e pool has been
made.

JOHANNA (_nodding_)

Just as you told us that time.... And there is a greenish gray glitter
on the water--and in the morning the shadow from the beech tree falls
across it.... I know. (_She looks up at him and smiles; both go out
together_)

CURTAIN

THE SECOND ACT

_In the home of Julian Fichtner. A pleasant, rather distinguished room
in a state of slight disorder. Books are piled on two chairs, while on
another chair stands an open traveling bag. Julian is seated at a
writing desk, from the drawers of which he is taking out papers. Some
of these he destroys, while others are thrown into the waste-paper
basket._

VALET (_announcing_)

Mr. von Sala. (_He goes out_)

SALA (_enters. His custom to walk up and down while talking asserts
itself strikingly during the following scene. Now and then he sits down
for a moment, often only on the arm of a chair. At times he stops
beside Julian, putting his hand on the latter's shoulder while
speaking. Two or three times during the scene he puts his hand to the
left side of his chest, in a manner suggesting discomfort of some kind.
But this gesture is not sharply accentuated_)

JULIAN

I am delighted. (_They shake hands_)

SALA

So you got back early this morning?

JULIAN

Yes.

SALA

And mean to stay...?

JULIAN

Haven't decided yet. Things are a little upset, as you see. And I fear
they'll never be quite in shape again. I intend to give up this place.

SALA

Too bad. I have become so accustomed to it. In what direction are you
going to move?

JULIAN

It's possible that I don't take any new quarters at all for a while,
but just keep on moving about as I have been doing the last few years.
I am even considering to have my things sold at auction.

SALA

That's a thought which gets no sympathy from me.

JULIAN

Really, I haven't got much sympathy for it myself. But the material
side of the question has to be considered a little, too. I have been
spending too much these last years, and it has to be evened up somehow.
Probably I'll settle down again later on. Sometime one must get back to
peace and work, I suppose.--Well, how goes it with you? What are our
friends and acquaintances doing?

SALA

So you haven't seen anybody yet?

JULIAN

Not one. And you are the only one I have written about my being here.

SALA

And you have not yet called on the Wegrats?

JULIAN

No. I even hesitate to go there.