I. W.
1
-14-
Prince: And your father, Mizzi...Your father!
Countess: He would have got used to it, you can depend on
it. That was just the time when he started his affair with Lolo.
Otherwise he would
Otherwise ours should not have gone so monthly.
have paid more attention to me. I shouldn’t have been able to stay
away for months if it hadn’t happened to be very convenient for him.
The only danger in the whole affair, dear Prince, was that Fedor
Wangenheim would have most likely shot you dead.
Prince: He, me? It might have happened saifferently too. Or
do you believe in divine judgment? And even the result might have
been questionable. For we poor mortals can never know how He above
thanks of such things.
Countess: In the House of Lords you would speak difficulty if
you ever opened your month there.
Prince: That’s possible. But the most important is that
all honor and courage would not have helped us then. It would have
been useless cruelty to people who were dear to us. A dispensation
could hardly have been procured--and besides, the Princess would
never have consented to a separation. That you know as well as I.
Countess: As if I had the elightest interest in marriage!
Prince: Ah
Countess: Not the slightest. That isn’t anything new to you,
I told you then too. You haven't the lightest idea how I..
is it?
^nat...what you could have made of me. I should have fol¬
( Look)
lowed you anywhere, everywhere, even only as your mistress. I and
our child. To Switzerland, to America. We could have lived anywhere
it pleased us. And in the House of Lords, perhaps they would not
even have noticed that you had gone away.
Prince: Yes, naturally we could have fled and settled down
somewhere in another country... But that such arrangement would have
been pleasing, or even tolerable, to you for long, you yourself
probably do not believe today
tyday I know you, you see. But then I
Countess: Friday, no.
loved you. And I might perhaps have—long been able to love you,
had you then not been too comardly to take the on-stbons lelity for
that which occurred...Too towardly, Prince Egon..
Prince: whether that is exactly the right word....
Countess: Yes. I know no other. It did not depend on me.
I was ready to take all upon myself, with joy, with pride. I was
ready to be a mother and to acknowledge myself as the mother of our
child. You knew that, Egon. Seventeen years ago in the little house
in the wood where you kept me in hiding, I told you that I was ready
for that. But for half-truths I was never to be had. I wanted to
be completely a mother, or not at all. On the day when I had to
give the boy away, I made up my mind not to think of him anymore.
That is why I find it so ridicule that suddenly you want to bring
1
-14-
Prince: And your father, Mizzi...Your father!
Countess: He would have got used to it, you can depend on
it. That was just the time when he started his affair with Lolo.
Otherwise he would
Otherwise ours should not have gone so monthly.
have paid more attention to me. I shouldn’t have been able to stay
away for months if it hadn’t happened to be very convenient for him.
The only danger in the whole affair, dear Prince, was that Fedor
Wangenheim would have most likely shot you dead.
Prince: He, me? It might have happened saifferently too. Or
do you believe in divine judgment? And even the result might have
been questionable. For we poor mortals can never know how He above
thanks of such things.
Countess: In the House of Lords you would speak difficulty if
you ever opened your month there.
Prince: That’s possible. But the most important is that
all honor and courage would not have helped us then. It would have
been useless cruelty to people who were dear to us. A dispensation
could hardly have been procured--and besides, the Princess would
never have consented to a separation. That you know as well as I.
Countess: As if I had the elightest interest in marriage!
Prince: Ah
Countess: Not the slightest. That isn’t anything new to you,
I told you then too. You haven't the lightest idea how I..
is it?
^nat...what you could have made of me. I should have fol¬
( Look)
lowed you anywhere, everywhere, even only as your mistress. I and
our child. To Switzerland, to America. We could have lived anywhere
it pleased us. And in the House of Lords, perhaps they would not
even have noticed that you had gone away.
Prince: Yes, naturally we could have fled and settled down
somewhere in another country... But that such arrangement would have
been pleasing, or even tolerable, to you for long, you yourself
probably do not believe today
tyday I know you, you see. But then I
Countess: Friday, no.
loved you. And I might perhaps have—long been able to love you,
had you then not been too comardly to take the on-stbons lelity for
that which occurred...Too towardly, Prince Egon..
Prince: whether that is exactly the right word....
Countess: Yes. I know no other. It did not depend on me.
I was ready to take all upon myself, with joy, with pride. I was
ready to be a mother and to acknowledge myself as the mother of our
child. You knew that, Egon. Seventeen years ago in the little house
in the wood where you kept me in hiding, I told you that I was ready
for that. But for half-truths I was never to be had. I wanted to
be completely a mother, or not at all. On the day when I had to
give the boy away, I made up my mind not to think of him anymore.
That is why I find it so ridicule that suddenly you want to bring