Geo. Why, of course.  Das versteht sich; but you have to always think a thing out, or you’re not satisfied.  But let’s not go to bothering about thinking out this present business; we’re here, we’re in for it; you are as moribund to see Annie as I am to see Margaret; you know the terms:  we’ve got to speak German.  Now stop your mooning and get at your Meisterschaft; we’ve got nothing else in the world.

W. Do you think that’ll see us through?

Geo. Why it’s got to.  Suppose we wandered out of it and took a chance at the language on our own responsibility, where the nation would we be!  Up a stump, that’s where.  Our only safety is in sticking like wax to the text.

W. But what can we talk about?

Geo. Why, anything that Meisterschaft talks about.  It ain’t our affair.

W. I know; but Meisterschaft talks about everything.

Geo. And yet don’t talk about anything long enough for it to get embarrassing.  Meisterschaft is just splendid for general conversation.

W. Yes, that’s so; but it’s so blamed general!  Won’t it sound foolish?

Geo. Foolish!  Why, of course; all German sounds foolish.

W. Well, that is true; I didn’t think of that.

Geo. Now, don’t fool around any more.  Load up; load up; get ready.  Fix up some sentences; you’ll need them in two minutes new. [They walk up and down, moving their lips in dumb-show memorising.]

W. Look here—­when we’ve said all that’s in the book on a topic, and want to change the subject, how can we say so?—­how would a German say it?

Geo. Well, I don’t know.  But you know when they mean ‘Change cars,’ they say Umsteigen.  Don’t you reckon that will answer?

W. Tip-top!  It’s short and goes right to the point; and it’s got a business whang to it that’s almost American.  Umsteigen!—­change subject! —­why, it’s the very thing!

Geo. All right, then, you umsteigen—­for I hear them coming.

Enter the girls.

A. to W. (With solemnity.) Guten Morgen, mein Herr, es freut mich sehr,
Sie zu sehen.

W. Guten Morgen, mein Fraulein, es freut mich sehr Sie zu sehen.

[Margaret and George repeat the same sentences.  Then, after an embarrassing silence, Margaret refers to her book and says:]

M. Bitte, meine Herren, setzen Sie sich.

The gentlemen.  Danke schon.[The four seat themselves in couples, the width of the stage apart, and the two conversations begin.  The talk is not flowing—­at any rate at first; there are painful silences all along.  Each couple worry out a remark and a reply:  there is a pause of silent thinking, and then the other couple deliver themselves.]

W. Haben Sie meinen Vater in dem Laden meines Bruders nicht gesehen?

A. Nein, mein Herr, ich habe Ihren Herrn Vater in dem Laden Ihres Herrn
Bruders nicht gesehen.