THE DAUGHTER. What is it?
THE LAWYER. If I tell, you will get angry.
THE DAUGHTER. We have agreed not to get angry.
THE LAWYER. We have agreed—Everything can be over-come, Agnes, except the short, sharp accents—Do you know them? Not yet!
THE DAUGHTER. They will never be heard between us.
THE LAWYER. Not as far as it lies on me!
THE DAUGHTER. Tell me now.
THE LAWYER. Well—when I come into a room, I look first of all at the curtains—[Goes over to the window and straightens out the curtains] If they hang like ropes or rags, then I leave soon. And next I take a glance at the chairs—if they stand straight along the wall, then I stay. [Puts a chair back against the wall] Finally I look at the candles in their sticks—if they point this way and that, then the whole house is askew. [Straightens up a candle on the chest of drawers] This is the kind of beauty, dear heart, that costs nothing.
THE DAUGHTER. With bent head] Beware of the short accents, Axel!
THE LAWYER. They were not short.