Instantly! instantly!
[To the COUNTESS.
And let him not
Stay here too long. It might awake suspicion
In the old man —
COUNTESS
A truce with your precautions!
[Exeunt TERZKY and ILLO.
SCENE III
COUNTESS, MAX. PICCOLOMINI.
MAX. (peeping in on the stage slyly)
Aunt Terzky! may I venture?
[Advances to the middle of the stage, and looks around
him with uneasiness.
She's not here!
Where is she?
COUNTESS
Look but somewhat narrowly
In yonder corner, lest perhaps she lie
Concealed behind that screen.
MAX
There lie her gloves!
[Snatches at them, but the COUNTESS takes them herself.
You unkind lady! You refuse me this,
You make it an amusement to torment me.
COUNTESS
And this the thanks you give me for my trouble?
MAX
O, if you felt the oppression at my heart!
Since we've been here, so to constrain myself
With such poor stealth to hazard words and glances.
These, these are not my habits!
COUNTESS
You have still
Many new habits to acquire, young friend!
But on this proof of your obedient temper
I must continue to insist; and only
On this condition can I play the agent
For your concerns.
MAX
But wherefore comes she not?
Where is she?
COUNTESS
Into my hands you must place it
Whole and entire. Whom could you find, indeed,
More zealously affected to your interest?
No soul on earth must know it – not your father;
He must not, above all.
MAX
Alas! what danger?
Here is no face on which I might concentre
All the enraptured soul stirs up within me.
O lady! tell me, is all changed around me?
Or is it only I?
I find myself,
As among strangers! Not a trace is left
Of all my former wishes, former joys.
Where has it vanished to? There was a time
When even, methought, with such a world as this,
I was not discontented. Now how flat!
How stale! No life, no bloom, no flavor in it!
My comrades are intolerable to me.
My father – even to him I can say nothing.
My arms, my military duties – O!
They are such wearying toys!
COUNTESS
But gentle friend!
I must entreat it of your condescension,
You would be pleased to sink your eye, and favor
With one short glance or two this poor stale world,