“Oh, no matter—I am not talking about it as yet.”
“The first and most important duty which a person, especially a young and pretty girl, has to fulfill is to be happy. Besides, what can a woman undertake and accomplish by herself? Of course, if we lived in England, you might become a Suffragette or join the Salvation Army, but here in Vienna? There would be a chance for you to join one of the ladies’ committees in some charity organization, or to meander down into the slums and distribute harmless gifts, or catechise the children of the suburbs; our circle of activities is so narrow! Only indirectly can we acquire any influence in public affairs, or even help direct the course of history—I mean when we exert power over some powerful man!”
“And what profitable work can this influential individual do, according to your idea?”
“Heavens! that I can’t tell. Commonly she will have to secure high positions for her friends or....”
“Certainly,” interrupted Franka; “commonly one does the common thing. But I am thinking of something different.... Play to me, Frau Eleonore; it is so lovely to hear music in the twilight.”
Frau von Rockhaus went to the grand piano. “What shall it be? Also something out of the ordinary?”
“Yes, ‘Isoldens Liebestod,’ please.”
A moment later the sweet, passion-swept chords were floating through the room. Franka closed her eyes. She breathed deeply. What she felt was a sort of anguish, for it was a longing, and, to tell the truth, a longing not for something out of the ordinary, but for the simplest and most commonplace thing which even the simplest and most commonplace maiden heart desires—Love! Yet what kind of a person must he be, should she ever meet him—the man who should be her Tristan?
She roused herself from her dreaming. “No, no,” she said to herself as she had just said aloud: “I must remain my own mistress.”
Indeed, there was not a single young man in her whole circle of acquaintance to whom she felt drawn, and, besides, she had no business to be wishing and seeking for such a one ... all her thoughts and feelings must be concentrated on the task that hovered before her.