Part 4
No, not that way. But the other man, who was practically sure of the place, has broken his neck climbing a mountain.
FELIX
But then your chances should be better than ever. Whom could they possibly consider besides you?
REUMANN
I suppose my chances wouldn't be bad. But I have preferred to forgo them.
MRS. WEGRAT
How?
REUMANN
I won't accept the call.
MRS. WEGRAT
Is that out of superstition?
FELIX
Or out of pride?
REUMANN
Neither. But the thought of having another man's misfortune to thank for my own advancement would be extremely painful to me. Half my life would be spoiled for me. That is neither superstition nor pride, you see, but just commonplace, small-minded vanity.
SALA
You're a subtle one, Doctor.
MRS. WEGRAT
Well, all I gather is that you are going to stay. Which shows how mean your thoughts grow when you are sick.
REUMANN (_changing the subject on purpose_)
Well, Felix, how do you find life in a garrison?
FELIX
Fine.
MRS. WEGRAT
So you are really satisfied, boy?
FELIX
I feel very thankful to all of you. Especially to you, mamma.
MRS. WEGRAT
Why to me especially? After all, the decision lay with your father in the last instance.
REUMANN
He would, of course, have preferred to see you choose a more peaceful calling.
SALA
Oh, but to-day there is none more peaceful.
FELIX
That's where you are right, Mr. von Sala.--By the by, I was to give you the regards of Lieutenant-Colonel Schrotting.
SALA
Thank you. Does he still remember me?
FELIX
Not he alone. We are constantly being reminded of you--at every meal, in fact. Yours is among the pictures of former officers that hang in the mess rooms.
WEGRAT (_enters_)
Good evening.--Why, Felix, are you here again? What a surprise!
FELIX
Good evening, papa. I have applied for a two-day furlough.
WEGRAT
Furlough ... furlough? A real one? Or is it another one of those little brilliant tricks?
FELIX (_cheerfully and without taking offence_)
I am not in the habit of fibbing, papa, am I?
WEGRAT (_in the same tone_)
I meant no offense, my boy. Even if you had been guilty of deserting the flag, your longing to see your mother would be sufficient excuse for you.
MRS. WEGRAT
To see his parents, you mean.
WEGRAT
Of course--to see us all. But as you are a little under the weather, you come foremost just now.--Well, how are you getting along, Gabrielle? Better, are you not? (_In a low voice, almost timidly_) My love.... (_He strokes her brow and hair_) Love.... The air is so mild.
SALA
We are having a wonderful Autumn.
REUMANN
Have you just got away from the Academy, Professor?
WEGRAT
Yes. Now, when I am also the president of it, there is a whole lot to do--and all of it is not pleasant or grateful. But I seem to be made for it, as they have insisted. And I suppose it will have to go on this way. (_With a smile_) As somebody once called me--an art-official.
SALA
Don't be so unjust to yourself, Professor.
MRS. WEGRAT
You must have been walking all that long way home again?
WEGRAT
I even went out of my way some distance--to pass across the old Turkish fort.[2] I am awfully fond of that road. On evenings like this the whole city lies beneath you as if bathed in a silvery mist.--By the by, Gabrielle, I have some greetings to deliver. I met Irene Herms.
[2] The place where the Turks fortified themselves before driven from Vienna by John Sobieski in 1683 is now a small park, "_Türkenschanz-Park_," located in Döbling, one of the northwestern quarters of Greater Vienna. Only a little ways south of this park, and overlooking it, stands the Astronomical Observatory, not far from which Schnitzler has been living for a number of years. Numerous references to localities in this play indicate that he has placed the Wegrat home in that very villa quarter of Währing, where he himself is so thoroughly at home.
MRS. WEGRAT
Is she in Vienna?
WEGRAT
Just passing through. She intends to call on you.
SALA
Has she still got an engagement at Hamburg?
WEGRAT
No, she has left the stage, she told me, and is now living in the country with her married sister.
JOHANNA
I saw her once in a play of yours, Mr. von Sala.
SALA
Then you must have been a very small girl indeed.
JOHANNA
She played a Spanish princess.
SALA
Unfortunately. For princesses were not at all in her line. She has never in her life been able to treat verse properly.
REUMANN
And you can still bear that in mind, Mr. von Sala--that some lady on some occasion happened to handle your verse badly?
SALA
Well, why shouldn't I, my dear Doctor? If you were living at the center of the earth, you would know that all things are of equal weight. And were you floating in the center of the universe, you would suspect that all things are of equal importance.
