Mignon"_) "Ha-ha-ha! Is 't true, really true?" (_While singing she is
all the time making a motion as if she were beating the dust out of her
riding suit with a crop_)

AMADEUS (_accompanying himself as he gives her the cue_) "Yes, you may
laugh. I am a fool to ruin my horse ..."

FREDERIQUE

"Maybe you would like ..."

AMADEUS (_nervously_)

Oh, wait!... You don't know yet why I have ruined my horse.... "To ruin
my horse for a quicker sight of you ..."

FREDERIQUE (_with the same gesture as before_)

"Maybe you would like me to weep?"

AMADEUS

"Oh, I regret already that I came."

FREDERIQUE (_as before_)

"Well, why...."

AMADEUS

G sharp!

FREDERIQUE (_as before_)

"Well, why don't you go back? Soon enough I shall see you again."

AMADEUS

You should say that ironically, not tenderly. "Soon enough I shall see
you again...."

FREDERIQUE (_as before_)

"Soon enough I shall see you again...."

AMADEUS

Not angrily, Countess, but ironically.

FREDERIQUE

Call me Frederique, and not Countess, when you are working with me.

AMADEUS

Now, that's the tone Philine should use. Hold on to it.... And that's
the right look, too.... If you could do that on the stage, you might
almost be an artist.

FREDERIQUE

Oh, mercy, I have sung Philine more than twenty times already.

AMADEUS

But not here, Freder ... Countess. And not when Mrs. Adams-Ortenburg
was singing the part of Mignon. (_He leans forward so that he can look
out into the garden_)

FREDERIQUE

No, she isn't coming yet. (_With a smile_) Perhaps the rehearsal isn't
over.

AMADEUS (_rising_)

Perhaps not.

FREDERIQUE

Is it true that Mrs. Adams-Ortenburg has been requested to sing in
Berlin next Fall?

AMADEUS

Nothing has been settled yet. (_He goes to the window at the right_) If
you'll permit.... (_Opens the window_)

FREDERIQUE

What a splendid day! And how fragrant the roses are. It is almost
like....

AMADEUS

Almost like Tremezzo--yes, I know.

FREDERIQUE

How can you--as you have never been there?

AMADEUS

But you have told me enough about it. A villa standing at the edge of
the water--radiantly white--with marble steps leading straight down to
the blue sea.

FREDERIQUE

Yes. And sometimes, on very hot nights, I sleep in the park, right on
the sward, under a plane tree.

AMADEUS

That plane tree is famous.--But time is flying. It would be better to
go on with the singing. (_He seats himse