ink he should have hit upon that
idea! Ha, ha, ha!

Hamar (laughing). Do you mean--?

Signe (laughing). Yes! You must know that Valborg--

Valborg. Signe!

Signe.--who has sent so many distinguished suitors about their business,
cannot escape from the attentions of a certain red pair of hands--ha,
ha, ha, ha!

Hamar. Do you mean Sannaes?

Signe. Yes! (Points out of the window.) There is the culprit! He is
waiting, Valborg, for you to come, in maiden meditation, with the
bouquet in your hands--as you came just now--

Mrs. Tjaelde. (getting up). No, it is your father he is waiting for. Ah,
he sees him now. (Goes out by the verandah.)

Signe. Yes, it really is father--riding a bay horse!

Hamar (getting up). On a bay horse! Let us go and say "how do you do" to
the bay horse!

Signe. N--o, no!

Hamar. You won't come and say "how do you do" to the bay horse? A
cavalry officer's wife must love horses next best to her husband.

Signe. And he his wife next best to his horses.

Hamar. What? Are you jealous of a horse?

Signe. Oh, I know very well you have never been so fond of me as you are
of horses.

Hamar. Come along! (Pulls her up out of her chair.)

Signe. But I don't feel the least interested in the bay horse.

Hamar. Very well, then, I will go alone!

Signe. No, I will come.

Hamar (to VALBORG). Won't you come and welcome the bay horse too?

Valborg. No, but I will go and welcome my father!

Signe (looking back, as she goes). Yes, of course--father as well. (She
and HAMAR go out.)

(VALBORG goes to the farthest window and stands looking out of it. Her
dress is the same colour as the long curtain, and a piece of statuary
and some flowers conceal her from any one entering the room. SANNAES
comes in, carrying a small saddle-bag and a cloak, which he puts down
on a chair behind the door. As he turns round he sees the bouquet on the
door.)

Sannaes. There it is! Has she dropped it by accident, or did she throw
it down? Never mind--she has had it in her hands. (Picks it up, kisses
it, and is going to take it away.)

Valborg (coming forward). Leave it alone!

Sannaes (dropping the bouquet). You here, Miss Valborg--? I didn't see
you--

Valborg. But I can see what you are after. How dare you presume to think
of persecuting me with your flowers and your--your red hands? (He puts
his hands behind his back.) How dare you make me a laughing-stock to
every one in the house, and I suppose to every on