me again, as
it had done so often in earlier years.

SALA

And how did you fare? We have heard so little of you here. You might
really have written me a little more frequently and fully. For you
know, of course, that I care a great deal more for you than for most
other people. We have such a knack of giving each other the right
cue--don't you think? There are sentimental people who speak of such a
relation as friendship. And it is not impossible that we used to
address each other by our Christian names some time during the last
century, or that you may even have wept your fill on my shoulder. I
have missed you more than once during these two years--honestly! On my
lonely walks I have quite frequently thought of our pleasant chats in
the Dornbach park, where we were in the habit of disposing temporarily
of (_quoting_) "what is most lofty and profound in this our
world."--Well, Julian, from where do you come anyhow?

JULIAN

From the Tyrol? During the Summer I made long tours on foot. I have
even turned mountain climber in my old days. I spent a whole week at
one of those pasturing grounds in the Alps.... Yes, I have been up to
all sorts of things. It's a wonder what you can do when you are all
alone.

SALA

And you have really been all alone?

JULIAN

Yes.

SALA

All these last years?

JULIAN

If I don't count a few nonsensical interruptions--yes.

SALA

But there should have been no difficulty in that respect.

JULIAN

I know. But I cannot rest satisfied with what is still offered me of
that kind of thing. I have been badly spoiled, Sala. Up to a certain
period my life passed away in a constant orgy of tenderness and
passion, and of power, you might say. And that is all over. Oh, Sala,
what pitiful fictions I have had to steal, and beg, and buy, during
these last years! It gives me nausea to look back at it, and it
horrifies me to look ahead. And I ask myself: can there really be
nothing left of all that glow with which I once embraced the world but
a sort of silly wrath because it's all over--because I--_I_--am no
less subject to human laws than anybody else?

SALA

Why all this bitterness, Julian? There is still a great deal to be had
out of this world, even when some of the pleasures and enjoyments of
our earlier years have begun to appear tasteless or unseemly. And how
can you, of all people, miss that feeling, Julian?

JULIAN

Snatch his part from an actor and ask him if he can still