Bah! and however bad. I do not like your great men; I am not a world conqueror. I am just like other people, and I expect other people to be just like me. I do not overcrush my fellow creatures. A fool contradicts me, and I submit to the argumentation of that fool! [ADENE _tries to speak, but_ RHEINHARDT _checks him with a gesture_.] A cow charges upon me, and I run myself away from that cow; I do not say, "I, Rheinhardt, am Almighty!" You say this Sir Carlyon is a great man; you will say Steinmetz is a great man---- ADENE. No, I won't, I'll believe anything you like to tell me about Steinmetz. RHEINHARDT. You contradict me flatly when I speak! I tell you Steinmetz is an arrogant man, a rash man, an ingenious man, a clumsy man. You show me what you call his road-making experimentations! I tell you that I behold so many miserable assassinates! If he is a great man, I am a great man myself! _Re-enter_ CARLYON _with_ VERA, _her arm round his waist_, L. ADENE. I am sure you are. RHEINHARDT. Sir, you insult me! CARLYON. Here I am! Will you come too, Rheinhardt? RHEINHARDT. No, I will not! I will talk to my pupil. Go! [_Exeunt_ CARLYON _and_ ADENE _down garden right_. ELIZABETH _appears on the steps, looking after_ CARLYON, _then withdraws again_. RHEINHARDT. So you see I have come. I started so soon as I got your letter. VERA. I am very, very grateful to you. I do so hope I may be wrong. RHEINHARDT. He does not show much sign of it. VERA. He has such self-command. RHEINHARDT. Not at all! He is irritable and contradicts me much. VERA. I had not noticed him irritable. He is sometimes depressed. RHEINHARDT. I tell you he is irritable. You must be careful not to excite him, not to contradict him; bah, let little things pass! [_With a sweep of the hand._ VERA. Then you think from what I have told you that it really is so? RHEINHARDT. How can I say? The evidences are much too small. Have you examined him again? VERA. I managed it again yesterday. I think it's even clearer; of course I can't be sure. RHEINHARDT. You have watched him in daily life? Yes? VERA. Of course. I have a good many notes for you to see. RHEINHARDT. He does not suspect anything? VERA. Nothing. He says he is overworked; but you would never know from himself that he was at all ill. RHEINHARDT. That is right, of course he must not be told. VERA. It has no effect on a glioma, has it? For the patient to know? RHEINHARDT. What do _you_ know about gliomas? What do you know about any tumour on the brain at all? VERA. I only asked. RHEINHARDT. Of course he must not know!---- You say his knowledge does not make the glioma worse. No, but it makes the effects worse! It strikes the man down; it is a moral paralysis, when he knows he has a mortal disease. You say it does not bring death nearer? What do you call it if a man has no spirit left in him, no courage, no interest in life? You say it is not important---- VERA. Please, I never said so.