Doctor.—­Your virginal virtue may rest assured.  I shall not poison any one.

Anton.—­I believe you, but I must tell you that I know you well.  I appreciate your energy, your learning, your common sense, but I should not like to cross you in anything.

Doctor.—­So much the better for me.

Anton.—­But if it is a question of the nobility, notwithstanding our programme I make you a present of them.  You shall not cut their heads off.

Doctor.—­To be sure.  And now go and get to work for me—­or rather, for us.

Anton.—­For us, Jozwowicz.  Do not forget that.

Doctor.—­I will not swear it to you, but I promise you that I will not forget.

Anton.—­But how will you manage that nobleman?

Doctor.—­Do you require that I make you my confidant?

Anton.—­In the first place, I do not need your confidence, because in our camp we have sufficient perspicacity.  There is the matter of the prince’s daughter—­that is all.  But I am always afraid that for her sake you will abandon public affairs.  As I am working for you, I am responsible for you, therefore we must be frank.

Doctor.—­Let us be frank.

Anton.—­Therefore you have said to yourself:  I shall get rid of that nobleman.  Do it then.  It is your business—­but I ask you once more:  Do you wish to become a member of parliament for us, or for the princess?  That is my business.

Doctor.—­I throw my cards on the table.  I, you, we are all new people, and all of us have this quality—­we are not dolls, painted with the same color.  There is room in us for convictions, love, hatred—­in a word, as I told you, for everything of which a man of complex nature is composed.  Nature has given me a heart and the right to live, therefore I desire for happiness; it gave me a mind, therefore I serve my chosen idea.  One does not exclude the other.  Why should you mix the princess with our public affairs—­you, an intelligent man?  Why do you wish to replace life by a phrase?  I have the right to be happy, and I shall achieve it.  And I shall know how to harmonize the idea with the life, like a sail with a boat.  I shall sail more surely then.  You must understand me; in that is our strength—­that we know how to harmonize.  In that lies our superiority over others, for they do not know how to live.  What I will amount to with that woman, I do not know.  You call me a Hamlet—­perhaps I may become a Hamlet, but you have no need of it.

Anton.—­It seems to me that you are again right.  But thus you will fight two battles, and your forces will have to be divided.

Doctor.—­No!  I am strong enough.

Anton.—­Say frankly—­she is betrothed.

Doctor.—­Yes.

Anton.—­And she loves her fiance.

Doctor.—­Or she deceives herself.

Anton.—­At any rate, she does not love you.

Doctor.—­In the first place, I must get rid of him.  In the mean while, go and work.