And then he pulled again and read:
Where Love's dart has struck well.
Wide open stand both heaven and hell.
"Now, Frau Dörr, what do you say to that? It sounds different, doesn't it?"
"Yes," said Frau Dörr, "it sounds different. But I don't quite like it.... If I pull a bonbon...."
"Well?"
"Then I don't want anything about hell to come out, I don't want to hear that there is any such thing."
"Nor I either," laughed Lena. "Frau Dörr is quite right: for that matter, she is always right. But really, when one reads such a verse, one has always something to start with, I mean to begin a conversation with, for the beginning is always the hardest, just as it is with writing letters. And I simply cannot imagine how you can begin a conversation at once with no more ado, with so many strange ladies, for you are not all acquainted with each other."
"Oh, my dear Lena," said Botho, "it isn't so hard as you think. It is really quite easy. If you like, I will give you a dinner-table conversation now."
Frau Dörr and Frau Nimptsch said that they would like to hear it and Lena too nodded her assent.
"Now," went on Baron Botho, "you must imagine that you are a little Countess. And I have just escorted you to the table and sat down and we are taking the first spoonful of soup."