RITA: Yes, quite a fine fellow otherwise, but--would not fit in now. I wanted to say: I am passionately fond of electric bells. You know they have a fabulous charm for me. One only needs to touch them softly, ever so softly, with the small finger, and still cause a terrible noise. Fine--is it not? You wanted to talk about serious matters. It seems so to me. FRIEDRICH: Yes. And I beg of you, Miss Erna---- RITA: Erna? FRIEDRICH: Erna! RITA: Oh, well! FRIEDRICH (_continuing_): I beg of you; be really and truly serious. Yes? Listen to what I have to say to you. Be assured that it comes from an honest, warm heart. During the years in which I have not seen you, I have grown to be a serious man--perhaps, too serious for my age--but my feelings for you have remained young, quite young. Do you hear me, Erna? RITA (_leaning back in the rocking chair, with a sigh_): I hear. FRIEDRICH: And you know, Erna, how I have always loved you from my earliest youth, yes, even sooner than I myself suspected. You know that, yes? (_Rita is silent and does not look at him_.) FRIEDRICH: When I was still a foolish schoolboy I already called you my betrothed, and I could not but think otherwise than that I would some day call you my wife. You certainly know that, don't you? RITA (_reserved_): Yes, I know it. FRIEDRICH: Well, then you ought to be able to understand what dreadful feelings overcame me when I discovered, sooner than you or the world, the affection of my father for you. That was--no, you cannot grasp it. RITA (_looks at him searchingly_): Sooner than I and all the world? FRIEDRICH: Oh, a great deal sooner ... that was.... That time was the beginning of the hardest innermost struggles for me. What was I to do? (_He sighs deeply_.) Ah, Miss Erna, we people are really---- RITA: Yes, yes. FRIEDRICH: We are dreadfully shallow-minded. How seldom one of us can really live as he would like to. Must we not always and forever consider others--and our surroundings? RITA: Must? FRIEDRICH: Well, yes, we do so, at least. And when it is our own father! For, look here, Erna, I never would have been able to oppose my father! I was used, as you well know, from childhood to always look up to my father with the greatest respect. He used to be severe, my father, proud and inaccessible, but--if I may be permitted to say so, he was an excellent man. RITA: Well? FRIEDRICH (_eagerly_): Yes, indeed! You must remember that it was he alone who established our business by means of his powerful energy and untiring diligence. Only now I myself have undertaken the management of the establishment. I am able to see what an immense work he has accomplished. RITA (_simply_): Yes, he was an able business man. FRIEDRICH: In every respect! Ability personified, and he had grown to be fifty-two years of age and was still, still--how shall I say? RITA: Still able.