take pleasure
in the beautiful scenery surrounding him.

SALA

But you have begun to work again while you were traveling?

JULIAN

Hardly at all.

SALA

Felix told us that you had brought some sketches from your trunk in
order to show him.

JULIAN

He spoke of them?

SALA

Yes, and nothing but good.

JULIAN

Really?

SALA

And as you showed those things to him, you must have thought rather
well of them yourself.

JULIAN

That was not the reason why I let him see them. (_Walking back and
forth_) I must tell you--at the risk of having you think me a perfect
fool.

SALA

Oh, a little more or less won't count. Speak out.

JULIAN

I wanted him at least not to lose faith in me. Can you understand that?
After all, he is nearer to me than the rest. Of course, I know--to
everybody, even to you, I am one who has gone down, who is finished--one
of those whose only talent was his youth. It doesn't bother me very
much. But to Felix I want to be the man I was once--just as I still
_am_ that man. When he learns sometime that I am his father, he must be
proud of it.

SALA

When he learns it...?

JULIAN

I have no intention to keep it hidden from him forever. Now, when his
mother is dead, less than ever. Last time I talked to him, it became
clear to me, not only that it would be right, but that it would almost
be a duty, to tell him the truth. He has a mind for essentials. He will
understand everything. And I shall have a human being who belongs to
me, who knows that he belongs to me, and for whose sake it is worth
while to keep on living in this world. I shall live near him, and be
with him a good deal. Once more I shall have my existence put on a
solid basis, so to speak, and not hung in mid-air, as it is now. And
then I shall be able to work again--work as I did once--as when I was a
young man. Work, that is what I am going to do--and all of you will
turn out to have been wrong--all of you!

SALA

But to whom has it occurred to doubt you? If you could only have heard
us talk of you a little while ago, Julian. Everybody expects that,
sooner or later, you--will find yourself again completely.

JULIAN

Well, that's enough about me, more than enough. Pardon me. Let us hear
something about yourself at last. I suppose you have already moved into
your new house?

SALA

Yes.

JULIAN

And what plans have you for the immediate future?

SALA

I am thinking of going to Asia with Count Ron