Perhaps you stand in need of the tuition due you. Sorry, but unfortunately I have the habit of going out with only some small change in my waistcoat pocket. So I must ask you to have patience until I am at home again. SPITTA Not the least hurry in the world. HASSENREUTER Yes, it's easy for you to say that. I'm like a hunted animal, my dear fellow ... SPITTA And yet I would like to beg for a minute of your precious time. I can't but look upon this unexpected meeting as a kind of providential arrangement. In short: may I put a question to you? HASSENREUTER [_With his eyes on his watch, which he has just been winding._] One minute exactly. By the watch, my good fellow! SPITTA Both my question and your answer need hardly take that long. HASSENREUTER Well, then! SPITTA Have I any talent for the stage? HASSENREUTER For the love of God, man! Have you gone mad?--Forgive me, my dear fellow, if a case like this excites me to the point of being discourteous. You have certainly given the lie to the saying: _natura non facit saltus_ by the unnatural leap that you've taken. I must first get my breath after that! And now let's put an end to this at once. Believe me, if we were both to discuss the question now we wouldn't come to any conclusion in two or three weeks, or rather, let us say years.--You are a theologian by profession, my good fellow, and you were born in a parsonage. You have all the necessary connections and a smooth road to a comfortable way of life ahead of you. How did you hit upon such a notion as this? SPITTA That's a long story of the inner life, Mr. Hassenreuter, of difficult spiritual struggles--a story which, until this moment, has been an absolute secret and known only to myself. But my good fortune led me into your house and from that moment on I felt that I was drawing nearer and nearer to the true aim of my life. HASSENREUTER [_Wildly impatient._] That's very creditable to me; that does honour to my family and myself! [_He puts his hands on SPITTA'S shoulders._] And yet I must make it in the form of an urgent request that, at this moment, you refrain from a further discussion of the question. My affairs cannot wait. SPITTA Then I will only add the expression of my absolutely firm decision. HASSENREUTER But, my dear Spitta, who has put these mad notions into year head? I've taken real pleasure in the thought of you. I've really been quietly envying you the peaceful personage that was to be yours. I've attached no special significance to certain literary ambitions that one is likely to pick up in the metropolis. That's a mere phase, I thought, and will be quite passing in his case! And now you want to become an actor? God help you, were I your father! I'd lock you up on bread and water and not let you out again until the very memory of this folly was gone. _Dixi!_ And now, good-bye, my dear man. SPITTA I'm afraid that locking me op or resorting to force of any kind would not help in my case at all.