he
had to talk so much of days long gone by.

JULIAN

And of this little picture, too?

FELIX

It's a very good one, I understand.

JULIAN (_as if trying to remember_)

Where did I put it? Wait now.... (_He goes to a book case, the lower
part of which has solid doors; these he opens, disclosing several
shelves piled with portfolios_) I painted it in the country--in the
little house where your grandparents used to live.

FELIX

I know.

JULIAN

You can hardly recall the old people, I suppose?

FELIX

Very vaguely. They were quite humble people, were they not?

JULIAN

Yes. (_He has taken a big portfolio from one of the shelves_) It ought
to be in this portfolio. (_He puts it on the writing desk and opens it;
then he sits down in front of it_)

FELIX (_stands behind him, looking over his shoulder_)

JULIAN

Here is the house in which they lived--your grandparents and your
mother. (_He goes through the sketches, one by one_) And here is a view
of the valley seen from the cemetery.

FELIX

In Summer....

JULIAN

Yes.--And here is the little inn at which your father and I used to
stop.... And here.... (_He looks in silence at the sketch; both remain
silent for a long while_)

FELIX (_picking up the sketch_)

How old was my mother at the time?

JULIAN (_who remains seated_)

Eighteen.

FELIX (_going a few steps away and leaning against the bookcase in
order to get better light on the picture_)

A year before she was married, then.

JULIAN

It was done that very year. (_Pause_)

FELIX

What a strange look that meets me out of those eyes.... There's a smile
on her lips.... It's almost as if she were talking to me....

JULIAN

What was it your mother told you--that last evening?

FELIX

Not very much. But I feel as if I knew more than she had told me. What
a queer thought it is, that as she is now looking at me out of this
picture, so she must have been looking at you once. It seems as if
there was a certain timidity in that look. Something like fear
almost.... In such a way you look at people out of another world, for
which you long, and of which you are afraid nevertheless.

JULIAN

At that time your mother had rarely been outside the village.

FELIX

She must have been different from all other women you have met, wasn't
she?--Why don't you say anything? I am not one of those men who cannot
understand--who won't understand that their mothers and sisters are
women aft