Do you believe that you can obtain your effect by pure form--by
the three dimensions--tell me? That you can reach the practical
mind of our own day, and convey an illusion to it, without the use
of colour--without colour, mind you--do you really believe that?

ADOLPH. [Crushed] No!

GUSTAV. Well, I don't either.

ADOLPH. Why, then, did you say you did?

GUSTAV. Because I pitied you.

ADOLPH. Yes, I am to be pitied! For now I am bankrupt! Finished!--
And worst of all: not even she is left to me!

GUSTAV. Well, what could you do with her?

ADOLPH. Oh, she would be to me what God was before I became an
atheist: an object that might help me to exercise my sense of
veneration.

GUSTAV. Bury your sense of veneration and let something else grow
on top of it. A little wholesome scorn, for instance.

ADOLPH. I cannot live without having something to respect---

GUSTAV. Slave!

ADOLPH.--without a woman to respect and worship!