MAX.
How long were you away?
VON KELLER.
Five years, with examinations and being sent down to commissioners and all that. Well, now I am back again. I drink home-brewed beer; I patronize local tailors; I have even, with a noble fearlessness of death, eaten the deer-steak of the season; and this I call pleasure! Yes, youth, travel, and women are good things; but the world must be ruled, and sober men are needed. Your time will come some day. The years of honor are approaching. Yes, yes, especially when one joins the ecclesiastical courts.
MAX.
Are you going to do that?
VON KELLER.
I think of it. And to be at one with those of the cloth-- I speak quite openly with you--it is worth my while, in short, to interest myself in religious questions. I have of late in my speeches, as perhaps you know, taken this position; and as for the connections which this household has--let me tell you I am proud of them.
MAX.
You might have been proud long ago.