CHRISTINE. Nothing—she wouldn't talk about it.
ELIS. Well, one thing at least has been gained, and that is the quiet that followed the verdict after the newspapers had gorged themselves with the details. One year is over: and then we can make a fresh start.
CHRISTINE. I admire your patience in this suffering.
ELIS. Don't. Don't admire anything about me. I am full of faults—you know it.
CHRISTINE. If you were only suffering for your own faults—but to be suffering for another!
ELIS. What are you sewing on?
CHRISTINE. Curtains for the kitchen, you dear.
ELIS. It looks like a bridal veil. This fall you will be my bride, won't you, Christine?
CHRISTINE. Yes—but—let's think of summer first.
ELIS. Yes, summer! [Takes out the check book.] You see the money is already in the bank, and when school is over we will start for the North, for our home land among the lakes. The cottage stands there just as it did when we were children, and the linden trees. Oh, that it were summer already and I could go swimming in the lake! I feel as if this family dishonor has besmirched me so that I long to bathe, body and soul, in the clear lake waters.