MRS. WEGRAT
How does she look anyhow?
WEGRAT
She is still very pretty.
SALA
Has she preserved her resemblance to that portrait of hers which is hanging in the Museum?
FELIX
What portrait is that?
JOHANNA
Is her portrait really in the Museum?
SALA
Oh, you know it. In the catalogue it is labeled "Actress"--just "Actress." A young woman in the costume of a harlequin, over which she has draped a Greek toga, while at her feet lie a confused heap of masks. With her staring glance turned toward the spectators, she stands there all alone on an empty, dusky stage, surrounded by odd pieces of misfit scenery--one wall of a room, a forest piece, part of an old dungeon....
FELIX
And the background shows a southern landscape with palms and plane trees...?
SALA
Yes, and it is partly raised so that still farther off you can see a pile of furniture, steps, goblets, chandeliers--all glittering in full daylight.
FELIX
But that's Julian Fichtner's picture?
SALA
Exactly.
FELIX
I had not the slightest idea that the figure of that woman was meant for Irene Herms.
WEGRAT
Twenty-five years have passed since he painted that picture. It caused a tremendous sensation at the time. It was his first big success. And to-day I suppose there are lots of people who no longer remember his name.--Come to think of it, I asked Irene Herms about him. But strange to say, not even his "perennial best girl" could tell where in this world he happens to be straying.
FELIX
I talked with him only a few days ago.
WEGRAT
What? You have seen Julian Fichtner? He was in Salzburg?--When?
FELIX
Only about three or four days ago. He looked me up, and we spent the evening together.
[_Mrs. Wegrat throws a quick glance at Dr. Reumann._
WEGRAT
How is he doing? What did he tell you?
FELIX
He has turned rather gray, but otherwise he didn't seem to have changed at all.
WEGRAT
How long can it be now since he left Vienna? Two years, isn't it?
MRS. WEGRAT
A little more.
FELIX
He has traveled far and wide.
SALA
Yes, now and then I have had a postcard from him.
WEGRAT
So have we. But I thought you and he were corresponding regularly.
SALA
Regularly? Oh, no.
JOHANNA
Isn't he a friend of yours?
SALA
As a rule I have no friends. And if I have any, I repudiate them.
JOHANNA
But you used to be quite intimate with him.
SALA
He with me rather than I with him.
FELIX
What do you mean by that, Mr. von Sala?
JOHANNA
Oh, I can understand it. I suppose you have had the same experience with most people.
SALA
Something very much like it, at least.
JOHANNA
Yes, one can see it from what you write, too.
SALA
I hope so. Otherwise it might just as well have been written by somebody else.
WEGRAT
Did he say when he would be back in Vienna?
FELIX
Soon, I think. But he didn't say very definitely.
JOHANNA
I should like to see Mr. Fichtner again. I am fond of that kind of people.
WEGRAT
What do you mean by "that kind of people"?
JOHANNA
Who are always arriving from some far-off place.
WEGRAT
But as a rule he never arrived from far-off places when you knew him, Johanna.... He was living right here.
JOHANNA
What did it matter whether he was living here or elsewhere?--Even when he came to see us daily, it was always as if he had just arrived from some great distance.
WEGRAT
Oh, of course....
FELIX
I had often the same feeling.
WEGRAT
Well, it's strange how he has been knocking about in the world--these last few years at least.
SALA
Don't you think his restlessness goes farther back? Were you not students together in the Academy?
WEGRAT
Yes. And to know him properly, you must have known him then. There was something fascinating about him as a young man, something that dazzled. Never have I known anybody whom the term "of great promise" fitted so completely.
SALA
Well, he has kept a whole lot of it.
WEGRAT
But think of all he might have achieved!
REUMANN
I believe that what you might achieve you do achieve.
WEGRAT
Not always. Julian was undoubtedly destined for higher things. What he lacked was the capacity for concentration, the inward calm. He could never feel at home for good anywhere. And the misfortune has been that in his own works, too, he has lived only as a transient, so to speak.
FELIX
He showed me a couple of sketches he had made recently.
WEGRAT
Good?
FELIX
To me there was something gripping about them.
MRS. WEGRAT
Why gripping? What kind of pictures were they?
FELIX
Landscapes. And as a rule very pleasant ones at that.
JOHANNA
Once in a dream I saw a Spring landscape, very sunlit and soft, and yet it made me weep.
SALA
Yes, the sadness of certain things lies much deeper than we commonly suspect.
