felix appears on the terrace._
SALA
Who is that?
FELIX (_on the terrace_)
It's me. The servant told me ...
SALA
Oh, Felix! Glad you came.
FELIX (_coming down into the garden_)
Good evening, Mr. von Sala.--Good evening, Mr. Fichtner.
JULIAN
Good evening, Felix.
SALA
I am delighted to see you.
FELIX
What magnificent old trees!
SALA
Yes, a piece of real woods--all you have to do is to forget the fence.--What brought you anyhow? I didn't expect you until to-morrow morning. Have you really made up your mind already?
JULIAN
