Page:Poet Lore, volume 21, 1910.djvu/446

 time I must not think of anything else.

Maya.—You certainly are in a hurry to get there.

Petr.—Why shouldn’t I be! Others at my age already have a career behind them.

Maya.—Will you be glad when you are ordained and are your own master?

Petr.—Well, I wish it were to-day.

Maya (inquisitively).—You took up theology gladly, did you not?

Petr.—Gladly? (Just as if he did not know what to answer.) Oh! yes, gladly, even if only for my mother’s sake.

Maya.—Listen to me, don’t you ever think of a greater career?

Petr.—How do you mean?

Maya.—Well, I don't know how you priests make a career. It is most likely the same as in other lines. A small country parish is not the end of your ambitions. What comes after a parson? a dean, ha? Or a vicar? (Laughs.)

Petr (with a smile).—Well, perhaps—a dean.

Maya.—Yes, and after a dean an archdean and then a bishop. And archbishop, cardinal (laughs). Well, would not that be a career?

Petr.—But, Miss, what are you thinking of? I never in my life have thought of being anything greater than a simple country parson. I have really never given it any thought at all.

Maya.—Aren’t you ambitious?

Petr (calmly).—No.

Maya.—Peculiar! (After a while.) You know what I was thinking of. It seems to me that this calling of yours does not afford you happiness. I don’t believe that it is not impossible to be ambitious in a labor of love. Look! not even I thought of being an actress. First I trifled with that idea, which later on became my existence. But as soon as I gave myself up to the theater I devoted myself to it with all my soul. Passionately. And still, look! I am not one of those egoists who consider an actor the crownpiece of society. On the contrary, the profession—do you understand me—not the art but the profession—is at times even repulsive to me. I look upon most of the people from the stage point of view. But nevertheless, I live with my entire soul in my art, I am lost therein, it is that which gives passion and pleasure to my life—without it I don’t know whether I could exist.

Petr.—You are happy?