els down beside her.)

Mrs. Riis. There is a delicious freshness about you, dear! Did you have
a walk in the wood after your swim?

Svava (getting up). Yes, and just as I got home a few minutes ago Alfred
passed the house and called up to me. He is coming in directly.

Riis. To tell you the truth--and one ought always to tell the truth--I
had quite given up the hope of such happiness coming to our dear girl.

Svava. I know you had. I had quite given it up myself.

Riis. Until your fairy prince came?

Svava. Until my fairy prince came. And he took his time about it, too!

Riis. You had been waiting for him a long time, though--hadn't you?

Svava. Not a bit of it! I never once thought of him.

Riis. Now you are talking in riddles.

Svava. Yes, it is a riddle to understand how two people, who have seen
each other from childhood without even giving each other a thought,
suddenly--! Because that was really how it happened. It all dates from a
certain moment--and then, all at once, he became quite another man in my
eyes.

Riis. But in every one else's, I suppose, he is the same us before?

Svava. I hope so!

Riis. He is more lively than he was, at any rate--in my eyes.

Svava. Yes, I saw you laughing together last night. What was it?

Riis. We were discussing the best way of getting through the world. I
gave him my three famous rules of life.

Mrs. Riis and Svava (together). Already!

Riis. They were a great success. Do you remember them, you bad girl?

Svava. Rule number one: Never make a fool of yourself.

Riis. Rule number two: Never be a burden to any one.

Svava. Rule number three: Always be in the fashion. They are not very
hard to remember, because they art neither obscure nor profound.

Riis. But all the harder to put into practice! And thus is a great
virtue in all rules of life.--I congratulate you on your new morning
frock. Under the circumstances it is really charming.

Svava. "Under the circumstances" means, I suppose, considering that you
have had no hand in it.

Riis. Yes, because I should never have chosen that trimming. However,
the "under the circumstances" is not so bad. A good cut, too--yes. Aha!
Just you wail till my portmanteau comes!

Svava. Some surprises for us?

Riis. Big ones!--By the way, I have something here. (Goes into his
room.)

Svava. Do you know, mother, he seems to me more restless than ever.

Mrs. Riis. That is happiness, dear.

Svava. And yet father's res