Love's Comedy - BestLightNovel.com
You’re reading novel Love's Comedy Part 22 online at BestLightNovel.com. Please use the follow button to get notification about the latest chapter next time when you visit BestLightNovel.com. Use F11 button to read novel in full-screen(PC only). Drop by anytime you want to read free – fast – latest novel. It’s great if you could leave a comment, share your opinion about the new chapters, new novel with others on the internet. We’ll do our best to bring you the finest, latest novel everyday. Enjoy
AUNTS [delighted].
Yes, that's the way!
MRS HALM.
Agreed!
MISS JAY.
That cuts the knot.
[SVANHILD and the maids have meantime laid the tea-table beside the verandah steps. At MRS. HALM's invitation the ladies sit down. The rest of the company take their places, partly on the verandah and in the summer-house, partly in the garden.
FALK sits on the verandah. During the following scene they drink tea.
MRS. HALM [smiling].
And so our little storm is overblown.
Such summer showers do good when they are gone; The suns.h.i.+ne greets us with a double boon, And promises a cloudless afternoon.
MISS JAY.
Ah yes, Love's blossom without rainy skies Would never thrive according to our wishes.
FALK.
In dry land set it, and it forthwith dies; For in so far the flowers are like the fishes--
SVANHILD.
Nay, for Love lives, you know, upon the air--
MISS JAY.
Which is the death of fishes--
FALK.
So I say.
MISS JAY.
Aha, we've put a bridle on you there!
MRS. STRAWMAN.
The tea is good, one knows by the bouquet.
FALK.
Well, let us keep the simile you chose.
Love is a flower; for if heaven's blessed rain Fall short, it all but pines to death-- [Pauses.
MISS JAY.
What then?
FALK [with a gallant bow].
Then come the aunts with the reviving hose.-- But poets have this simile employed, And men for scores of centuries enjoyed,-- Yet hardly one its secret sense has. .h.i.t; For flowers are manifold and infinite.
Say, then, what flower is love? Name me, who knows, The flower most like it?
MISS JAY.
Why, it is the rose; Good gracious, that's exceedingly well known;-- Love, all agree, lends life a rosy tone.
A YOUNG LADY.
It is the snowdrop; growing, snow enfurled; Till it peer forth, undreamt of by the world.
AN AUNT.
It is the dandelion,--made robust By dint of human heel and horse hoof thrust; Nay, shooting forth afresh when it is smitten, As Pedersen so charmingly has written.
LIND.
It is the bluebell,--ringing in for all Young hearts life's joyous Whitsun festival.
MRS. HALM.
No, 'tis an evergreen,--as fresh and gay In desolate December as in May.
GULDSTAD.
No, Iceland moss, dry gathered,--far the best Cure for young ladies with a wounded breast.
A GENTLEMAN.
No, the wild chestnut tree,--high repute For household fuel, but with a bitter fruit.
SVANHILD.
No, a camellia; at our b.a.l.l.s, 'tis said, The chief adornment of a lady's head.
MRS. STRAWMAN.
No, it is like a flower, O such a bright one;-- Stay now--a blue one, no, it was a white one-- What is it's name--? Dear me--the one I met--; Well it is singular how I forget!
STIVER.
None of these flower similitudes will run.
The flowerpot is a likelier candidate.
There's only room in it, at once, for one; But by progressive stages it holds eight.
STRAWMAN [with his little girls round him].
No, love's a pear tree; in the spring like snow With myriad blossoms, which in summer grow To pearlets; in the parent's sap each shares;-- And with G.o.d's help they'll all alike prove pears.
FALK.
So many heads, so many sentences!
No, you all grope and blunder off the line.
Each simile's at fault; I'll tell you mine;-- You're free to turn and wrest it as you please.
[Rises as if to make a speech.
In the remotest east there grows a plant;(4) And the sun's cousin's garden is its haunt--
THE LADIES.
Ah, it's the tea-plant!
FALK.
Yes.
MRS. STRAWMAN.
His voice is so Like Strawman's when he--
STRAWMAN.
