y
letter, I have nothing now to say to you.

FRAN.
As good as alone! Then you have no secrets from the Sergeant?

MAJ. T.
No, none.

FRAN.
And yet I think you should have some from him.

MAJ. T.
Why so?

WER.
How so, little woman?

FRAN.
Particularly secrets of a certain kind.... All twenty, Mr.
Sergeant!
(Holding up both her hands, with open fingers.)

WER.
Hist! hist! girl.

MAJ. T.
What is the meaning of that?

FRAN.
Presto! conjured on to his finger, Mr. Sergeant
(as if she was putting a ring on her fingers).

MAJ. T.
What are you talking about?

WER.
Little woman, little woman, don't you understand a joke?

MAJ. T.
Werner, you have not forgotten, I hope, what I have often told you;
that one should not jest beyond a certain point with a young woman!

WER.
Upon my life I may have forgotten it! Little woman, I beg!!!!!

FRAN.
Well, if it was a joke, I will forgive you this once.

MAJ. T.
Well, if I must come, Franziska, just see that your mistress reads my
letter beforehand? That will spare me the pain of thinking again--of
talking again, of things which I would willingly forget. There, give
it to her!
(He turns the letter in giving it to her, and sees that it has been
opened.)
But do I see aright? Why it has been opened.

FRAN.
That may be.
(Looks at it.)
True, it is open. Who can have opened it? But really we have not read
it, Major; really not. And we do not wish to read it, because the
writer is coming himself. Come; and I tell you what, Major! don't come
as you are now--in boots, and with such a head. You are excusable, you
do not expect us. Come in shoes, and have your hair fresh dressed. You
look too soldierlike, too Prussian for me as you are.

MAJ. T.
Thank you, Franziska.

FRAN.
You look as if you had been bivouacking last night.

MAJ. T.
You may have guessed right.

FRAN.
We are going to dress, directly too, and then have dinner. We would
willingly ask you to dinner, but your presence might hinder our
eating; and observe, we are not so much in love that we have lost our
appetites.

MAJ. T.
I will go. Prepare her somewhat, Franziska, beforehand, that I may not
become contemptible in her eyes, and in my own. Come, Werner, you
shall dine with me.

WER.
At the table d'hote here in the house? I could not eat a bit there.

MAJ