OLD GENTLEMAN—Good morning.
OSCAR—Good morning, professor. [_To PAULA._] See you again. [_To the OLD
GENTLEMAN._] What can I do for you, sir?
OLD GENTLEMAN—I want a pair of inexpensive gloves.
OSCAR—Inexpensive. Yes, sir. What kind? Won’t you sit down?
OLD GENTLEMAN—Swedish. Size nine and a half. Dark gray. [_Sits at about
the middle of the right counter._]
OSCAR—[_Lays out a box._] Dark gray. Swedish. Nine and a half. [_To
PAULA, who is crossing slowly to the table down left._] See you again
some time. [_To the OLD GENTLEMAN._] How do you like these? [_Opens and
expands a pair._]
OLD GENTLEMAN—Are they Swedish?
OSCAR—Why, old Heinrich Ibsen himself wasn’t as Swedish as these gloves
are.
OLD GENTLEMAN—Ibsen was a Norwegian.
OSCAR—I said he wasn’t as Swedish! Ha, ha! [_Passes over the gloves.
JUHASZ and the PATIENT LADY enter through the archway._]
PATIENT LADY—[_As she enters._] Now about the scarfs.
JUHASZ—[_Comes down to the table._] They are here, madame. [_Shows her
one._] They are quite new.
PATIENT LADY—I saw some like these at Braun’s some time ago.
OSCAR—Not like those you didn’t, madame, not like those! [_He is forcing
a glove on the OLD GENTLEMAN’S hand._] Now push, push hard!
JUHASZ—[_Has passed to the end of the counter down right._] Here are some
in plain colors. [_Puts out a box._] They are in much better taste. Sit
down, please. [_The PATIENT LADY sits at the counter. JUHASZ is behind
it. PAULA, at the table down left, is looking at him sulkily._]