His Wife.

I am so sorry for you, my dearest one!

The Man.

As I am for you. Yet that makes me none the less ravenous. To-day I spent a whole hour in front of a cookshop; and just as people gape at masterpieces of art, so did I gape at the fat pies and capons and sausages in the window. And oh, the signboard above them! Do you know, it is possible to depict a ham on a signboard so cunningly that one could devour it, signboard and all.

His Wife.

Yes—I too could eat something.

The Man.

Of course. Who could not? But do you like lobsters?

His Wife.

I simply adore them!