RUTH: Oh, take me with you! I cannot live if I am left behind. FREDERIC: Ruth, I will be quite candid with you. You are very dear to me, as you know, but I must be circumspect. You see, you are considerably older than I. A lad of twenty-one usually looks for a wife of seventeen. RUTH: A wife of seventeen! You will find me a wife of a thousand! FREDERIC: No, but I shall find you a wife of forty-seven, and that is quite enough. Ruth, tell me candidly and without reserve: compared with other women, how are you? RUTH: I will answer you truthfully, master: I have a slight cold, but otherwise I am quite well. FREDERIC: I am sorry for your cold, but I was referring rather to your personal appearance. Compared with other women, are you beautiful? RUTH: (bashfully) I have been told so, dear master. FREDERIC: Ah, but lately? RUTH: Oh, no; years and years ago. FREDERIC: What do you think of yourself? RUTH: It is a delicate question to answer, but I think I am a fine woman. FREDERIC: That is your candid opinion? RUTH: Yes, I should be deceiving you if I told you otherwise. FREDERIC: Thank you, Ruth. I believe you, for I am sure you would not practice on my inexperience. I wish to do the right thing, and if- I say if- you are really a fine woman, your age shall be no obstacle to our union! (Shakes hands with her. Chorus of girls heard in the distance, "climbing over rocky mountain," etc.) Hark! Surely I hear voices! Who has ventured to approach our all but inaccessible lair? Can it be Custom House? No, it does not sound like Custom House. RUTH: (aside) Confusion! it is the voices of young girls! If he should see them I am lost. FREDERIC: (looking off) By all that's marvellous, a bevy of beautiful maidens! RUTH: (aside) Lost! lost! lost! FREDERIC: How lovely, how surpassingly lovely is the plainest of them! What grace- what delicacy- what refinement! And Ruth— Ruth told me she was beautiful! RECITATIVE