Therese looked at him with anxious distrust.
"Now I will make you all happy—you, as well as Noémi and myself. And besides, I can do Signor Scaramelli a good turn. That's enough for me. Says Scaramelli to me one day, 'Friend Krisstyan, I say, you will have to go off to Brazil.'"
"If only you were there now!" sighed Therese.
Theodor understood and smiled. "You must know that from there comes the best wood for shipbuilding. The makaya and the murmuru tree, used for the keel; the poripont and patanova, from which the ribs are made; the royoc and grasgal-trees, which do not decay in water; the 'mort-aux-rats'-tree, the iron-wood for rudder shafts, and sour-gum-tree for paddle-floats; also the teak and mahogany for ship's fittings, and—"
"Pray, stop with your ridiculous Indian names," interrupted Therese; "you think you will turn my head by reeling out a whole botanical catalogue, so that I sha'n't see the wood for the trees. Tell me why—if there are such incomparable trees in Brazil—why you are not there already?"
"Yes, but that's just where my grand idea comes in. Why, said I to Signor Scaramelli, should I travel to Brazil when we have plenty of wood close by even better than that of Brazil? I know an island in the middle of the Danube which is provided with a virgin forest, and where grow splendid trees, which can compete with those of South America."
"I thought so," murmured Therese to herself.
"The poplars take the place of the patanovas; the nut-trees far surpass mahogany, and those we have in hundreds on our island."
"My nut-trees!"
"The wood of the apple-tree is much better than that of the jaskarilla-tree."