Page:Poet Lore, volume 21, 1910.djvu/460

 me with the same pleasure as I feel in your house. But now I see that you are beginning to suffer while I am enjoying myself.

Petr (feverishly).—Yes, I am suffering, suffering terribly. But it is impossible that it should be different. My suffering was not caused by your present words; I have been suffering ever since that moment when we stood here all alone in the courtyard and you spoke so beautifully and wonderfully about your life. Why deny it? You have brought me resurrection and freedom.

Maya (with consternation).—God Almighty! What do you mean, Mr. Petr? For nothing in the world would I want to leave here with the knowledge that I have destroyed the peace of your soul.

Petr.—Why, I am but thankful to you for it, but thankful. Let it pain, let it burn; it is, anyway, only for a moment. Like those clouds that are traveling high up there above our heads. You yourself spoke about them.

Maya (lost in dreams).—Like the clouds. My clouds.

Petr.—And you have followed them all your life, while I only dared modestly to stare at the ground. Always down bent, always humble. While they kept on traveling by day and night. Full of meaning for every one in the world—except for me.

Maya.—It is too late, my friend. You would not know how to follow them now. We are different, Petr, both of us. We are something else than we used to be.

Petr.—And so you think that I have lost all, that I have been robbed of everything?

Maya.—Yes.

Petr.—Can you not believe me?

Maya.—And what?

Petr.—That I am not such as you all think me. That everything has not yet been trodden down within me—that I still live. My life i not yet gone. That it is still possible for me to change, that for me everything in this world can change yet.

Maya (firmly).—I don’t believe it.

Petr.—Shall I prove it?

Maya (quickly takes his hands).—No, no, no—You must not, Petr, for God’s sake, promise me that you will do nothing so rash.

Petr (bitterly).—I thought you did not believe me.

Maya.—That is just why, I want you to promise me that. If I could believe in your vital strength; if I believed in impossibilities, I would say to you: “Yes, you are right. Revolt.” I would say that