Fable (As Andrew opens the wicket).—I kiss your hands, ladies.
Ann.—Good evening, Notary. Be so kind as to come in. How you startled me! I could as soon expect death as you, coming from that direction.
Fable.—I beg your pardon, but if I am to speak the truth, I feel relieved that you were a little startled. The news I bring is such that it is well to be a little used to surprise.
Ann.—For God’s love, what more today? Andrew, oblige by asking Granny to bring the lamp. (Exit Andrew.)
Fable.—It is the nature of my news made me come by way of the garden. I do not care to meet the doctor just now.
Ann.—He has gone to the Shorfstein. But your report, Notary? I am not so alarmed as curious.
Fable.—What would you say, my lady . . . if I were tell you that the son of the old man there, a member of the Polish uprising in ’64, captured and carried away to Sakhalin in ’70, in which he made a lucky dash for liberty, who has since been residing in Arkansas City, U. S. A., where he won his naturalization papers . . . in other words, that Mr. Hans is now on his way here . . . You don’t seem a bit astonished?
Julia.—Then Granny was right.
Ann.—My dear notary, I can furnish the latest detail,—Mr. Hans Karvan is already here.
Fable.—Already?
Ann.—Or rather may be any minute. Our Granny saw him a while ago at the Shorftstein. It is probable that he is waiting for night fall.
Fable.—In that case you may answer with your own lips the question he sent by me from Paris . . . He came on, as it seems, without waiting for his answer.
Ann.—A question . . . I should answer?
Fable.—As it concerns you chiefly. Mr. Hans turns to me—not officially to be sure but still as notary, as his particular friend and counsellor and friend of the family—to know if Miss Ann Lash is still single. Ah, there, my lady! It seems to me I noted a slight symptom of a start.
Ann.—I am not startled, Mr. Notary. . . at least not for the reason you think. Mr. Fable, Hans does not even dream of the changes that have taken place here, in a business way, since he left. And you can imagine how a question like that coming from him at this time . . . when it is a question of what will
