GLYSZINSKI (grumbling). But he got some, didn't he? HELLA. I have allowed an exception in Paul's case today. Just take the pot and help yourself. GLYSZINSKI (shaking his head). Too bad! Too bad! (He pours out his coffee.) AUNT CLARA (has entered from the right carrying a platter with a large pound-cake). Children, here comes the pound-cake! Fresh from the oven. It's fairly steaming still. (She cuts the cake.) You surely haven't taken your coffee already? HELLA (very courteously). You are really going to too much trouble, dear Miss Clara. AUNT CLARA. Trouble, well, well. But now do help yourself! (She puts a large piece of cake on each plate.) PAUL, (smiling). Do you know, Hella, I do almost feel as I did as a schoolboy, when I came home for the Christmas vacation. In those days we would also sit in the hall and over there the fire would burn and the pound-cake would stand on the table exactly as today. Only that my mother had done the baking. AUNT CLARA (in the chair opposite the fireplace). Now you must imagine: _I_ am your mother, Paul. (She has also poured out her coffee and begins to drink it.) How do you like it? PAUL. Just as much as in the old days. It seems to me as if it were today. AUNT CLARA. Then eat away, my boy! HELLA. You have really had very good luck with this pound-cake, my dear Miss Clara. Accept my compliments. GLYSZINSKI (consumes his piece with great satisfaction). Delicious! A work of art! PAUL. You may well feel set up about that, Auntie. Glyszinski knows all about cake. GLYSZINSKI. Yes in such matters we Poles are connoisseurs. HELLA. Their whole nourishment is made up of desserts. GLYSZINSKI. I consider sweets a thousand times more elegant than that brutal alcohol, which deadens all finer instincts. AUNT CLARA. I suppose the gentleman was also born in this region. GLYSZINSKI. Yes, mademoiselle, I am a Pole. PAUL. A Pole, and attended the gymnasium in Berlin! GLYSZINSKI. Unfortunately I got away too early. Nevertheless I shall remain what I always was. AUNT CLARA. Do you remember Laskowski, Paul? PAUL. From Klonowken? AUNT CLARA. Yes, quite nearby! He owns the neighboring estate. PAUL. Why, of course! He is even a relative in a sense. What makes you think of him. Aunt Clara? AUNT CLARA. It just occurred to me, simply because he is also a Polander and gets along with his German so well. PAUL. Why, I even attended school with him for a while. He _was_ a fox if there ever was one. AUNT CLARA (in a searching manner). Aren't you glad, Paul, that your father held on to Ellernhof for you? PAUL. How so? Why? AUNT CLARA. He might have sold the estate to Laskowski or some one else. HELLA (who has been leaning back and playing the part of the silent but attentive listener, takes a hand). I cannot see in what sense that would have been a misfortune.