MISS COEURNE. And myself.... I don't know whether you understand me.
GERARDO [_holding the back of a chair; he hesitates, then shakes his head._] Who are you?
GERARDO. I know. Come here, my dear girl. [_He sits down in an armchair and she stands before him._] Let's have a good earnest talk, such as you have never had in your life--and seem to need. An artist like myself--don't misunderstand me; you are--how old are you?
GERARDO. You are sixteen or perhaps seventeen. You make yourself a little older so as to appear more--tempting. Well? Yes, you are very silly. It is really none of my business, as an artist, to cure you of your silliness.... Don't take this badly.... Now then! Why are you staring away like this?
MISS COEURNE. I said I was very silly, because I thought you Germans liked that in a young girl.
GERARDO. I am not a German, but just the same....
MISS COEURNE. What! I am not as silly as all that.
GERARDO. Now look here, my dear girl--you have your tennis court, your skating club; you have your riding class, your dances; you have all a young girl can wish for. What on earth made you come to me?
MISS COEURNE. Because all those things are awful, and they bore me to death.
GERARDO. I will not dispute that. Personally, I must tell you, I know life from an entirely different side. But, my child, I am a man; I am thirty-six. The time will come when you, too, will claim a fuller existence. Wait another two years and there will be some one for you, and then you won't need to--hide yourself behind curtains, in my room, in the room of a man who--never asked you, and whom you don't know any better than--the whole continent of Europe knows him--in order to look at life from his--wonderful point of view. [_Miss Coeurne sighs deeply._] Now then.... Many thanks from the bottom of my heart for your roses. [_He presses her hand._] Will this do for to-day?
MISS COEURNE. I had never in all my life thought of a man, until I saw you on the stage last night in "Tannhäuser." And I promise you--
GERARDO. Oh, don't promise me anything, my child. What good could your promise do me? The burden of it would all fall upon you. You see, I am talking to you as lovingly as the most loving father could. Be thankful to God that with your recklessness you haven't fallen into the hands of another artist. [_He presses her hand again._] Let this be a lesson to you and never try it again.