My dear father!

STRANGER. Sylvia! My child!

DAUGHTER. How in the world do you come to be up here in the mountains?

STRANGER. And how have _you_ got here? I thought I'd managed to hide so
well.

DAUGHTER. Why did you want to hide?

STRANGER. Ask me as little as possible! You've grown into a big girl.
And I've gone grey.

DAUGHTER. No. You're not grey. You're just as young as you were when we
parted.

STRANGER. When we... parted!

DAUGHTER. When you left us.... (The STRANGER does not reply.) Aren't you
glad we're meeting again?

STRANGER (faintly). Yes!

DAUGHTER. Then show it.

STRANGER. How can I be glad, when we're parting to-day for life?

DAUGHTER. Why, where do you want to go?

STRANGER (pointing to the monastery). Up there!

DAUGHTER (with a sophisticated air). Into the monastery? Yes, now I come
to think of it, perhaps it's best.

STRANGER. You think so?

DAUGHTER (with pity, but good-will.) I mean, if you've a ruined life
behind you.... (Coaxingly.) Now you look sad. Tell me one thing.

STRANGER. Tell _me_ one thing, my child, that's been worrying me more
than anything else. You've a stepfather?

DAUGHTER. Yes.

STRANGER. Well?

DAUGHTER. He's very good and kind.

STRANGER. With every virtue that I lack....

DAUGHTER. Aren't you glad we've got into better hands?

STRANGER. Good, better, best! Why do you come here bare-headed?

DAUGHTER. Because George is carrying my hat.

STRANGER. Who's George? And where is he?

DAUGHTER. George is a friend of mine; and he's waiting for me on the
bank down below.

STRANGER. Are you engaged to him?

DAUGHTER. No. Certainly not!

STRANGER. Do you want to marry?

DAUGHTER. Never!

STRANGER. I can see it by your mottled cheeks, like those of a child
that has got up too early; I can hear it by your voice, that's no longer
that of a warbler, but a jay; I can feel it in your kisses, that burn
cold like the sun in May; and by your steady icy look that tells me
you're nursing a secret of which you're ashamed, but of which you'd like
to boast. And your brothers and sisters?

DAUGHTER. They're quite well, thank you.

STRANGER. Have we anything else to say to one another?

DAUGHTER (coldly). Perhaps not.

STRANGER. Now you look so like your mother.

DAUGHTER. How do you know, when you've never been able to see her as she
was!

STRANGER. So you understood that, though you were so young?

DAUGHTER. I learnt to understand it from you. If