Oh, a little more or less won't count. Speak out. JULIAN I wanted him at least not to lose faith in me. Can you understand that? After all, he is nearer to me than the rest. Of course, I know--to everybody, even to you, I am one who has gone down, who is finished--one of those whose only talent was his youth. It doesn't bother me very much. But to Felix I want to be the man I was once--just as I still _am_ that man. When he learns sometime that I am his father, he must be proud of it. SALA When he learns it...? JULIAN I have no intention to keep it hidden from him forever. Now, when his mother is dead, less than ever. Last time I talked to him, it became clear to me, not only that it would be right, but that it would almost be a duty, to tell him the truth. He has a mind for essentials. He will understand everything. And I shall have a human being who belongs to me, who knows that he belongs to me, and for whose sake it is worth while to keep on living in this world. I shall live near him, and be with him a good deal. Once more I shall have my existence put on a solid basis, so to speak, and not hung in mid-air, as it is now. And then I shall be able to work again--work as I did once--as when I was a young man. Work, that is what I am going to do--and all of you will turn out to have been wrong--all of you! SALA But to whom has it occurred to doubt you? If you could only have heard us talk of you a little while ago, Julian. Everybody expects that, sooner or later, you--will find yourself again completely. JULIAN Well, that's enough about me, more than enough. Pardon me. Let us hear something about yourself at last. I suppose you have already moved into your new house? SALA Yes. JULIAN And what plans have you for the immediate future? SALA I am thinking of going to Asia with Count Ronsky. JULIAN With Ronsky? Are you going to join that expedition about which so much has been written? SALA Yes. Some such undertaking has been tempting me for a long time. Are you perhaps familiar with the Rolston report on the Bactrian and Median excavations of 1892? JULIAN No. SALA Well, it is positively staggering. Think of it--they suspect that under the refuse and the dust lies a monster city, something like the present London in extent. At that time they made their way into a palace, where the most wonderful paintings were found. These were perfectly preserved in several rooms. And they dug out stairways--built of a marble that is nowhere to be found nowadays. Perhaps it was brought from some island which since then has sunk beneath the sea. Three hundred and twelve steps glittering like opals and leading down into unknown depths.... Unknown because they ceased digging after they had reached the three hundred and twelfth step--God only knows why! I don't think I can tell you how those steps pique my curiosity. JULIAN But it has always been asserted that the Rolston expedition was lost? SALA