! You certainly must have something
to eat first! Refresh yourself a little. I'll just call Lene, and have
her bring the coffee! (Starts for the bell-pull.)

PAUL (restraining her). I think we had better wait until Hella and the
gentleman are ready.

AUNT CLARA (looking at him tenderly). Now you're not _cold_ at all,
Paul?

PAUL (significantly). No, Auntie, I am not cold here. (With less
constraint.) Just look at the fine fire in the fireplace, how it
flickers and crackles! I believe it too is glad that I am here again.
But who is gladdest of all, well, Auntie, just guess who that may be?

AUNT CLARA (shaking her head). Why, I can't know that. I can't guess
any more with this old head of mine.

PAUL (slyly). _That_ she doesn't know! Oh Auntie, Auntie! Why, you
yourself, you good old soul!

AUNT CLARA (unaffectedly). I did light the chandelier for you, Paul.

PAUL. Of course, the chandelier! Do you suppose I did not notice that
you were at the bottom of that, Auntie? Come give me your hand; thank
you very much, Auntie!

AUNT CLARA (putting her arms around him). I'm going to give you a kiss,
my boy. Your wife will take no offense at that. (She kisses him.)

PAUL. Oh my wife! That needn't ... (He gently disengages himself from
his aunt's embrace and goes to and fro meditating.)

AUNT CLARA (following him with her eyes). Do you still remember, Paul,
how I would hold you on my knees and rock you when you were a little
fellow?

PAUL (paces to and fro again). Yes, yes, how all of that comes back
again! How it is resurrected from its sleep!... (He sits down before
the fireplace in deep thought and stares into the fire.)

AUNT CLARA (also goes to the fireplace). Right there, where you are
sitting now, my boy, you often read fairy tales to me, about Snow-White
and Cinderella and about the wolf and the old grandmother ...

PAUL (dreaming). Fairy tales, yes indeed!

AUNT CLARA. You sat here, and I here, and you held up your fairy tale
book and acted as if you were grown up ...

PAUL (smiling). I suppose that's the way one felt too!

AUNT CLARA. And papa and mamma were out in society or in the city ...

PAUL. Yes, quite so, that's it. For, on the whole, as I remember, I was
not in this hall frequently. There was always a little fear mixed up
with it. Quite natural! The pictures, the spaciousness, the emptiness
and all that! Later that did disappear. The last time that I was in
this room, when may it have been ..