Well, you stayed away quite a while this time. JULIAN More than two years. WEGRAT If you had only got here ten days earlier, you could have had a last look at her. It came so very suddenly--although it wasn't unexpected. JULIAN So I have heard. WEGRAT And now you are going to stay right here, I suppose? JULIAN A little while. How long I am not yet able to tell. WEGRAT Of course not. The making of schedules has never been your line. JULIAN No, I have a certain disinclination for that kind of thing. (_Pause_) WEGRAT Oh, mercy, my dear fellow ... how often have I not been thinking of you recently! JULIAN And I.... WEGRAT No, you haven't had much chance for it.... But I.... As I enter the building where I now hold office and authority, I remember often how we two young chaps used to sit side by side in the model class, full of a thousand plans and hopes. JULIAN Why do you say that in such a melancholy tone? A lot of those things have come true, haven't they? WEGRAT Some--yes.... And yet one can't help wanting to be young again, even at the risk of similar sorrows and struggles.... JULIAN And even at the risk of also having to live through a lot of nice things over again. WEGRAT Indeed, those are the hardest things to bear, once they have turned into memories.--You have been in Italy again? JULIAN Yes, in Italy too. WEGRAT It's a long time now since I was there. Since we made that walk together through the Ampezzo Valley,[5] with the pack on our backs--to Pieve, and then right on to Venice. Can you remember? The sun has never again shone as brightly as it did then. [5] One of the main routes through the Dolomites, leading from Southern Tirol into Italy. It is in part identical with the route outlined by Albert in "Intermezzo," but parts from it at Cortina to run straight south. JULIAN That must have been almost thirty years ago. WEGRAT No, not quite. You were already pretty well known at the time. You had just finished your splendid picture of Irene Herms. It was the year before I married. JULIAN Yes, yes. (_Pause_) WEGRAT Do you still recall the summer morning when you went with me to Kirchau for the first time? JULIAN Of course. WEGRAT How the light buggy carried us through the wide, sun-steeped valley? And do you remember the little garden at Huegelhang, where you became acquainted with Gabrielle and her parents? FELIX (_with suppressed emotion_) Father, is the house in which mother used to live still standing? WEGRAT No, it's gone long ago. They have built a villa on the spot. Five or six years ago, you know, we went there for the last time to visit the graves of your grandparents. Everything has been changed, except the cemetery.... (_To Julian_) Can you still remember that cool, cloudy afternoon, Julian, when we sat on the lower wall of the cemetery and had such a remarkable talk about the future? JULIAN