COUNT Tut, tut! Received, you say...? Did you believe perhaps ... I'm something of a philosopher myself, after all.... And you call yourself a friend of mine! PRINCE Not a soul has known it--not a single soul in the whole world. COUNT But you might have told me. Really, I don't see how you could.... Come now, it wasn't quite nice. PRINCE I wanted to wait and see how the boy developed. You never can tell.... COUNT Of course, with a mixed pedigree like that.... But you seem reassured now? PRINCE Oh, yes, he's a fine fellow. COUNT (_embracing him again_) And where has he been living until now? PRINCE His earliest years were spent a good way from Vienna--in the Tirol. COUNT With peasants? PRINCE No, with a small landowner. Then he went to school for some time at Innsbruck. And during the last few years I have been sending him to the preparatory school at Krems.[4] [4] Innsbruck is the capital of the province of Tirol. Krems is a small city on the Donau, not so very far from Vienna, having a fine high school or "gymnasium." The idea is, of course, that as the boy grew up, his father became more and more interested and wanted to have him within easier reach. COUNT And you have seen him frequently? PRINCE Of course. COUNT And what's _his_ idea of it anyhow? PRINCE Up to a few days ago he thought that he had lost both his parents--his father as well--and that I was a friend of his dead father. MIZZIE (_appearing on the balcony_) Good morning, Prince Egon. PRINCE Good morning, Mizzie. COUNT Well, won't you come down a while? MIZZIE Oh, if I am not in the way.... (_She disappears_) COUNT And what are we going to say to Mizzie? PRINCE I prefer to leave that to you, of course. But as I am adopting the boy anyhow, and as a special decree by His Majesty will probably enable him to assume my name in a few days ... COUNT (_surprised_) What? PRINCE ... I think it would be wiser to tell Mizzie the truth at once. COUNT Certainly, certainly--and why shouldn't we? Seeing that you are adopting him.... It's really funny--but, you see, a daughter, even when she gets to be an old maid, is nothing but a little girl to her father. MIZZIE (_appears; she is thirty-seven, but still very attractive; wears a Florentine straw hat and a white dress; she gives the Count a kiss before holding out her hand to the Prince_) Well, how do you do, Prince Egon? We don't see much of you these days. PRINCE Thank you.--Have you been very industrious? MIZZIE Painting a few flowers. COUNT Why so modest, Mizzie? (_To the Prince_) Professor Windhofer told her recently that she could safely exhibit. Won't have to fear comparison with Mrs. Wisinger-Florian herself.[5]