The Lonely Way-Intermezzo-Countess Mizzie - LightNovelsOnl.com
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What?... Naw! That flourish belongs to the preceding word. Seven only!
Otherwise she wouldn't be coming to-day.
MARIE (_reading again_)
"Have new offer on brilliant terms."
AMADEUS
On _brilliant_ terms!
MARIE
Then I suppose she'll do it at last?
AMADEUS
Do what?
MARIE
Settle down in Berlin for good.
AMADEUS
Oh, it isn't certain. "Have offer," she says, and not "have accepted offer." No, we'll have to talk it over first.
MARIE
Really?
AMADEUS
Of course. We consult each other about everything, my dear Marie--just as we used to do. And in a much more impersonal spirit than before. As far as I am concerned, I shall be quite free next year, and have no more reason to live in Vienna than in Berlin or in America.
MARIE
But it will be dreadful for me if Cecilia goes away.
AMADEUS
Well, these successes abroad may possibly force the people here to understand what they have in Cecilia, and to act accordingly.
MARIE
I hope so.--Besides, I think really that Cecilia has developed a great deal lately. To me her voice seems fuller and richer--with more soul to it, I might say.
AMADEUS
Yes, don't you think so? That's my feeling, too.
MARIE
But how she _does_ work! It had never occurred to me that a finished artist might be so industrious.
AMADEUS
Might, you say? Must, you should say.
MARIE
Last summer, when I came out mornings in the garden to play with my children, she would be practicing already--just like a young student.
With absolute regularity, from nine until a quarter of ten. Then again before lunch, from twelve to half past. And finally another half hour in the evening.... If the weather was good or bad; if she was in good spirits or....
AMADEUS
Or...?
MARIE
She was always in good spirits for that matter. I don't think anything in the world could have kept her from practicing those runs and trills.
AMADEUS
Yes, that's her way. Nothing in the world could keep her from.... But then, what could there be to keep her from it last Summer? In that rustic retreat of yours, where you didn't see anybody ... or hardly anybody....
MARIE
n.o.body at all.
AMADEUS
Well, you received a call now and then--or Cecilia did, at least.
MARIE
Oh, I see. You mean--Prince Sigismund. He could hardly be said to call.
AMADEUS (_smilingly, with an appearance of unconcern_)
Why not?
MARIE
He merely whisked by on his wheel.
AMADEUS (_as before_)
Oh, he must at least have stopped to lean against a tree for a few moments. He must even have taken time enough--and I am mighty glad he did--to photograph the little house in which you were living. (_He takes from the desk a small framed photograph and hands it to Marie, who is seated on the couch_)