WEGRAT
So he's working again? Then, perhaps, we may expect something out of the ordinary.
SALA
In the case of anybody who has been an artist once you are never safe against surprises.
WEGRAT
That's it, Mr. von Sala. That's where the great difference lies. In the case of an official you can feel perfectly safe on that score. (_With cheerful self-contempt_) Such a one paints every year his nice little picture for the exhibition, and couldn't possibly do anything else.
REUMANN
It is still open to question who do most for the advancement of life and art: officials like you, Professor, or--our so-called men of genius.
WEGRAT
Oh, I have not the least intention to play the modest one. But as to men of genius--we had better not talk of them at all. There you are dealing with a world by itself, lying outside of all discussion--as do the elements.
REUMANN
My opinion, I must confess, is utterly different.
WEGRAT
Oh, it's of no use discussing anybody but those who have distinct limitations. And what I have found is--that he who knows his own limitations best is the better man. And on this point I have pretty good reason for self-respect.--Do you feel chilly, Gabrielle?
MRS. WEGRAT
No.
WEGRAT
But you had better pull the shawl a little closer about you, and then we should have a little exercise--in so far as it's possible in here.
MRS. WEGRAT
All right.--Please, Doctor, give me your arm. You haven't paid the least attention to your patient yet.
REUMANN
At your service!
[_The rest start ahead, Johanna walking with her brother, and Wegrat with Sala. Dr. Reumann and Mrs. Wegrat seem about to follow, when she suddenly stops._
MRS. WEGRAT
Did you notice his eyes light up--I mean, the eyes of Felix, when they were talking of _him?_ It was most peculiar.
REUMANN
Men of Mr. Fichtner's type appear undoubtedly very interesting to young people. They seem to carry with them an odor of romance.
MRS. WEGRAT (_shaking her head_)
And he looked him up.... It is perfectly clear that he went to Salzburg just to see him again. I suppose he is beginning to feel a little deserted.
REUMANN
Why not pay a visit to a young friend when one happens to be near the place where he is living? I can see nothing peculiar in that.
MRS. WEGRAT
Perhaps you are right. Perhaps I might have looked at the matter in the same way not long ago. But now, in the face of.... No, Doctor, I am not going to be sentimental.
REUMANN
I don't object to sentiment, but to nonsense.
MRS. WEGRAT (_smiling_)
Thank you.--However, I have occasion to think of many different things. And it is no reason for taking it too seriously, my dear friend. You know, of course, that I told you everything merely that I might have a kind and sensible man with whom to discuss the past--and not at all to be absolved of any guilt.
REUMANN
To give happiness is more than being free of guilt. And as this has been granted you, it is clear that you have made full atonement--if you'll pardon the use of such a preposterously extravagant term.
MRS. WEGRAT
How can you talk like that?
REUMANN
Well, am I not right?
MRS. WEGRAT
Just as if I couldn't feel how all of us, deceivers and deceived, must seem equally contemptible to you in particular!
REUMANN
Why to me in particular...? What you call contempt, madam--supposing I did feel anything like it--would, after all, be nothing but disguised envy. Or do you think I lack the desire to conduct my life as I see most other people conducting theirs? I simply haven't the knack. If I am to be frank, madam--the deepest yearning of all within me is just to be a rogue: a fellow who can dissemble, seduce, sneer, make his way over dead bodies. But thanks to a certain shortcoming in my temperament, I am condemned to remain a decent man--and what is still more painful perhaps: to hear everybody say that I am one.
MRS. WEGRAT (_who has been listening with a smile_)
I wonder whether you have told the truth about what is keeping you here in Vienna?
REUMANN
Certainly. Indeed, I have no other reason. I have no right to have any other. Don't let us talk any more of it.
MRS. WEGRAT
Are we not such good friends that I can talk calmly with you of everything? I know what you have in mind. But I believe that it might be in your power to drive certain illusions and dreams out of the soul of a young girl. And it would be such a comfort to me if I could leave you for good among these people, all of whom are so near to me, and who yet know nothing whatever about each other--who are hardly aware of their mutual relationships even, and who seem fated to flitter away from each other to God knows where.
REUMANN
We'll talk of those things, madam, when it's time to do so.
MRS. WEGRAT
Of course, I regret nothing. I believe I have never regretted anything. But I have a feeling that something is out of order. Perhaps it's nothing but that strange glimmer in the eyes of Felix which has caused all this unrest within me. But isn't it peculiar--uncanny almost--to think that a man like him may go through the world with all his senses open and yet never know whom he has to thank for being in the world?
