Riis. Has there been anything good in it while I have been away? (Begins to hum a tune.)
Mrs. Riis. Yes--there is an article here on heredity that you must read. It has some reference to what we began to talk about.
Riis. Do you know this tune? (Goes over to the piano.) It is all the rage now. I heard it all over Germany. (Begins to play and sing, but breaks off suddenly.) I will go and fetch the music, while I think of it! (Goes into his room and comes out again with the music. Sits down and begins to play and sing again. SVAVA comes in by it, door on the left. RIIS stops when he sees her, and jumps up.) Good morning, my child! Good morning! I have hardly had a chance to say a word to you yet. At the party everyone took you away from me! (Kisses her, and comes forward with her.)
Svava. Why were you so long of coming back from abroad?
Riis. Why don't people give one some warning when they are going to get engaged?
Svava. Because people don't know anything about it themselves, till it happens! Good morning again, mother. (Kneels down beside her.)
Mrs. Riis. There is a delicious freshness about you, dear! Did you have a walk in the wood after your swim?
Svava (getting up). Yes, and just as I got home a few minutes ago Alfred passed the house and called up to me. He is coming in directly.
Riis. To tell you the truth--and one ought always to tell the truth--I had quite given up the hope of such happiness coming to our dear girl.
Svava. I know you had. I had quite given it up myself.
Svava. Until my fairy prince came. And he took his time about it, too!
Riis. You had been waiting for him a long time, though--hadn't you?
Svava. Not a bit of it! I never once thought of him.
Svava. Yes, it is a riddle to understand how two people, who have seen each other from childhood without even giving each other a thought, suddenly--! Because that was really how it happened. It all dates from a certain moment--and then, all at once, he became quite another man in my eyes.
Riis. But in every one else's, I suppose, he is the same us before?
Riis. He is more lively than he was, at any rate--in my eyes.
Svava. Yes, I saw you laughing together last night. What was it?
Riis. We were discussing the best way of getting through the world. I gave him my three famous rules of life.