KORB.

Not very many.  It is more than a year since I was last here.

ADELAIDE (indifferently).

But are there no people from Rosenau here?

KORB.

Among the soldiers are four from the village.  There is John Lutz of
Schimmellutz—­

ADELAIDE.

I know.  Have you no other acquaintance here from the village?

KORB.

None at all, except him, of course—­

ADELAIDE.

Except him?  Whom do you mean?

KORB.

Why, our Mr. Conrad.

ADELAIDE.

Oh, to be sure!  Are you not going to visit him?  I thought you had always been good friends.

KORB.

Going to visit him?  That is the first place I am going to.  I have been looking forward to it during the whole journey.  He is a faithful soul of whom the village has a right to be proud.

ADELAIDE (warmly).

Yes, he has a faithful heart.

KORB (eagerly).

Ever merry, ever friendly, and so attached to the village!  Poor man, it is a long time since he was there!

ADELAIDE.

Don’t speak of it!

KORB.

He will ask me about everything—­about the farming—­

ADELAIDE (eagerly).

And about the horses.  The old sorrel he was so fond of riding is still alive.  KORB.  And about the shrubs he planted with you.

ADELAIDE.

Especially about the lilac-bush where my arbor now stands.  Be sure you tell him about that.

KORB.

And about the pond.  Three hundred and sixty carp!

ADELAIDE.

And sixty gold-tench; don’t forget that.  And the old carp with the copper ring about his body, that he put there, came out with the last haul, and we threw him back again.

KORB.

And how he will ask about you, Miss Adelaide!

ADELAIDE.

Tell him I am well.

KORB.

And how you have carried on the farming since the general died; and that you take his newspaper which I read aloud to the farm-hands afterward.

ADELAIDE.

Just that you need not tell him. [Sighing, aside.] On these lines I shall learn nothing whatever. [Pause, gravely.] See here, dear Korb, I have heard all sorts of things about Mr. Bolz that surprise me.  He is said to live an irregular life.

KORB.

Yes, I imagine he does; he always was a wild colt.

ADELAIDE.

He is said to spend more than his income.

KORB.

Yes, that is quite possible.  But I am perfectly sure he spends it merrily.

ADELAIDE (aside).

Small consolation I shall get from him! (Indifferently.) He has now a good position, I suppose; won’t he soon be looking for a wife?

KORB.

A wife?  No, he is not doing that.  It is impossible.