BENGTSSON. Yes, it's enough to make you weep!—And somehow, carried away by her own imagination, perhaps, she has developed some of the traits of the talkative parrot.... She can't stand cripples or sick people, for instance.... She can't bear the sight of her own daughter, because she is sick....
JOHANSSON. Is the Young Lady sick?
BENGTSSON. Don't you know that?
JOHANSSON. No.—And the Colonel—who is he?
BENGTSSON. That remains to be seen!
JOHANSSON. [Looking at the statue] It's horrible to think that.... How old is she now?
BENGTSSON. Nobody knows. But at thirty-five she is said to have looked like nineteen, and that's the age she gave to the Colonel.... In this house.... Do you know what that Japanese screen by the couch is used for? They call it the Death Screen, and it is placed in front of the bed when somebody is dying, just as they do in hospitals....
JOHANSSON. This must be an awful house! And the Student was longing for it as for paradise....
BENGTSSON. What student? Oh, I know! The young chap who is coming here to-night.... The Colonel and the Young Lady met him at the opera and took a great fancy to him at once.... Hm!... But now it's my turn to ask questions. Who's your master? The man in the invalid's chair?...
JOHANSSON. Well, well! Is he coming here, too?