Well?!--There was a hint in the telegram about brilliant conditions.... But, of course, they could only refer to the next season? CECILIA If I can break away from here, they want me in Berlin from the beginning of the year. AMADEUS But you can't break away! CECILIA Oh, if I really want to. The Director does not care to enforce the contract. AMADEUS But you don't want to, Cecilia! CECILIA That's a matter for careful consideration. I shall be doing a great deal better there. AMADEUS Beginning next Fall, I shall--probably be free. You might wait that long, I should think. Then we could make the move together. But.... CECILIA It doesn't have to be settled to-day, Amadeus. To-morrow we shall have time to discuss the whole matter thoroughly. Really, I am not in a condition to do so to-night. AMADEUS You are tired...? CECILIA Of course, you must understand that. In fact, I should very much prefer.... (_She looks in direction of the door leading to her own room_) CHAMBERMAID (_brings in the tea tray and puts it on a small table_) CECILIA Oh, that's right!--May I pour you a cup, too? AMADEUS If you please. CECILIA (_pours the tea; to the chambermaid_) Open one of the windows a little, will you. There's such a lot of cigarette smoke in here. CHAMBERMAID (_opens the window at the right_) AMADEUS Won't it be too cold for you? CECILIA Cold? It has turned very warm again. AMADEUS And how did last night's performance go otherwise? CECILIA Very well. Wedius in particular proved himself inimitable again. AMADEUS You have mentioned him several times in your letters. CECILIA You know him since your Dresden period, don't you? AMADEUS Yes. He has great gifts. CECILIA He thinks a great deal of you, too. AMADEUS I'm pleased to hear it. CHAMBERMAID (_goes out_) AMADEUS (_helping himself to the cold meat_) Can I help you to some? CECILIA No, thanks. I have had all I want. AMADEUS Yes, you have had your supper already--all of you, or "everybody," as you put it a while ago. CECILIA (_ingenuously_) I had my supper with Sigismund. AMADEUS Was he in Berlin all the time? CECILIA He got there two days after me, as I told you in my letters. AMADEUS Of course--you have told me everything. Once he accompanied you to the National Gallery. CECILIA He also took me to see the Pergamene marbles.[6] [6] A large collection of art works and other antiquities, recovered by excavations on the site of the ancient city of Pergamon in Asia Minor, are kept in the Pergamene Museum, Berlin. AMADEUS (_facetiously_) You're doing a lot for his general education, I must say.--But I should like to know by what fraud Sigismund got himself into that reception of the Director's. CECILIA By what fraud? AMADEUS Well, you wrote me that he created a regular sensation with those waltzes of his. CECILIA