The Lonely Way-Intermezzo-Countess Mizzie Part 50

AMADEUS (_still at the window, but turning toward Frederique_) I can't lie--and I don't want to. Which is not the same as taking life hard.

FREDERIQUE

Can't lie...? And yet you have been away from your wife for months at a time--haven't you? And your wife came here while you were still conducting somewhere abroad, didn't she?... So that....

AMADEUS

Those are matters which you don't quite comprehend, Countess. (_He looks again toward the main entrance_)

FREDERIQUE

No, your wife can't be here yet. She won't give up her walk on a wonderful day like this.

AMADEUS

What you have in mind now is pretty mean, Frederique.

FREDERIQUE

Why so? Of course, I know she takes a walk with you, too, now and then.

AMADEUS

Yes, when my time permits. And often she goes out with Sigismund.

To-day she's probably with him--and that's what you wanted to bring home to me, of course.

FREDERIQUE

Why should I? You know it, don't you? And I a.s.sure you, it has never occurred to me to see anything wrong in it. He's a friend of yours.

AMADEUS

More than that--or less. He used to be my pupil.

FREDERIQUE

I didn't know that.

AMADEUS

Ten years ago, while still a mere youngster, I used to live in his father's palace. It's hard to tell where I might have been to-day, had it not been for old Prince Lohsenstein. You see, we men have generally another kind of youth to look back at than you ...

FREDERIQUE

... women artists.

AMADEUS

No, countesses, I meant to say. For three years I spent every summer in the palace at Krumau.[1] And there--for the first time in my life--I could work in peace, all by myself, with nothing more to do than to instruct Sigismund.

[1] A small Bohemian city near the border of Upper Austria. On a high rock, with a wonderful view along the river Moldau, stands the Schwarzenberg castle, which the author seems to have had in mind.

FREDERIQUE

Did he want to become a pianist?

AMADEUS

Not exactly. He wanted to join some monastic order.

FREDERIQUE

No? Is that really true?--Oh, it's queer how people change!

AMADEUS

They don't as much as you think. He has remained a man of serious mind.

FREDERIQUE

And yet he plays dance music so charmingly...?

AMADEUS

Why shouldn't he? A good waltz and a good hymn are just as acceptable to the powers above.

FREDERIQUE

How delightful those evenings in your house used to be! No farther back than last winter.... The Count and I frequently talk of them.--Have you ceased to invite Prince Sigismund, as you have me?

AMADEUS

He was here only a fortnight ago, my dear Countess--and spent the whole evening with us. We had supper in the summer-house, and then we came in here and sat chatting for a long while, and finally he improvised some variations on the Cagliostro Waltzes before he left.--And what my wife and he say to each other during their walk, when I am not with them, will no more be hidden from me than I would hide from her what you and I have been talking of here. That's how my wife and I feel toward each other--if you'll please understand, Frederique!

FREDERIQUE

But there are things one simply _can't_ say to each other.

AMADEUS

There can be no secrets between people like my wife and myself.

FREDERIQUE

Oh, of course ... but then ... what you have been saying to me will be only a small part of what you must tell your wife to-day, Amadeus.

Good-by.... (_She holds out her hand to him_)

AMADEUS