FELIX

I suppose mamma is outdoors a good deal these fine days?

JOHANNA

Yes.

FELIX

Are you still reading to her? Do you try to divert her a little? To
cheer her up?

JOHANNA

Just as if it were such an easy thing!

FELIX

But you have to put some spunk into it, Johanna.

JOHANNA

Yes, Felix, it's easy for you to talk.

FELIX

What do you mean?

JOHANNA (_speaking as if to herself_)

I don't know if you'll be able to understand me.

FELIX (_smiling_)

Why should it all at once be so hard for me to understand you?

JOHANNA (_looking calmly at him_)

Now when she is sick, I don't love her as much as before.

FELIX (_startled_)

What?

JOHANNA

No, it's impossible that you could quite understand. All the time she
is getting farther away from us.... It is as if every day a new set of
veils dropped down about her.

FELIX

And what is the meaning of it?

JOHANNA (_continues to look at him in the same calm way_)

FELIX

You think...?

JOHANNA

You know, Felix, that I never make any mistakes in things of that kind.

FELIX

I _know_, you say...?

JOHANNA

When poor little Lillie von Sala had to die, I was aware of it in
advance--before the rest of you knew that she was sick even.

FELIX

Yes, you had had a dream--and you were nothing but a child.

JOHANNA

I didn't dream it. I knew it. (_Brusquely_) It's something I can't
explain.

FELIX (_after a pause_)

And papa--has he resigned himself to it?

JOHANNA

Resigned himself?--Do you think he too can see those veils coming down?

FELIX (_having first shaken his head slightly_)

Nothing but imagination, Johanna--I am sure.--But now I want to....
(_Turning toward the house_) Papa hasn't come home yet?

JOHANNA

No. As a rule he's very late these days. He has an awful lot to do in
the Academy.

FELIX

I'll try not to wake her up--I'll be careful. (_He goes out by way of
the veranda_)

[_While alone for a while, Johanna seats herself on the garden bench
with her hands clasped across her knees. Sala enters. He is forty-five,
but looks younger. Slender to the verge of leanness, and smooth-shaven.
His brown hair, which has begun to turn gray at the temples, and which
he wears rather long, is parted on the right side. His features are
keen and energetic; his eyes, gray and clear._

SALA

Good evening, Miss Johanna.

JOHANNA

Good evening, Mr. von Sala.

SALA

They told me your mother was having a li