]
BOLZ. Good, Korb, you can do me a great favor. In a corner of the
refreshment room Bellmaus is sitting with a stranger. He is to pump
the stranger, but cannot stand much himself and is likely to say
things he shouldn't. You'll do the party a great service if you will
hurry in and drink punch so as to keep Bellmaus up to the mark. You
have a strong head--I know it from of old.
KORB (_hastily_). I go! You are as full of tricks as ever, I see. You
may rely on me. The stranger shall succumb, and the _Union_ shall
triumph.
[_Exit quickly. The music ceases_.]
BOLZ. Poor Schmock! [_At the door_.]
Ah, they are still walking through the hall. Ida is being spoken to,
she stops, Adelaide goes on--(_Excitedly_.) she's coming, she's coming
alone!
ADELAIDE (_makes a motion as though to pass the door, but suddenly
enters_. BOLZ _bows_). Conrad! My dear doctor!
[_Holds out her hand_. BOLZ _bends low over it_.]
ADELAIDE (_in joyous emotion_). I knew you at once from a distance.
Let me see your faithful face. Yes, it has changed but little--a scar,
browner, and a small line about the mouth. I hope it is from laughing.
BOLZ. If at this moment I feel like anything but laughing it is only a
passing malignity of soul. I see myself double, like a melancholy
Highlander. In your presence my long happy childhood passes bodily
before my eyes. All the joy and pain it brought me I feel as vividly
again as though I were still the boy who went into the wood for you in
search of wild adventures and caught robin-red-breasts.
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