HANNE

You start at me with such talk an' it just makes things worse an' worse.

That's all.

FRANZ

It's not true, eh? You're not schemin' right on to be Mrs. Henschel? I'm not right, eh?

HANNE

That's my business. That don't concern you. We all has to look out for ourselves.

FRANZ

Well, now, supposin' I was to look out for myself, an' goes to Henschel an' says: Hanne, she promised to marry me; we was agreed, an' so....

HANNE

Try it, that's all I says.

FRANZ

[_Almost weeping with pain and rage._] An' I will try it, too! You take care o' yourself an' I'll take care o' myself. If that's the way you're goin' to act, I c'n do the same! [_With a sudden change of front._] But I don't want to have nothin' more to do with you! You c'n throw yourself at his head for all I cares! A crittur like you isn't good enough for me!

[_Exit hastily._

HANNE

So it worked at last. An' that's all right.

_While HANNE continues busy at her washing, WERMELSKIRCH appears in the pa.s.sage at the rear. He is a man in the fifties; the former actor is unmistakable in him. He wears a thread-bare dressing-gown, embroidered slippers, and smokes a very long pipe._

WERMELSKIRCH

[_Having looked in for a while without being noticed by HANNE._] Did you hear him cough?

HANNE

Who?

WERMELSKIRCH

Why, a guest--a patient--has arrived upstairs.

HANNE

'Tis time they began to come. We're in the middle of May.

WERMELSKIRCH

[_Slowly crosses the threshold and hums throatily._]

A pulmonary subject I, Tra la la la la, b.u.m b.u.m!

It can't last long until I die, Tra la la la la, b.u.m b.u.m!

[_HANNE laughs over her washing._] Things like that really do one good.

They show that the summer is coming.

HANNE

One swallow don't make no summer, though!

WERMELSKIRCH

[_Clears a s.p.a.ce for himself on the bench and sits down._] Where is Henschel?

HANNE

Why he went down, to the cemetery to-day.

WERMELSKIRCH

To be sure, it's his wife's birthday. [_Pause._] It was a deuce of a blow to him, that's certain.--Tell me, when is he coming back?

HANNE

I don't know why he had to go an' drive there at all. We needs the horses like anything an' he took the new coachman with him too.

WERMELSKIRCH

I tell you, Hanne, anger spoils one's appet.i.te.

HANNE

Well, I can't help bein' angry! He leaves everythin' in a mess. The 'bus is to leave on time! An' the one-horse carriage sticks in the mud out there an' Hauffe can't budge it! The old fellow is as stiff as a goat!

WERMELSKIRCH

Yes, things are beginning to look busy. The _chef_ upstairs starts in to-day. It's beginning to look up in the tap-room too.

HANNE

[_With a short derisive laugh._] You don't look, though, as if you had much to do!

WERMELSKIRCH

[_Taking no offence._] Oh, that comes later, at eleven o'clock. But then I'm like a locomotive engine!