O, Mother, Mother, I believe I haven't chlorosis----

FRAU BERGMANN.

You have chlorosis, child. Be calm, Wendla, be calm, you have chlorosis.

WENDLA.

No, Mother, no! I know it. I feel it. I haven't chlorosis. I have dropsy----

FRAU BERGMANN.

You have chlorosis. He said positively that you have chlorosis. Calm yourself, girl. You will get better.

WENDLA.

I won't get better. I have the dropsy, I must die, Mother.----O, Mother, I must die!

FRAU BERGMANN.

You must not die, child! You must not die--Great heavens, you must not die!

WENDLA.

But why do you weep so frightfully, then?

FRAU BERGMANN.

You must not die, child! You haven't the dropsy, you have a child, girl! You have a child!----Oh, why did you do that to me!

WENDLA.

I haven't done anything to you.

FRAU BERGMANN.

Oh don't deny it any more, Wendla!----I know everything. See, I didn't want to say a word to you.----Wendla, my Wendla----!

WENDLA.

But it's not possible, Mother. I'm not married yet!

FRAU BERGMANN.

Great Almighty G.o.d----that's just it, that you are not married! That is the most frightful thing of all!----Wendla, Wendla, Wendla, what have you done!!

WENDLA.

G.o.d knows, I don't know any more! We lay in the hay----I have loved n.o.body in the world as I do you, Mother.

FRAU BERGMANN.

My sweetheart----

WENDLA.

O Mother, why didn't you tell me everything!

FRAU BERGMANN.

Child, child, let us not make each other's hearts any heavier! Take hold of yourself! Don't make me desperate, child. To tell _that_ to a fourteen-year-old girl! See, I expected that about as much as I did the sun going out. I haven't acted any differently towards you than my dear, good mother did toward me.----Oh, let us trust in the dear G.o.d, Wendla; let us hope for compa.s.sion, and have compa.s.sion toward ourselves! See, nothing has happened yet, child. And if we are not cowardly now, G.o.d won't forsake us.----Be cheerful, Wendla, be cheerful!----One sits so at the window with one's hands in one's lap, while everything changes to good, and then one realizes that one almost wanted to break one's heart----Wa----why are you shivering?

WENDLA.

Somebody knocked.

FRAU BERGMANN.

I didn't hear anything, dear heart. (_Goes and opens the door._)

WENDLA.

But I heard it very plainly----Who is outside?

FRAU BERGMANN.

n.o.body----Schmidt's Mother from Garden street.----You come just at the right time, Mother Schmidt.

SCENE SIXTH.

_Men and women wine-dressers in the vineyard. The sun is setting behind the peaks of the mountains in the west. A clear sound of bells rises from the valley below. Hans Rilow and Ernest Robel roll about in the dry gra.s.s of the highest plot under the overhanging rocks._

ERNEST.

I have overworked myself.

HANS.

Don't let us be sad!----It's a pity the minutes are pa.s.sing.

ERNEST.

One sees them hanging and can't manage any more----and to-morrow they are in the wine press.

HANS.

Fatigue is as intolerable to me as hunger.