GUSTAV. You tell me how you are. [_He goes behind the square table on the left, over to the sofa.--Thekla, embarrassed, takes the cloth off the figure absent-mindedly._] No! who is that? Why--it's you! THEKLA. I don't think so. GUSTAV. But it looks like you. THEKLA [_cynically_]. You think so? GUSTAV [_sits down on the sofa_]. It reminds one of the anecdote: "How could your Majesty say that?" THEKLA [_laughs loudly and sits down opposite him on the settee_]. What foolish ideas you do get into your head. Have you got by any chance some new yarns? GUSTAV. No; but you must know some. THEKLA. I don't get a chance any more now of hearing anything which is really funny. GUSTAV. Is he as prudish as all that? THEKLA. Rather! GUSTAV. Never different? THEKLA. He's been so ill lately. [_Both stand up._] GUSTAV. Well, who told little brother to walk into somebody else's wasps' nest. THEKLA [_laughs_]. Foolish fellow, you! GUSTAV. Poor child! do you still remember that once, shortly after our engagement, we lived in this very room, eh? But then it was furnished differently, there was a secretary for instance, here, by the pillar, and the bed [_With delicacy._] was here. THEKLA. Hush! GUSTAV. Look at me! THEKLA. If you would like me to. [_They keep their eyes looking into each other's for a minute._] GUSTAV. Do you think it is possible to forget a thing which has made so deep an impression on one's life? THEKLA. No; the power of impressions is great, particularly when they are the impressions of one's youth. [_She turns toward the fireplace on her right._] GUSTAV. Do you remember how we met for the first time? You were such an ethereal little thing, a little slate on which your parents and governess had scratched some wretched scrawl, which I had to rub out afterwards, and then I wrote a new text on it, according to what I thought right, till it seemed to you that the slate was filled with writing. [_He follows her to the circular table on the right._] That's why, do you see, I shouldn't like to be in your husband's place--no, that's his business. [_Sits down in front of the circular table._] But that's why meeting you has an especial fascination for me. We hit it off together so perfectly, and when I sit down here and chat with you it's just as though I were uncorking bottles of old wine which I myself have bottled. The wine which is served to me is my own, but it has mellowed. And now that I intend to marry again, I have made a very careful choice of a young girl whom I can train according to my own ideas. [_Getting up._] For woman is man's child, don't you know; if she isn't his child, then he becomes hers, and that means that the world is turned upside down. THEKLA. You're going to marry again? GUSTAV. Yes. I'm going to try my luck once more, but this time I'll jolly well see that the double harness is more reliable and shall know how to guard against any bolting.