ments later accompanied by Julian_)

JULIAN

And you want to leave all these splendors so soon?

SALA

They'll be here when I come back, I hope.

JULIAN

I hope you will, for the sake of both of us.

SALA

You say that rather distrustingly....

JULIAN

Well, yes--I am thinking of that remarkable article in the Daily Post.

SALA

Concerning what?

JULIAN

What is going on at the Caspian Sea.

SALA

Oh, are the local papers also taking that up?

JULIAN

The conditions in certain regions through which you have to pass seem
really to be extremely dangerous.

SALA

Exaggerations. We have better information than that. According to my
opinion there is nothing back of those articles but the petty jealousy
of English scientists. What you read had been translated from the Daily
News. And it's fully three weeks since it appeared there.--Have you
seen Felix, by the way?

JULIAN

He was at my house only last night. And this morning I called on the
Wegrats. He wanted to have a look at that picture of his mother which I
painted twenty-three years ago.--And one thing and another led to my
telling him everything.

SALA

Oh, you did? (_Thoughtfully_) And how did he take it?

JULIAN

It stirred him rather more than I had thought possible.

SALA

Well, I hope you didn't expect him to fall into your arms as the
recovered son does in the play.

JULIAN

No, of course not.--I told him everything, without any attempt at
sparing myself. And for that reason he seemed to feel the wrong done to
his mother's husband more strongly than anything else. But that won't
last very long. He'll soon understand that, in the higher sense, no
wrong has been done at all. People of Wegrat's type are not made to
hold actual possession of anything--whether it be wives or children.
They mean a refuge, a dwelling place--but never a real home. Can you
understand what I mean by that? It is their mission to take into their
arms creatures who have been worn out or broken to pieces by some kind
of passion. But they never guess whence such creatures come. And while
it is granted them to attract and befriend, they never understand
whither those creatures go. They exist for the purpose of sacrificing
themselves unconsciously, and in such sacrifices they find a happiness
that might seem a pretty poor one to others.... You are not saying a
word?

SALA

I am listening.

JULIAN

And have no reply to make?

SALA

Oh, well-