ALBERT
Can't you see, Amadeus, how you have to force yourself in order to use this evasion toward me, who, of course, has no right whatever to demand any frankness? Can't you see how you are wasting a part of your mental energy, so to speak, on this slight disingenuousness? No, dissimulation is utterly foreign to your nature, as I have always told you. If you should ever get to the point where you had to deceive one who was near and dear to you, that would be the end of you.
AMADEUS
Your worry is quite superfluous! Haven't you known us long enough—me and Cecilia—to know that our marriage is based, above all else, on absolute frankness?
ALBERT
Many have good intentions, but their courage often deserts them at the critical moment.
AMADEUS
We have never yet kept anything hidden from each other.
ALBERT
Because so far you have had nothing to confess.