MASTER. Of course! Come and play chess now.
CONSUL. I prefer to talk. And you need also to hear your own voice a little.
MASTER. True enough—only it is so easy to get to talking about the past.
CONSUL. That makes us forget the present.
MASTER. There is no present. What's just passing is empty nothingness. One has to look ahead or behind—and ahead is better, for there lies hope!
CONSUL. [Seating himself at the table] Hope—of what?
MASTER. Of change.
CONSUL. Well! Do you mean to say you have had enough of the peace of old age?
MASTER. Perhaps.
CONSUL. It's certain then. And if now you had the choice between solitude and the past?