Why to me in particular...? What you call contempt, madam--supposing I did feel anything like it--would, after all, be nothing but disguised envy. Or do you think I lack the desire to conduct my life as I see most other people conducting theirs? I simply haven't the knack. If I am to be frank, madam--the deepest yearning of all within me is just to be a rogue: a fellow who can dissemble, seduce, sneer, make his way over dead bodies. But thanks to a certain shortcoming in my temperament, I am condemned to remain a decent man--and what is still more painful perhaps: to hear everybody say that I am one. MRS. WEGRAT (_who has been listening with a smile_) I wonder whether you have told the truth about what is keeping you here in Vienna? REUMANN Certainly. Indeed, I have no other reason. I have no right to have any other. Don't let us talk any more of it. MRS. WEGRAT Are we not such good friends that I can talk calmly with you of everything? I know what you have in mind. But I believe that it might be in your power to drive certain illusions and dreams out of the soul of a young girl. And it would be such a comfort to me if I could leave you for good among these people, all of whom are so near to me, and who yet know nothing whatever about each other--who are hardly aware of their mutual relationships even, and who seem fated to flitter away from each other to God knows where. REUMANN We'll talk of those things, madam, when it's time to do so. MRS. WEGRAT Of course, I regret nothing. I believe I have never regretted anything. But I have a feeling that something is out of order. Perhaps it's nothing but that strange glimmer in the eyes of Felix which has caused all this unrest within me. But isn't it peculiar--uncanny almost--to think that a man like him may go through the world with all his senses open and yet never know whom he has to thank for being in the world? REUMANN Don't let us indulge in generalities, Mrs. Wegrat. In that way you can set the most solid things shaking and swaying until the steadiest eyes begin to grow dizzy. My own conclusion is this: that a lie which has proved strong enough to sustain the peace of a household can be no less respectable than a truth which could do nothing but destroy the image of the past, fill the present with sorrow, and confuse the vision of the future. (_He goes out with Mrs. Wegrat_) JOHANNA (_entering with Sala_) In this way one always gets back to the same spot. I suppose your garden is bigger, Mr. von Sala? SALA My garden is the whole wide woods--that is, for people whose fancy is not restrained by a light fence. JOHANNA Your villa has grown very pretty. SALA Oh, you know it then? JOHANNA A little while ago I saw it again for the first time in three years. SALA But three years ago they hadn't put in the foundations yet. JOHANNA To me it was already standing there. SALA How mysterious.... JOHANNA