Jacobi. And you could so easily make all so different. Ah, Louise! only one kind word, one friendly glance!—Cannot you bestow one friendly glance on him who would gladly give everything to see you happy? [Aside. She blushes—she seems moved—she is going to speak! Ah, what will she say to me!]
Louise. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten stitches to the nose—the pattern is here not very distinct.
Jacobi. You will not hear me, will not understand me; you play with my distress! Ah, Louise!
Louise. I want some more wool;—I have left it in my room. [She goes.]
SECOND SCENE.
The family is assembled in the library; tea is just finished. Louise, at Petrea's and Gabriele's urgent request, has laid out the cards on a little table to tell them their fortunes. The Candidate seats himself near them, and appears determined to amuse himself with them, and to be lively; but "the object" assumes all the more her "cathedral air." The Landed-proprietor steps in, bows, snorts, and kisses the hand of the "gracious aunt."
Landed-proprietor. Very cold this evening; I fancy we shall have frost.
Elise. It is a gloomy spring. We have lately read a most affecting account of the famine in the northern provinces. It is the misfortune of these late springs.
Landed-proprietor. Oh, yes, the famine up there. No, we'll talk of something else—that's too gloomy. I've had my peas covered with straw. Cousin Louise, are you fond of playing Patience? I am very fond of it too; it is so composing. At my seat at Oestanvik I have little, little patience-cards. I fancy really that they would please my cousin.
The Landed-proprietor seats himself on the other side of Louise: the Candidate gives some extraordinary shrugs.