"Ah!" exclaimed Lina, "you are already on such good terms with one another! you need hide nothing from me. Ah, how fine! This is right splendid! I've something to tell you about my love; now kiss me. Ah, I see you haven't kissed each other yet, you don't how to kiss. Just think. Manna, how simple I've been; I made myself believe, at one time, that the Baron von Pranken was fond of me—no, that's not exactly what I meant, but I made myself believe that I liked him, and now I will tell you at once, that I love and I am loved."
"We all love God, and we are loved by him."
"Ah, yes, by God too. But Albert—Do you know Albert? you must know him, for he's building a castle for you. At that time at the musical festival—I saw you at once, and beckoned to you, but you didn't observe me—that was the very first time we ever came to an explanation. Ah, you can't begin to think how happy I am. At the beginning I couldn't take part in the singing: I was afraid all the time I should scream too loud; but after that I sang with the rest. Ah, it was so beautiful—so beautiful! we did nothing else but float away in music; and he sings splendidly too, though not so grandly as Herr Dournay. Now do tell me, Manna, how you felt when you heard him sing so? Did you know that he was the man you asked me about when you had the angel-wings on your shoulders."
Lina did not wait for an answer, but went on:—
"You must have seen me on the shore, when I met you, and I was leaning on my Albert's arm for the first time. I didn't want to speak to you there among the nuns and scholars; I shouldn't have been able to tell you all there. You don't take it amiss that I didn't appear to see you? Ah, I saw everybody, the whole world at once! Ah, and all was so splendid! And at the table there 'twas so merry! And once he asked me why I seemed all at once so sad. Then I confessed to him that I was thinking of you, how you were going back again to the convent, where 'twas so silent and so dull. I think the corridors have all got a cold. Ah, why can't you be as merry as we? Do be merry! There's nothing better in the world, and you've got all, and can have all in the world. Oh, do be merry! Ah, there flies a swallow, the first swallow. Oh, if I could only fly in that way up to him at the castle, and bid him good-morning, and keep flying to him and flying away again. Ah, Manna! Manna!"
It was very odd to her to see and hear this joyous, fluttering youthful companion; she could say nothing in response, and Lina did not seem to expect her to say anything, for she continued:
"So I was thinking as I was coming here, that if I were you, I'd issue an order or something of that sort to the whole country round, that in three days they should bring me all the birds they could catch, and I'd pay them an awful amount of money for doing it, and then I'd let all the birds fly away again up into the air. Don't you feel as if you were a bird that had been caught, and had got free again? Ah, and it's smart in you to come in the spring; there's too much dancing to be done, if you come home in the winter. Fourteen balls I went to, the first winter, and ever so many small parties. And if one then has her sweetheart—Ah, Manna, you can't think how beautiful that is! or perhaps you do know now. I beg you do tell me every thing. I am not yet betrothed to Albert, but we are as good as betrothed. You won't be a nun, will you? Believe what I say, they don't want you for a nun at all, they are only after your money. Would you like to be a baroness? I shouldn't. To be 'my lady'd' all the time when there's no need of it, and then to be laughed at behind one's back; no, I shouldn't like it at all. If a born lady does anything foolish, there's nothing to be said; but if one of us commits a folly, hi! the whole city and the whole land has to bear the blame of it. Ah, such a rich girl has a good deal to suffer for it! Here come the men and want to marry her money, and here come the nuns and want her to become a nun for her money. You may be sure, if you were one of those women yonder carrying coals out of the boat, the nuns wouldn't have you; you might be as clever, and as lovable, and as good as you are now. Yes, if you hadn't any money, and if you hadn't so much money, the nuns wouldn't want to have anything to do with you. Don't they try to make you believe that you've been called to be a saint? Don't believe it. Ah, in the convent! When I hear people telling how beautiful it was there on the convent-island, I've always thought: Yes indeed, right pretty, if one only goes there on a pleasure excursion; but to be a nun there!—Ah, Manna, if I could only make you as happy as I am! Do be jolly too! Ah, good heavens, why can't one give to another some of his enjoyment; I've so much—so much, and I should like most dearly to give some of it to you. But what do we talk so much for? Come, catch me! Do you remember our old play: 'Everything flies that has wings'? Come, catch me!"
Lina ran off with fluttering garments, and when she stopped saw that Manna had not followed her. She waited until she came up, and the two maidens walked in silence to the villa.