On the contrary! Are we to put up with everything? Isn't one to offer any resistance if that woman robs us of our very bread--if she spreads slander about our daughter? [_To SIEBENHAAR._] Did the child ever offend you in any way?

WERMELSKIRCH

Mama, mama! Come along now, mama, and rest a while. So! You spoke your part very well indeed. You can repeat it to-night.

[_He leads her behind the bar where her sobbing is heard for some time after._

WERMELSKIRCH

[_Having resumed his seat._] She's quite right at bottom. I've heard all kinds of rumours too, to the effect that Henschel will rent the barroom.

And, of course, his wife is behind that!

HAUFFE

An' who else'd be back of it I'd like to know? If there's anythin' low happenin' in the village nowadays, you don't has to go an ax who's back of it! That Henschel woman's got the devil in her!

FABIG

An' she's had her eye on the barroom this long time.

SIEBENHAAR

[_To_ HAUFFE.] One hardly ever sees you any longer, Hauffe? Where did you land?

HAUFFE

Where d'you suppose? In misery an' hunger' An' who gave me the shove?

That d.a.m.ned crittur of a woman! Who else'd do it, I'd like to know! I never had no trouble with Henschel!

FABIG

His wife has the breeches on--that's all!

HAUFFE

I wasn't quick enough for her no more. I'm not as young as I was--that's a fac'! An' I don't go hangin' aroun' no woman's ap.r.o.n strings neither.

An' that there is what she wants. That's what you got to do with her!

She's a hot one--you might say--she don't never get enough.--But as for workin': I c'n work! Them young fellers that she hires--they're that stinkin' lazy.... I could do as much as any three of 'em.

SIEBENHAAR

One feels sorry for old Henschel.

HAUFFE

If he's satisfied, I don't care. But he ought to know why my bones is stiff! They didn't get stiff with lazyin' aroun', an' if that man has a chest full o' money to-day, he knows who it is that helped him earn a good lot of it!

SIEBENHAAR

I recall very well that you even worked for Wilhelm Henschel's father.

HAUFFE

Well, who else but me! That's the way it is! An' I fed Wilhelm's horses eighteen years an' more--hitched 'em up an' unhitched 'em--went on trips summer an' winter. I drove 's far's Freiburg an' 's far's Breslau: I had to drive 'way to Bromberg. Many a night I had to sleep in the waggon. I got my ears an' my hands frost bitten: I got chilblains on both feet big as pears. An' now he puts me out! Now I c'n go!

FABIG

That's all the woman's doin's: he's a good man.

HAUFFE

Why did he go an' load hisself with that wench! Now he can look out for hisself! An' he couldn't hardly wait to do it decent. His first wife--she wasn't hardly cold when he ran to get married to this one!

SIEBENHAAR

Well, no one knew her, of course.

FABIG

I knew her well enough. O Lord--that I did! If he'd ha' axed me, I could ha' told him! If he wanted to send Gustel after her mother, there wasn't no surer way for him to take: all he had to do was to make Hanne the child's step-mother.

HAUFFE

Ah yes, yes ... well, well ... I'm not sayin' nothin' more. There's many a one has shaken his head about that! But that'll be comin' home to him some day. First people just wondered; now they'd believe anythin' of him.

SIEBENHAAR

That's undoubtedly mere idle talk.

_The horse dealer WALTHER enters in riding boots, hunting jacket and cap. His whip is in his hand. He sits down at one of the tables and beckons FRANZISKA to bring him beer._

HAUFFE

You c'n say that. Maybe it's true. But if the dead was to come back an'

was to say their say--'tis old Mrs. Henschel that could tell you a thing or two. She couldn't live an' she didn't want to live! An' what's the main thing--she wasn't to live!

SIEBENHAAR

Hauffe, you'd better take care! If Henschel were to get wind of that ...

HAUFFE

I wouldn't have to take care if he did! I'd say that to anyone's face.

Old Mrs. Henschel--she was meant to die! If they pisened her, I couldn't say; I wasn't on the spot. But that thing didn't happen no natural way.

She was a well woman; she might ha' lived thirty years.

_SIEBENHAAR drinks and rises._