yourself and realise that you are all alone at the other end of the world! Brrr!
Heinecke. Parrots? That must be nice! Here only the rich folks can have 'em!
Robert. Yes, and if you only knew how I worried these last years, and even on the journey home, for fear I shouldn't find everything the way my longing had painted it!
Heinecke. Why?
Robert. There was a man--otherwise a dear friend, my best friend, too--who tried to prepare me for disappointment. You have become foreign, he said, and you shouldn't try to put together what Fate has separated so long ago--Heaven knows what else he said--and I was almost afraid of him, and you, and myself too! Thank God that doesn't bother me any more; every single thing has come out as I hoped! Everything I had imagined for ten years is exactly as I expected--there is Father--there's Mother, sweet and simple and (Tenderly) a bit of a chatterbox! (Stretching himself) But what are these two young arms for? Just watch! They've le
