18 -
Countess: That discovery seems to make you a lot of fun,
Phillip.
Phillip: Discovery.....Well, honestly, it wasn’t exactly
arecovery (looking at the Prince)
Prince: Go on, go on, Phillip.
Phillip: Well, Countess, you know I always had a feeling
that I wasn’t simply, Phillip Radeiner by birth.
Countess: Radeiner? (To the Prince) Under that name...
Prince: Yes;
Phillip: Of course, it was very pleasant for me to have this
feeling verified- but I've always know it. I'm no idiot.
Some fellows in the school had some inkling that I..... Just
think of the fable, Countess, that Prince Ravenstein should
come to Krems regularly to ask after the progress of the son
of a dead friend. That's a little too romantic, out of a six-
penny novel. And for the knowing ones- it was always rather
evident that Princely blood rohls through my venis. And as
I can see a thing or two myself.
Countess: That’s evident. What plans have you got for
your future, Phillip?
Phillip: I’ll begin my year in the army in October. In the
Bragoons, the regiment where we Ravensteins always used to
serve, next whether I stay in the army or become an arch-
bishop- in time of course.
Countess: That wouldn't be so bad. The Ravensteins were
always strong in faith.
Phillip: Oh, yes, you can read it in history. First they
were Catholic, then in the Thirty-years War they changed to
Protestantism,than back to Catholicism again. They were
always strong in faith,- but they like variety.
Prince: Phillip, Phillip.
Countess: You see, that's the new spirit, Prince Egon.
Prince: And the mother's blood.
Countess: Your father tells me you've worked hard.- Been
gradutated with honours.
That wasn’t hard, Countess, I was always quick at
probably my Bourgeois blood. I found time for
Phillip:
something besides that weren’t required in school. I
Iearning,
iuarned horseback niding, and-
Countess: And?