DONNA MATILDA. Why did you put it on so soon? FRIDA. The moment I saw it, the temptation was irresistible.... DONNA MATILDA. At least you could have called me, or have had someone help you! It's still all crumpled. FRIDA. So I saw, mother; but they are old creases; they won't come out. DOCTOR. It doesn't matter, Marchioness! The illusion is perfect. (_Then coming nearer and asking her to come in front of her daughter, without hiding her_). If you please, stay there, there ... at a certain distance ... now a little more forward.... BELCREDI. For the feeling of the distance of time.... DONNA MATILDA (_slightly turning to him_). Twenty years after! A disaster! A tragedy! BELCREDI. Now don't let's exaggerate! DOCTOR (_embarrassed, trying to save the situation_). No, no! I meant the dress ... so as to see ... You know.... BELCREDI (_laughing_). Oh, as for the dress, doctor, it isn't a matter of twenty years! It's eight hundred! An abyss! Do you really want to shove him across it (_pointing first to Frida and then to Marchioness_) from there to here? But you'll have to pick him up in pieces with a basket! Just think now: for us it is a matter of twenty years, a couple of dresses, and a masquerade. But, if, as you say, doctor, time has stopped for and around him: if he lives there (_pointing to Frida_) with her, eight hundred years ago.... I repeat: the giddiness of the jump will be such, that finding himself suddenly among us.... (_The doctor shakes his head in dissent_). You don't think so? DOCTOR. No, because life, my dear baron, can take up its rhythms. This--our life--will at once become real also to him; and will pull him up directly, wresting from him suddenly the illusion, and showing him that the eight hundred years, as you say, are only twenty! It will be like one of those tricks, such as the leap into space, for instance, of the Masonic rite, which appears to be heaven knows how far, and is only a step down the stairs. BELCREDI. Ah! An idea! Yes! Look at Frida and the Marchioness, doctor! Which is more advanced in time? We old people, doctor! The young ones think they are more ahead; but it isn't true: we are more ahead, because time belongs to us more than to them. DOCTOR. If the past didn't alienate us....