I talked so long about
the insignificant part played by painting on the whole--talked so
long about it, and invented so many reasons to prove what I said,
that one fine day I found myself convinced of its futility. So all
you had to do was to breathe on a house of cards.
GUSTAV. Pardon me for recalling what you said at the beginning of
our talk--that she had never taken anything from you.
ADOLPH. She doesn't nowadays. Because there is nothing more to
take.
GUSTAV. The snake being full, it vomits now.
ADOLPH. Perhaps she has been taking a good deal more from me than
I have been aware of?
GUSTAV. You can be sure of that. She took when you were not
looking, and that is called theft.
ADOLPH. Perhaps she never did educate me?
GUSTAV. But you her? In all likelihood! But it was her trick to
make it appear the other way to you. May I ask how she set about
educating you?
ADOLPH. Oh, first of all--hm!
GUSTAV. Well?
ADOLPH. Well, I---
GUSTAV. No, we were speaking of her.
ADOLPH. Really, I cannot tell now.
GUSTAV. Do you see!
ADOLPH. However--she devoured my faith also, and so I sank further
and further down, until you came along and gave me a new faith.
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