Feel
it. It's like silk, isn't it?
LOTH
It is like silk.
[_A tremour passes through him. He bends down and kisses her hair._
HELEN
[_Frightened._] Ah, don't. If ...
LOTH
Helen! Were you in earnest a while ago?
HELEN
Oh, I am so ashamed--so deeply ashamed. What have I done? Why, I've
thrown myself at you. That's what I've done. I wonder what you take me
for?
LOTH
[_Draws nearer to her and takes her hand in his._] Ah, you mustn't let
_that_ trouble you.
HELEN
[_Sighing._] Oh, if Sister Schmittgen knew of that--I dare not imagine
it.
LOTH
Who is Sister Schmittgen?
HELEN
One of my teachers at boarding-school.
LOTH
How can you worry about Sister Schmittgen!
HELEN
She was very good.
[_Laughing heartily to herself suddenly._
LOTH
Why do you laugh all at once?
HELEN
[_Half between respect and jest._] Oh, when she stood in the choir and
sang--she had only one long tooth left--then she was supposed to sing:
"Trouble yourselves not, my people!"--and it always sounded like:
"'Rouble, 'rouble yourselves not, my people!" It was too funny. And we
always had to laugh so ... when it sounded through the chapel: "'Rouble,
'rouble!" [_She laughs more and more heartily.
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