kable about it?

COUNT

I suppose I had better tell you all about it. On my way home that last
time--one night last week--I had a feeling all of a sudden--I don't
know how to express it ... tremendously relieved, that's what I felt.
Now you are a free man, I said to myself. Don't have to drive to
Mayerhof Street[3] every night God grants you, merely to dine and
chatter with Lolo, or just sit there listening to her. Had come to be
pretty boresome at times, you know. And then the drive home in the
middle of the night, and, on top of it, to be called to account when
you happened to be dining with a friend in the Casino or taking your
daughter to the opera or a theater. To cut it short--I was in high
feather going home that night. My head was full of plans already....
No, nothing of the kind you have in mind! But plans for traveling, as I
have long wanted to do--to Africa, or India, like a free man.... That
is, I should have brought my little girl along, of course.... Yes, you
may well laugh at my calling her a little girl still.

[3] A street in the district of Wieden, near one of the
principal shopping districts and leading to the great
Theresian Riding Academy.

PRINCE

Nothing of the kind. Mizzie looks exactly like a young girl. Like quite
a young one. Especially in that Florentine straw hat she was wearing a
while ago.

COUNT

Like a young girl, you say! And yet she's exactly of an age with Lolo.
You know, of course! Yes, we're growing old, Egon. Every one of us. Oh,
yes.... And lonely. But really, I didn't notice it to begin with. It
was only by degrees it got hold of me. The first days after that
farewell feast were not so very bad. But the day before yesterday, and
yesterday, as the time approached when I used to start for Mayerhof
Street.... And when Peter brought in those roses a moment ago--for
Lolo, of course--why, then it seemed pretty plain to me that I had
become a widower for the second time in my life. Yes, my dear fellow.
And this time forever. Now comes the loneliness. It has come already.

PRINCE

But that's nonsense--loneliness!

COUNT

Pardon me, but you can't understand. Your way of living has been so
different from mine. You have not let yourself be dragged into anything
new since your poor wife died ten years ago. Into nothing of a serious
nature, I mean. And besides, you have a profession, in a sense.

PRINCE

Have I?

COUNT

Well, as a member of the Upper H