Book 2 Journey To Siegfried
Chapter 10 The Woman In The Schloss
I
They came out of the Festival Youth Theatre to the refreshing¹ night air. Be-low them in a sweep of the ground, was a lighted restaurant. On the sideof the hill was another, smaller one. The restaurants varied² slightly inprice though neither of them was inexpensive. Renata was in eveningdress of black velvet³, Sir Stafford Nye was in white tie and full eveningdress.
‘A very distinguished⁴ audience,’ murmured Stafford Nye to his compan-ion. ‘Plenty of money there. A young audience on the whole. You wouldn’tthink they could afford it.’
‘Oh! that can be seen to–it is seen to.’
‘A subsidy⁵ for the élite of youth? That kind of thing?’ ‘Yes.’
They walked towards the restaurant on the high side of the hill.
‘They give you an hour for the meal. Is that right?’
‘Technically an hour. Actually an hour and a quarter.’
‘That audience,’ said Sir Stafford Nye, ‘most of them, nearly all of them, Ishould say, are real lovers of music.’
‘Most of them, yes. It’s important, you know.’
‘What do you mean–important?’
‘That the enthusiasm should be genuine. At both ends of the scale,’ sheadded.
‘What did you mean, exactly, by that?’
‘Those who practise and organize violence must love violence, mustwant it, must yearn⁶ for it. The seal of ecstasy⁷ in every movement, of slash-ing, hurting, destroying. And the same thing with the music. The ears mustappreciate every moment of the harmonies and beauties. There can be nopretending in this game.’
‘Can you double the r?les–do you mean you can combine violence and alove of music or a love of art?’
‘It is not always easy, I think, but yes. There are many who can. It issafer really, if they don’t have to combine r?les.’

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