MRS. HALM [to FALK].
Now there's a man for you, in truth!
GULDSTAD.
They say he was a rogue, though, in his youth.
MISS JAY [offended].
There, Mr. Guldstad, I must break a lance!
I've heard as long as I can recollect,
Most worthy people speak with great respect
Of Pastor Strawman and his life's romance.
GULDSTAD [laughing].
Romance?
MISS JAY.
Romance! I call a match romantic
At which mere worldly wisdom looks askance.
FALK.
You make my curiosity gigantic.
MISS JAY [continuing].
But certain people always grow splenetic—
Why, goodness knows—at everything pathetic,
And scoff it down. We all know how, of late,
An unfledged, upstart undergraduate
Presumed, with brazen insolence, to declare
That "William Russell"(1)was a poor affair!
FALK.
But what has this to do with Strawman, pray?
Is he a poem, or a Christian play?
MISS JAY [with tears of emotion].
No, Falk,—a man, with heart as large as day.
But when a—so to speak—mere lifeless thing
Can put such venom into envy's sting,
And stir up evil passions fierce and fell
Of such a depth—
FALK [sympathetically].
And such a length as well—