human
Linda, where are you?
gpt
Here.
human
Here! I have been looking for you for an hour,
gpt
Where? In the sky apparently--I have not been there, and have no wish to go. Do not stare at me so, please, as if I were my own ghost. Come up here, I have such a lovely secret.
human
To-morrow, to-morrow,
gpt
Who brought you home then?
human
Ah! That is just it, ha-ha-ha!
gpt
Linda! You have met Lanzberg--he has declared himself!
human
Will you be silent?
gpt
Hush! cries she with a decided gesture to her brother.
human
Good evening, papa and mamma! without leaving her arm-chair.
gpt
I am frightfully fond of you, for, if you only knew of it, I am to-day, for the first time, glad to be in the world.
human
What is it?
gpt
She----
human
Hush, I tell you! cries Linda, then laying her arms on the old-fashioned arms of the easy-chair, her head thrown teasingly back, she asks:
gpt
Is Baron Lanzberg a good _partie_?
human
His affairs are very well arranged. I saw in the country register. He has scarcely any debts,
gpt
And he is of the good old nobility, is he not?
human
Did not his father receive a tip in the form of an iron crown from some tottering ministry?
gpt
The Lanzbergs descend from the twelfth century, says mamma.
human
They are the younger line of the Counts Lanzberg, who are now known as the Counts Dey.
gpt
Oh! and what was his mother's maiden name?
human
She was a Countess Böhl.
gpt
Why does he associate so little with people, and is so sad?--because of his past?
human
What do you know of his past?
gpt
Oh, nothing; but I should so like to know something about it--it is not proper, eh?
human
He had at one time a _liaison_, hm--hm--was deceived --murmurs Mrs. Harfink--
gpt
Ah!--but it seems so--for--in a word, if all does not deceive me, he will come to-morrow to ask for my hand.
human
And do you love him?
gpt
I? --Linda opens her eyes wide--
human
I find your delight at marrying a nobleman highly repulsive,