The most wonderful of all was a painting like Nika's, with lovely roses and trees and the meadow with clear water.

At last Cornelli's eyes closed, but she kept on seeing the flowers and seemed to be looking up admiringly at Nika, who stood beside her, tall and beautiful.

Cornelli thought: If she would only say one pleasant word to me.

Then Nika turned around to her and said: "You are an awkward, block-headed Cornelli!" All this Cornelli saw and heard in her dream.
Agnes said to her sister in the other room: "If only Cornelli would say something! One cannot tell what she is thinking about.

How could Dino find her so amusing, and become her friend?
She sits there all the time and never says a word." "That is her least fault," Nika returned.