[Curtly.] At that word I left you.


PROFESSOR RUBEK.

You take everything so painfully to heart, Irene.


IRENE.

[Drawing her hand over her forehead.] Perhaps you are right. Let us
shake off all the hard things that go to the heart. [Plucks off the
leaves of a mountain rose and strews them on the brook.] Look there,
Arnold. There are our birds swimming.


PROFESSOR RUBEK.

What birds are they?


IRENE.

Can you not see? Of course they are flamingoes. Are they not
rose-red?


PROFESSOR RUBEK.