Professor Rubek.
You take everything so painfully to heart, Irene.
Irene.
[Drawing her hand over her forehead.] Perhaps you are right. Let us shake off all the hard things that go to the heart. [Plucks off the leaves of a mountain rose and strews them on the brook.] Look there, Arnold. There are our birds swimming.
Professor Rubek.
What birds are they?
Irene.
Can you not see? Of course they are flamingoes. Are they not rose-red?
Professor Rubek.
Flamingoes do not swim. They only wade.