oses
To spend a winter on her, she'll come out of it
Queen of them all, I'll wager.

FALK.
Not a doubt of it.

GULDSTAD [laughing].
Young women are odd creatures, to be sure!

FALK [gaily].
Like winter rye-seed, canopied secure
By frost and snow, invisibly they sprout.

GULDSTAD.
Then in the festive ball-room bedded out--

FALK.
With equivique and scandal for manure--

GULDSTAD.
And when April sun shines--

FALK.
There the blade is;
The seed shot up in mannikin green ladies!

[LIND comes up and seizes FALK's hand.

LIND.
How well I chose,--past understanding well;--
I feel a bliss that nothing can dispel.

GULDSTAD.
There stands your mistress; tell us, if you can,
The right demeanor for a plighted man.

LIND [perturbed].
That's a third person's business to declare.

GULDSTAD [joking].
Ill-tempered! This to Anna's ears I'll bear.
[Goes to the ladies.

LIND [looking after him].
Can such a man be tolerated?

FALK.
You
Mistook his aim, however,--

LIND.
And how so?

FALK.
It was not Anna that he had in view.

LIND.
How, was it Svanhild?

FALK.
Well, I hardly know.
[Whimsically.
Forgive me, martyr to another's cause!

LIND.
What do you mean?

FALK.
You've read the news to-night?

LIND.
No.

FALK.
Do so. There 'tis told in black and white
Of one who, ill-luck's bitter counsel taking,
Had his sound teeth extracted from his jaws
Because his cousin-german's teeth were aching.

MISS JAY [looking out to the left].
Here comes the priest!

MRS. HALM.
Now see a man of might!

STIVER.
Five children, six, seven, eight--

FALK.
And, heavens, all recent!

MISS JAY.
Ugh! it is almost to be called indecent.

[A carriage has meantime been heard stopping outside
to the left. STRAWMAN, his wife, and eight little
girls, all in traveling dress, enter one by one.

MRS. HALM. [advancing to meet them].
Welcome, a hearty welcome!

STRAWMAN.
Thank you.

MRS. STRAWMAN.
It is
A party?

MRS. HALM.
No, dear madam, not at all.

MRS. STRAWMAN.
If we disturb you--

MRS. HALM.
_Au contraire_, your visit