Oh, it sounds big! But one doesn't get so very far off--not in any respect. JOHANNA And you have wanted it so badly.... (_Pointing to his uniform_) Now you've got it. And are you not satisfied? FELIX Well, at any rate it is the most sensible thing I have gone into so far. For now I feel at least that I might achieve something under certain circumstances. JOHANNA I believe you would make good in any profession. FELIX I have my doubts whether I could get anywhere as a lawyer or an engineer. And on the whole I feel a good deal better than ever before. Often it seems to me as if I hadn't been born at the right time. I think I should have come into the world while there was still so much of order left in it, that one could venture all sorts of things one couldn't possibly venture nowadays. JOHANNA Oh, but you are free--you've got place to move. FELIX Only within certain limits. JOHANNA They are a great deal wider than these at any rate. FELIX (_looking around with a smile_) Well, this is not a prison.... Really, the garden has turned out quite pretty. How bare it looked when we were children.--What's that? A row of peach trees? That doesn't look bad at all. JOHANNA One of Dr. Reumann's ideas. FELIX Yes, I should have guessed it. JOHANNA Why? FELIX Because I can't believe any member of our family capable of such a useful inspiration. What are his chances anyhow?--I mean in regard to that professorship at Gratz? JOHANNA I don't know anything about it. (_She turns away_) FELIX I suppose mamma is outdoors a good deal these fine days? JOHANNA Yes. FELIX Are you still reading to her? Do you try to divert her a little? To cheer her up? JOHANNA Just as if it were such an easy thing! FELIX But you have to put some spunk into it, Johanna. JOHANNA Yes, Felix, it's easy for you to talk. FELIX What do you mean? JOHANNA (_speaking as if to herself_) I don't know if you'll be able to understand me. FELIX (_smiling_) Why should it all at once be so hard for me to understand you? JOHANNA (_looking calmly at him_) Now when she is sick, I don't love her as much as before. FELIX (_startled_) What? JOHANNA No, it's impossible that you could quite understand. All the time she is getting farther away from us.... It is as if every day a new set of veils dropped down about her. FELIX And what is the meaning of it? JOHANNA (_continues to look at him in the same calm way_) FELIX You think...? JOHANNA You know, Felix, that I never make any mistakes in things of that kind. FELIX I _know_, you say...? JOHANNA When poor little Lillie von Sala had to die, I was aware of it in advance--before the rest of you knew that she was sick even. FELIX Yes, you had had a dream--and you were nothing but a child. JOHANNA I didn't dream it. I knew it. (_Brusquely_) It's something I can't explain. FELIX (_after a pause_) And papa--has he resigned himself to it? JOHANNA