La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler

La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler

Author:Arthur Schnitzler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nick Hern Books


5. The Young Wife and the Husband

A comfortable bedroom. It is half past ten at night. The YOUNG WIFE is in bed, reading. The HUSBAND enters in his dressing gown.

YOUNG WIFE (without looking up). Work all done?

HUSBAND. I’m too tired. And besides –

YOUNG WIFE. What?

HUSBAND. I suddenly felt so lonely at my desk. I found myself missing you.

YOUNG WIFE (looking up). Really?

HUSBAND (sits beside her on the bed). Don’t read any more tonight. It’ll ruin your eyes.

YOUNG WIFE (closes the book). So what’s up?

HUSBAND. Nothing, darling. I love you. You know that.

YOUNG WIFE. One could sometimes almost forget.

HUSBAND. Sometimes one should forget.

YOUNG WIFE. Why is that?

HUSBAND. Because otherwise marriage would be incomplete. It would . . . how can I put this . . . it would lose its sanctity.

YOUNG WIFE. Really . . .

HUSBAND. No, it’s true . . . If, in the five years we’ve been married, we hadn’t sometimes forgotten that we were in love with each other – well, then, we wouldn’t still be in love now.

YOUNG WIFE. You’ve lost me.

HUSBAND. My point is simply this: you and I have had, what, a dozen love affairs – all with each other. Isn’t that how it feels to you?

YOUNG WIFE. I haven’t been counting.

HUSBAND. If we’d had the whole meal, as it were, at one sitting; if I’d given in to my passion straight away – well, then we’d be no better off now than millions of other couples. Our relationship would be over.

YOUNG WIFE. Oh, I see what you mean.

HUSBAND. Believe me, Emma, I was worried at first that that might happen.

YOUNG WIFE. Me too.

HUSBAND. Do you see? I was right, wasn’t I? And that’s why it’s good, sometimes, just to live together as good friends.

YOUNG WIFE. I see.

HUSBAND. And that way we’ve been able to keep on having honeymoons, because I never let them . . .

YOUNG WIFE. Go on for months.

HUSBAND. Exactly.

YOUNG WIFE. And so now – we’re about to be more than just good friends again?

HUSBAND (embracing her). Indeed.

YOUNG WIFE. But what if – I didn’t feel the same way?

HUSBAND. But you do feel the same way. Because you’re the cleverest and most delightful person in the world. I’m so happy to have found you.

YOUNG WIFE. How nice. You can be very flattering – now and then.

HUSBAND (takes off his dressing gown and gets into bed). For a man who’s seen the world a bit – here, rest your head against my shoulder – for a man who’s seen the world, marriage is a much more mysterious thing than it is for you young girls from good families. You come to us pure and . . . well, at least to a certain extent . . . ignorant. And because of that, you actually have a much clearer conception of the true meaning of love than we do.

YOUNG WIFE (laughing). Oh!

HUSBAND. It’s true. We get confused and discouraged by all the different experiences we’ve had to go through before marriage. Of course, you



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