FALK.
Hold! As a plighted man you are a member
Of Rapture's Temperance-association.
Observe it's rules;—no orgies here, remember!
[Turning to GULDSTAD sympathetically.
Well, my good sir!
GULDSTAD [beaming with pleasure].
I think this promises
All happiness for both.
FALK [staring at him].
You seem to stand
The shock with exemplary self-command.
That's well.
GULDSTAD.
What do you mean, sir?
FALK.
Only this;
That inasmuch as you appeared to feed
Fond expectations of your own—
GULDSTAD.
Indeed?
FALK.
At any rate, you were upon the scent.
You named Miss Halm; you stood upon this spot
And asked me—
GULDSTAD [smiling].
There are two, though, are there not?
FALK.
It was—the other sister that you meant?
GULDSTAD.
That sister, yes, the other one,—just so.
Judge for yourself, when you have come to know
That sister better, if she has not in her
Merits which, if they were divined, would win her
A little more regard than we bestow.