FAUST
Dear Oldham!
My dear delightful visionary Oldham!
What an adorer of the past you are!
OLDHAM
Yes, I adore it sacredly, and loathe
To-day's whole content—except you! I loathe it
So much that, if I had the dynamite,
I'd blow it all—and you and me ourselves—
Into a nebula of dust.... Ah, well,
We hardly can decide these things to-night,
Can we? I must be off, little as I like,
To end our midnight talking.
FAUST
Oh, not yet!
OLDHAM
I must; this is not good for me: I fear
To let myself dwell on these restless thoughts
Which with a perilous longing sometimes make
My actual days so bitter that despair
Grips me in horror. And besides, I'm due
To pick my brother up. I have, you see,
The limousine to-night, and that entails
Its obligations. Dear modernity!
Whose Saviour is the limousine!... Good night!
FAUST
Good night. May all the Furies and the Gorgons
Of Greece and Florence leave you in repose
To dream to-night of white-limbed goddesses
And painters like archangels!