Miss Jay [within].
Come forward, Anna; stand before this mirror!
Some Ladies [calling].
You, too, Lind!
Miss Jay.
Back to back! A little nearer!
Ladies.
Come, let us see by how much she is short.
[All run into the garden-room; laughter and shrill talk are heard for a while from within. [Falk, who during the preceding scene has been walking about in the garden, advances into the foreground, stops and looks in until the noise has somewhat abated.
Falk.
There love's romance is being done to death.—
The butcher once who boggled at the slaughter,
Prolonging needlessly the ox's breath,—
He got his twenty days of bread and water;
But these—these butchers yonder—they go
free. [Clenches his fist.
I could be tempted—; hold, words have no worth,
I've sworn it, action only from henceforth!
Lind [coming hastily but cautiously out].
Thank God, they're talking fashions; now's my chance
To slip away—
