SCENE V

_Enter, the_ SECRETARY.

SECRETARY.

Good day!

CLARA (_seizes a chair to keep from falling_).

He! Oh, if only _he_ had not come back!

SECRETARY. Your father is not at home?

CLARA.

No!

SECRETARY.

I bring you good news. Your brother--No, Clara, I cannot talk to you in
this formal way. All these tables, chairs, and cupboards that I know so
well--Good day, old friend!

[_He nods to a cup-board._]

How are you? You have not changed a bit!--around which we used to romp
as children--it seems to me they will put their heads together and
deride me as a fool, unless I quickly assume another tone. I must "thou"
you, as I used to do! If you do not like it, just say to yourself: The
big boy is dreaming, I will awaken him, I will step in front of him and
draw myself up to my full height [_With gestures_], and let him see that
it is no longer a little child that stands before him--[_He points to a
scratch on the door_]--that shows how big you were at eleven!--but a
very proper, grown-up girl, who could reach the sugar when it is upon
the sideboard! Surely you remember! That was the place, the firm
fortress, where it was safe from us even without being locked up. We
used to amuse ourselves by slapping flies, when it stood there, because
we could not endure to see them flying around happily and enjoying what
we ourselves were unable to reach.

CLARA.

I should think people would forget about such things when they had
hundreds and thousands of books to study.

SECRETARY.

Indeed they do forget it! To be sure, what does one not forget over
Justinian and Gaius? Small boys who persistently resist their A B C's
know very well why they do it; they have a presentiment that if they do
not apply themselves too hard to the primer they will never have to
struggle with the Bible. But it is a downright shame! People deceive the
innocent souls! They are shown the red rooster with the basket full of
eggs on the last page, so that of their own accord they say: "Ah!" And
then there is no more holding back; they go tearing down the hill to Z,
and so forth and so forth, until all of a sudden they find themselves in
the midst of the _Corpus Juris_, and are horrified when they realize
what a wilderness the accursed twenty-four letters have enticed them
into--the letters, which, in the beginning, formed themselves, in a
merry dance, only into nice-tasting and nice-smelling words such as
"cherry" and "rose."

CLARA.