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* Thus, to cite just one example, the scene in the commercial counsellor’s house when Lusard, tired of listening to the lady of the house’s bravura piano-playing, retires to the study to talk with Counsellor Dalund. A wistful agreeableness now pervades the two reminiscers talking about the past – until Arnold, the music having stopped towards the end of their conversation, sits down behind the open door and unsuspectingly overhears them, whereupon the lady herself and the equerry enter – and the conversation of the present age begins. Such realism. I don’t believe the most hard-to-please critic could find anything to displease him here – certainly no objection to the effect that anything happening before one’s eyes here wasn’t as if one saw it oneself. And yet what ingenuity in the plot, to bring the two ages together in this way! The past is living and being relived in remembrance in the intimacy of the study, and out in the drawing-room, which is the encircling frame, the present age is strident, yes, is even in its exhibitionist brashness on the point of publicizing the secrets of the study. Just as the best horseman is said to guide his snorting steed with a thread, making it look as if the horse with its enormous strength has the upper hand when in fact this impression, far more than just that, is precisely the expression of the rider’s absolute control, so also the author guides the forward movement of the situation so naturally that, although there seems to be no design, this appearance is precisely the expression of the omnipresent purpose, which only shows itself by concealing itself.