Really, I haven't got much sympathy for it myself. But the material side of the question has to be considered a little, too. I have been spending too much these last years, and it has to be evened up somehow. Probably I'll settle down again later on. Sometime one must get back to peace and work, I suppose.--Well, how goes it with you? What are our friends and acquaintances doing? SALA So you haven't seen anybody yet? JULIAN Not one. And you are the only one I have written about my being here. SALA And you have not yet called on the Wegrats? JULIAN No. I even hesitate to go there. SALA Why? JULIAN After a certain age it would perhaps be better never to put your foot in any place where your earlier years were spent. It is so rare to find things and people the same as when you left them. Isn't that so?--Mrs. Gabrielle is said to have changed considerably in the course of her sickness. That's what Felix told me at least. I should prefer not to see her again. Oh, you can understand that, Sala. SALA (_rather surprised_) Of course, I understand. How long is it you have had no news from Vienna? JULIAN I have constantly started ahead of my mail. Not a single letter has overtaken me during the last fortnight. (_Alarmed_) What has happened? SALA Mrs. Gabrielle died a week ago. JULIAN Oh! (_He is deeply moved; for a while he walks back and forth; then he resumes his seat and says after a pause_) Of course, it was to be expected, and yet.... SALA Her death came easily.... You know how those left behind always pretend to know such things with certainty. Anyhow, she fell asleep quietly one night and never woke up again. JULIAN (_in low voice_) Poor Gabrielle!--Did you see anything of her toward the end? SALA Yes, I went there almost daily. JULIAN Oh, did you? SALA Johanna asked me. She was literally afraid of being alone with her mother. JULIAN Afraid? SALA The sick woman inspired her with a sort of horror. She has calmed down a little now. JULIAN What a strange creature.... And how does our friend, the professor, bear up under his loss? Resigned to the will of God, I suppose? SALA My dear Julian, the man has a position. I fear we cannot grasp that, we who are Gods by the grace of the moment--and also less than men at times. JULIAN Of course, Felix is not here? SALA I talked with him less than an hour ago, and informed him that you were here. It made him very happy to have you call on him in Salzburg. JULIAN It looked so to me. And he did me a lot of good. For that matter, I have really thought of settling down in Salzburg. SALA For ever? JULIAN For a while. On account of Felix, too. His unspoiled nature affects me very pleasantly--it makes me actually feel younger. Were he not my son, I might almost envy him--and not on account of his youth alone. (_With a smile_) Thus there is nothing left for me but to love him. I must say that I feel a little ashamed at having to do it incognito, so to speak. SALA