[Going up to him and examining him gaily.]
How is the weather today?
COLONEL.
Gray, girl, gray and stormy. Vexation and grief are buzzing round in my head until it is fit to burst. How is the child?
ADELAIDE.
Better. She was wise enough to fall asleep toward morning. Now she is sad, but calm.
COLONEL.
This very calmness annoys me. If she would only once shriek and tear her hair a bit! It would be horrible, but there would be something natural about it. It is this smiling and then turning away to dry secret tears that makes me lose my composure. It is unnatural in my child.
ADELAIDE.
Possibly she knows her father's kind heart better than he does himself; possibly she still has hopes.