(Two knocks with a chair are heard from the adjoining room, where Gustav is.)

Adolph.  No, I don’t want to play now.  I want to talk seriously.

Tekla. [Prattling] Mercy me, does he want to talk seriously?  Dreadful, how serious he’s become! [Takes hold of his head and kisses him] Smile a little—­there now!

Adolph. [Smiling against his will] Oh, you’re the—­I might almost think you knew how to use magic!

Tekla.  Well, can’t he see now?  That’s why he shouldn’t start any trouble—­or I might use my magic to make him invisible!

Adolph. [Gets up] Will you sit for me a moment, Tekla?  With the side of your face this way, so that I can put a face on my figure.

Tekla.  Of course, I will.

[Turns her head so he can see her in profile.]

Adolph. [Gazes hard at her while pretending to work at the figure]
Don’t think of me now—­but of somebody else.

Tekla.  I’ll think of my latest conquest.

Adolph.  That chaste young man?

Tekla.  Exactly!  He had a pair of the prettiest, sweetest moustaches, and his cheek looked like a peach—­it was so soft and rosy that you just wanted to bite it.

Adolph. [Darkening] Please keep that expression about the mouth.

Tekla.  What expression?

Adolph.  A cynical, brazen one that I have never seen before.

Tekla. [Making a face] This one?

Adolph.  Just that one! [Getting up] Do you know how Bret Harte pictures an adulteress?

Tekla. [Smiling] No, I have never read Bret Something.

Adolph.  As a pale creature that cannot blush.

Tekla.  Not at all?  But when she meets her lover, then she must blush, I am sure, although her husband or Mr. Bret may not be allowed to see it.

Adolph.  Are you so sure of that?

Tekla. [As before] Of course, as the husband is not capable of bringing the blood up to her head, he cannot hope to behold the charming spectacle.

Adolph. [Enraged] Tekla!

Tekla.  Oh, you little ninny!

Adolph.  Tekla!

Tekla.  He should call her Pussy—­then I might get up a pretty little blush for his sake.  Does he want me to?

Adolph. [Disarmed] You minx, I’m so angry with you, that I could bite you!

Tekla. [Playfully] Come and bite me then!—­Come!

[Opens her arms to him.]

Adolph. [Puts his hands around her neck and kisses her] Yes, I’ll bite you to death!

Tekla. [Teasingly] Look out—­somebody might come!

Adolph.  Well, what do I care!  I care for nothing else in the world if I can only have you!

Tekla.  And when, you don’t have me any longer?