MRS. BERNICK. Heard what? HILMAR. That the scandal is in full swing! Ugh! BERNICK. What do you mean? HILMAR. [_Coming into the room._] Why, that the two Americans are flaunting about the streets in company with Dina Dorf. MRS. BERNICK. [_Also coming in._] Oh, Hilmar, is it possible——? HILMAR. I can bear witness, worse luck! Lona had even the want of tact to call out to _me_; but I naturally pretended not to hear her. BERNICK. And of course all this has not passed unnoticed. HILMAR. No; you may be sure it hasn’t. People turned round and looked after them. It ran like wildfire over the town—like a fire on the Western prairies. There were people at the windows of all the houses, head to head behind the curtains, waiting for the procession to pass. Ugh! You must excuse me, Betty; I say ugh! for it makes me so nervous. If this goes on I shall have to go for a change of air somewhere, pretty far off. MRS. BERNICK. But you should have spoken to him, and pointed out—— HILMAR. In the public street? No; I beg to be excused. But how the deuce can the fellow dare to show himself here! Well, we shall see if the papers don’t put a stopper on him. I beg your pardon, Betty, but—— BERNICK. The papers, you say? Have you heard anything to make you think so? HILMAR. I should rather say I had! When I left here last night, I took my constitutional up to the club. I could tell from the sudden silence when I came in that they had been discussing the two Americans. And then in came that impertinent editor-fellow, Hammer, or whatever they call him, and congratulated me, before everybody, upon my rich cousin’s return. BERNICK. Rich——? HILMAR. Yes; that was what he said. Of course I measured him from top to toe with the contempt he deserved, and gave him to understand that I knew nothing of Johan Tönnesen being rich. “Indeed!” says he; “that’s strange. In America people generally get on when they have something to start with, and we know your cousin didn’t go over empty-handed.” BERNICK. H’m, be so good as to—— MRS. BERNICK. [_Troubled._] There, you see, Karsten—— HILMAR. Well, at any rate, not a wink have I slept for thinking of the fellow. And there he goes calmly marching about the streets, as if he had nothing to be ashamed of. Why couldn’t he have been disposed of for good? Some people are intolerably tough. MRS. BERNICK. Oh, Hilmar, what are you saying?