“And the chest?”
“Oh, yes, the chest?—that is as yet firmly locked ... but I have got the key. Treasures are in it, that I am sure of—bills of exchange, letters of credit on the great bank of the future. We two united!... Just think of all that we can draw upon it for all the great and little joys of life even till old age! We who are so congenial, traveling together, working together, furnishing a home together....”
“A home which will perhaps embrace more than two!” suggested Helmer.
“... Living together—the joys and the sorrows that when transformed into recollections we can store away in the chest. But as yet I have not opened it. Further treasures are hidden there—I do not as yet know them ... glowing red rubies which I have never adorned myself with. Yet, quite lately, an inkling of it has been disclosed to me by one....”
“One? Who?” demanded Helmer, with new-awakened jealousy.
“Who?” She smiled. Then, deliberately and in a whisper: “The cuckoo.”
“Oh, thou—” And the answer was just as if the bird had again uttered his enticing call. Through the tree-tops sighed a gentle breeze which, laden with the perfume of spicy herbs and ripe strawberries, fanned and cooled the glowing cheeks of the lovers.
“Now, then,” exclaimed Franka, after she had again freed herself, “let us make our plans.”
“But first let me say something.... Also in figures—you know my weakness—and if at this moment the pictures did not rise up before me....”
“Then you would be no poet! But why invent at a moment when reality is so super-earthly?”