ADOLPH.  Perfectly sure!  For I have tested myself.  When I went to bed that night after our talk, I rehearsed your argument point by point, and I knew you had it right.  But when I woke up from a good night’s sleep and my head was clear again, then it came over me in a flash that you might be mistaken after all.  And I jumped out of bed and got hold of my brushes and paints—­but it was no use!  Every trace of illusion was gone—­it was nothing but smears of paint, and I quaked at the thought of having believed, and having made others believe, that a painted canvas could be anything but a painted canvas.  The veil had fallen from my eyes, and it was just as impossible for me to paint any more as it was to become a child again.

GUSTAV.  And then you saw that the realistic tendency of our day, its craving for actuality and tangibility, could only find its proper form in sculpture, which gives you body, extension in all three dimensions—­

ADOLPH. [Vaguely] The three dimensions—­oh yes, body, in a word!

GUSTAV.  And then you became a sculptor yourself.  Or rather, you have been one all your life, but you had gone astray, and nothing was needed but a guide to put you on the right road—­Tell me, do you experience supreme joy now when you are at work?

ADOLPH.  Now I am living!

GUSTAV.  May I see what you are doing?

ADOLPH.  A female figure.

GUSTAV.  Without a model?  And so lifelike at that!

ADOLPH. [Apathetically] Yes, but it resembles somebody.  It is remarkable that this woman seems to have become a part of my body as I of hers.

GUSTAV.  Well, that’s not so very remarkable.  Do you know what transfusion is?

ADOLPH.  Of blood?  Yes.

GUSTAV.  And you seem to have bled yourself a little too much.  When I look at the figure here I comprehend several things which I merely guessed before.  You have loved her tremendously!

ADOLPH.  Yes, to such an extent that I couldn’t tell whether she was I or I she.  When she is smiling, I smile also.  When she is weeping, I weep.  And when she—­can you imagine anything like it?—­ when she was giving life to our child—­I felt the birth pangs within myself.

GUSTAV.  Do you know, my dear friend—­I hate to speak of it, but you are already showing the first symptoms of epilepsy.

ADOLPH. [Agitated] I!  How can you tell?

GUSTAV.  Because I have watched the symptoms in a younger brother of mine who had been worshipping Venus a little too excessively.

ADOLPH.  How—­how did it show itself—­that thing you spoke of?

[During the following passage GUSTAV speaks with great animation, and ADOLPH listens so intently that, unconsciously, he imitates many of GUSTAV’S gestures.]

GUSTAV.  It was dreadful to witness, and if you don’t feel strong enough I won’t inflict a description of it on you.

ADOLPH. [Nervously] Yes, go right on—­just go on!