REUMANN
Don't let us indulge in generalities, Mrs. Wegrat. In that way you can set the most solid things shaking and swaying until the steadiest eyes begin to grow dizzy. My own conclusion is this: that a lie which has proved strong enough to sustain the peace of a household can be no less respectable than a truth which could do nothing but destroy the image of the past, fill the present with sorrow, and confuse the vision of the future. (_He goes out with Mrs. Wegrat_)
JOHANNA (_entering with Sala_)
In this way one always gets back to the same spot. I suppose your garden is bigger, Mr. von Sala?
SALA
My garden is the whole wide woods--that is, for people whose fancy is not restrained by a light fence.
JOHANNA
Your villa has grown very pretty.
SALA
Oh, you know it then?
JOHANNA
A little while ago I saw it again for the first time in three years.
SALA
But three years ago they hadn't put in the foundations yet.
JOHANNA
To me it was already standing there.
SALA
How mysterious....
JOHANNA
Not at all. If you will only remember. Once we made an excursion to Dornbach[3]--my parents, and Felix, and I. There we met you and Mr. Fichtner, and it happened on the very spot where your house was to be built. And now everything looks just as you described it to us then.
[3] A suburb near the western limits of Vienna and not far from the location indicated for the Wegrat home.
SALA
But how did you happen to be in that vicinity?
JOHANNA
Since mamma was taken sick I have often had to take my walks alone....
SALA
And when was it you passed by my house?
JOHANNA
Not long ago--to-day.
SALA
To-day?
JOHANNA
Yes. I went all around it.
SALA
Oh? All around it?--Did you also notice the little gate that leads directly into the woods?
JOHANNA
Yes.--But from that spot the house is almost invisible. The leafage is very thick.--Where have you placed those busts of the Roman emperors?
SALA
They stand on columns at the opening of an avenue of trees. Right by is a small marble bench, and in front of the bench a little 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.
SALA
Why?
JULIAN
After a certain age it would perhaps be better never to put your foot in any place where your earlier years were spent. It is so rare to find things and people the same as when you left them. Isn't that so?--Mrs. Gabrielle is said to have changed considerably in the course of her sickness. That's what Felix told me at least. I should prefer not to see her again. Oh, you can understand that, Sala.
SALA (_rather surprised_)
Of course, I understand. How long is it you have had no news from Vienna?
JULIAN
I have constantly started ahead of my mail. Not a single letter has overtaken me during the last fortnight. (_Alarmed_) What has happened?
SALA
Mrs. Gabrielle died a week ago.
JULIAN
Oh! (_He is deeply moved; for a while he walks back and forth; then he resumes his seat and says after a pause_) Of course, it was to be expected, and yet....
SALA
Her death came easily.... You know how those left behind always pretend to know such things with certainty. Anyhow, she fell asleep quietly one night and never woke up again.
JULIAN (_in low voice_)
Poor Gabrielle!--Did you see anything of her toward the end?
SALA
Yes, I went there almost daily.
JULIAN
Oh, did you?
SALA
Johanna asked me. She was literally afraid of being alone with her mother.
JULIAN
Afraid?
SALA
The sick woman inspired her with a sort of horror. She has calmed down a little now.
JULIAN
What a strange creature.... And how does our friend, the professor, bear up under his loss? Resigned to the will of God, I suppose?
SALA
My dear Julian, the man has a position. I fear we cannot grasp that, we who are Gods by the grace of the moment--and also less than men at times.
JULIAN
Of course, Felix is not here?
SALA
I talked with him less than an hour ago, and informed him that you were here. It made him very happy to have you call on him in Salzburg.
JULIAN
It looked so to me. And he did me a lot of good. For that matter, I have really thought of settling down in Salzburg.
SALA
For ever?
JULIAN
For a while. On account of Felix, too. His unspoiled nature affects me very pleasantly--it makes me actually feel younger. Were he not my son, I might almost envy him--and not on account of his youth alone. (_With a smile_) Thus there is nothing left for me but to love him. I must say that I feel a little ashamed at having to do it incognito, so to speak.
SALA
Are not these feelings a little belated in their appearance?
JULIAN
Oh, I suppose they were there long before I knew. And, you know, I saw the youngster for the first time when he was ten or eleven years old, and it was only then I learned that he was my son.
SALA
It must have been a strange meeting between you and Mrs. Gabrielle, ten years after you had committed that piece of hideous perfidy--as our ancestors used to put it.
JULIAN