Quartilla.
Everybody is unhappy and my dove has ceased to coo!
[She sets the cage among the flowers, then, seating herself beside Valentinus, slips her hand into his. Thus are they when Asterius enters quietly, and also seats himself. After a slight pause he speaks.]
Asterius.
Will you baptise me a Christian to-night or to-morrow, Valentinus?
Valentinus.
Neither then nor now, Asterius, nor ever, while your heart remains hard and your spirit proud!
Asterius.
But, consider, now.... Had Tulla remained blind I could have borne with the fellow’s impudence; might even have reconciled myself to the match! But Tulla with her eyesight is another matter! My eldest daughter is married to a man with a porch to his house as large as one belonging to a public building! My second son-in-law has an estate at the seventh milestone on the Appian Way! I myself do not need to go to the public baths; I have added a fine equipment to the house with the most elaborate devices for warm and cold water and hot air!
[There is a slight pause.]