Boletta.

Oh, they might take their chance of that, I should think.

Arnholm.

Besides, you can’t say that you are so utterly out of the world here. Not in summer, at all events. This place is a sort of local centre, nowadays, in the life of the world—a point of convergence for many passing streams.

Boletta.

[Smiling.] Oh, you are in the passing stream yourself; it is easy for you to make game of us.

Arnholm.

I make game——? What puts that into your head?

Boletta.

Why, all this about a centre, and a point of convergence for the life of the world, is simply what you have heard people say in the town. They are always talking like that.