I hope yet to sing with your daughter-in-law, to whom please present my kind regards.
My wife joins me in cordial remembrances of you.
[The Professorin to Eric and Manna.]
All is well. Would that I, could send you some of the spring fragrance and beauty which surround us here. No tree bears blossoms as countless as the blessings which go out from my heart to you. Here we sit in peace, and you are out there in the battle. We can do nothing for you, only I say to you, my son, and to you, my daughter: whatever may come, abide quietly in the assurance, that having followed the leadings of the spirit, we must silently recognize and bear our part. I have been in the next village; it must be like a recent settlement in America.
It is a beautiful and great thing to be able to help so many human beings to a cheerful and active existence.
My son, why do you not write whether you have inquired for Uncle Alphonso? Do not delay doing so. If he is yet living, tell him that I have never judged him unkindly, though he has been so hard upon us; and tell him that your father always preserved a brotherly feeling for him. But ah, I do not know whether he is still alive. Do not delay to get some positive information.
Our friend Einsiedel is busy in arranging your father's papers.
Our good Major wants to have a room built in the hot-house, and, next winter, live there all day long among the plants, breathing in their fragrance; then, he asserts, he should live to be a hundred years old.
[Claudine to Manna.]
If you feel overwhelmed by the hard experiences which you must bear, do not forget to keep up your study of astronomy; it takes us out of all our small troubles.