"Yes, but the incapability, I think, lies more in the friendship than in you. Whatever you love at all, you love indivisibly; for instance, a sweetheart or a baby. With you even a sisterly relation would assume this character." "You are right there." "For you friendship is too many-sided and one-sided. It has to be absolutely spiritual and have definite, fixed bounds. This boundedness would, only in a more refined way, be just as fatal to your character as would sheer sensuality without love. For society, on the other hand, it is too serious, too profound, too holy." "Cannot people, then, talk with each other regardless of whether they are men or women?" "That might make society rather serious. At best, it might form an interesting club. You understand what I mean: it would be a great gain, if people could talk freely, and were neither too wild nor yet too stiff. The finest and best part would always be lacking--that which is everywhere the spirit and soul of good society--namely, that playing with love and that love of play which, without the finer sense, easily degenerates into jocosity. And for that reason I defend the ambiguities too." "Do you do that in play or by way of joke?" "No! No! I do it in all seriousness." "But surely not as seriously and solemnly as Pauline and her lover?" "Heaven forbid! I really believe they would ring the church-bell when they embrace each other, if it were only proper. Oh, it is true, my friend, man is naturally a serious animal. We must work against this shameful and abominable propensity with all our strength, and attack it from all sides. To that end ambiguities are also good, except that they are so seldom ambiguous. When they are not and allow only one interpretation, that is not immoral, it is only obtrusive and vulgar. Frivolous talk must be spiritual and dainty and modest, so far as possible; for the rest as wicked as you choose." "That is well enough, but what place have your ambiguities in society?" "To keep the conversations fresh, just as salt keeps food fresh. The question is not _why_ we say them, but _how_ we say them. It would be rude indeed to talk with a charming lady as if she were a sexless Amphibium. It is a duty and an obligation to allude constantly to what she is and is going to be. It is really a comical situation, considering how indelicate, stiff and guilty society is, to be an innocent girl." "That reminds me of the famous Buffo, who, while he was always making others laugh, was so sad and solemn himself." "Society is a chaos which can be brought into harmonious order only by wit. If one does not jest and toy with the elements of passion, it forms thick masses and darkens everything." "Then there must be passion in the air here, for it is almost dark." "Surely you have closed your eyes, lady of my heart! Otherwise the light in them would brighten the whole room." "I wonder, Julius, who is the more passionate, you or I?"