Now, mother, you've gone off your head entirely. You seem to want to make me look utterly foolish! _I_ sigh! Am I such an imbecile? I'm not a lovelorn swain.

MRS. FLAMM

No, Christie, you can't escape me that way!

FLAMM

Mother, what are you trying to do? Do you want, simply, to be tiresome, to bore me? Eh? Or make the house too disagreeable to stay in? Is that your intention? If so, you're going about it the best way possible.

MRS. FLAMM

I don't care what you say; you're keeping something secret!

FLAMM

[_Shrugging his shoulders._] Do you think so?--Well, perhaps I _am_ keeping something from you! Suppose it is so, mother.... You know me....

You know my nature in that respect.... The whole world could turn upside down and not get that much [_he snaps his fingers_] out of me! As for annoyance ... everyone has his share of it in this world! Yesterday I had to dismiss one of the brewers; day before yesterday I had to send a distiller to the devil. And, all in all, apart from such incidents, the kind of life one has to live here is really flat and unprofitable enough to make any decent individual as cross as two sticks.

MRS. FLAMM

Why don't you seek company? Drive in to town!

FLAMM

Oh, yes, to sit in the inn playing at cards with a crowd of Philistines or to be stilted with his honour, the prefect of the county! G.o.d forbid!

I have enough of that nonsense! It couldn't tempt me out of the house! If it weren't for the bit of hunting a man could do--if one couldn't shoulder one's gun occasionally, one would be tempted to run away to sea.

MRS. FLAMM

Well, you see! There you are! That's what I say! You've just changed entirely! Till two, three months ago, you was as merry as the day's long; you shot birds an' stuffed them, increased your botanical collection, hunted birds' eggs--and sang the livelong day! 'Twas a joy to see you!

An' now, suddenly, you're like another person.

FLAMM

If only we had been able to keep Kurt!

MRS. FLAMM

How would it be if we adopted a child?

FLAMM

All of a sudden? No, mother. I don't care about it now. Before, you couldn't make up your mind to it; now I've pa.s.sed that stage too.

MRS. FLAMM

'Tis easily said: Take a child into the house! First of all it seemed to me like betraying Kurt ... yes, like a regular betrayal ... that's what the very thought of It seemed to me. I felt--how shall I say it?--as if we were putting the child away from us utterly--out of the house, out of his little room an' his little bed, an', last of all, out of our hearts.--But the main thing was this: Where can you get a child in whom you can hope to have some joy?--But let that rest where it is. Let's go back to Rose once more!--Do you know how it is with her, Christopher?

FLAMM

Oh, well! Of course; why not? Streckmann has cast a slur upon her conduct and old Bernd won't suffer that! 'Tis folly, to be sure, to bring suit in such a matter.--Because it is the woman who has to bear the brunt of it in the end.

MRS. FLAMM

I wrote a couple of letters to Rose and asked the la.s.s to come here. In her situation, Christopher, she may really not know what to do nor where to turn.

FLAMM

Why do you think so?

MRS. FLAMM

Because Streckmann is right!

FLAMM

[_Taken aback and with a show of stupidity._] What, mother? You must express yourself more clearly.

MRS. FLAMM

Now, Christie, don't let your temper get the better of you again! I've kept the truth from you till now because I know you're a bit harsh in such matters. You remember the little maid that you put straight out o'

the house, and the trunk-maker to whom you gave a beating! Now this la.s.s o' ours made a confession to me long ago--maybe eight weeks. An' we have to consider that 'tis not only Rose that's to be considered now, but ...

a second being ... the one that's on the way. Did you understand me? Did you?

FLAMM

[_With self-repression._] No! Not entirely, mother, I must say frankly.

I've got a kind of a ... just to-day ... it comes over me ... the blood, you know ... it seems to go to my head suddenly, once in a while. It's like a ... it's horrible, too ... like an attack of dizziness! I suppose I'll have to ... at least, I think I'll have to take the air a bit. But it's nothing of importance, mother. So don't worry.

MRS. FLAMM

[_Looking at him through her spectacles._] And where do you want to go with your cartridge belt?

FLAMM

Nowhere! What did I want to do with the cartridge belt? [_He hurls the belt aside which he has involuntarily picked up._] One learns nothing ...

is kept in the dark about everything! And then a point comes where one suddenly feels blind and stupid ... and a stranger ... an utter stranger in this world.

MRS. FLAMM

[_Suspiciously._] Will you tell me, Christie, the meanin' of all this?

FLAMM

It hasn't any, mother--not the slightest ... none at all, in fact. And I'm quite clear in my head again, too--quite! Only now and then a feeling comes over me, a kind of terror, all of a sudden, I don't know how ...

and I feel as if there were no solid footing under me any longer, and as if I were going to crash through and break my neck.

MRS. FLAMM