Clement (taken aback). Really ... really, Margaret!
Margaret. Forgive me, Clement!
Clement. But—Margaret ...! (To Gilbert. ) It is extremely unpleasant for me, Herr Gilbert ... Get up, Margaret—get up! It's all right. (Margaret looks up at him inquiringly.) Yes—get up! (She rises.) It's all right—it's all settled. You may believe me when I tell you. All you've got to do is to telephone a single word to Künigel. I've arranged everything with him. We'll call it in—you agree to that?
Gilbert. What are you going to call in, may I ask? Her novel?
Clement. Oh, you know about it? It would seem, Herr Gilbert, that the comradeship you speak of has been brought pretty well up to date.
Gilbert. Yes ... There is really nothing for me to do but to ask your pardon. I am really in a very embarrassing position ...
Clement. I regret very much, Herr Gilbert, that you have been forced to be a spectator of a scene which I may almost describe as domestic ...
Gilbert. Ah ... well, I do not wish to intrude any further—I will wish you good day. May I, as a tangible token that all misunderstanding between us has been cleared up, as a feeble evidence of my good wishes, present you, Baron, with a copy of my latest novel?
Clement. You are very kind, Herr Gilbert. I must own, to be sure, that German novels are not my pet weakness. Well, this is probably the last I shall read—or the next to the last ...
Margaret, Gilbert. The next to the last ...?