CONSUL. Will you soon be through?
MASTER. I'll come in a moment.
CONSUL. [Saluting the confectioner] Good evening, Mr. Starck. It's still hot——
STARCK. Good evening, Consul. Yes, it's the dog-day heat, and we have been making jam all day.
CONSUL. Is that so? It's a good year for fruit, then?
STARCK. It might be worse. Well, the spring was cold, but the summer turned out unbearably hot. It was hard on us who had to stay in the city.
CONSUL. I got back from the country yesterday—one begins to wish oneself back when the evenings grow dark.
STARCK. Neither I nor my wife have been out of the city. Of course, business is at a standstill, but you have to be on hand to make ready for the winter. First come strawberries, then cherries, then raspberries, and last gooseberries, cantaloupes and all the fall fruits——
CONSUL. Tell me something, Mr. Starck. Is the house here to be sold?
STARCK. Not that I have heard.