FLAMM

[_Laughing._] Oh, well, that's what you women make of us--dogs. This man to-day; that man to-morrow! 'Tis bitter enough to think! You can do what you please now; follow what ways you want to!--If I so much as raise a finger in this affair again, it'll be to take a rope and beat it about my a.s.s's ears until I can't see out of my eyes!

_ROSE stares at FLAMM in wide-eyed horror._

MRS. FLAMM

What I said, Rose, stands for all that! You two'll always be provided for.

ROSE

[_Whispering mechanically._] I was so ashamed! I was so ashamed!

MRS. FLAMM

Do you hear what I say, Rose?--[ROSE _hurries out._] The girl's gone!--'Tis enough to make one pray for an angel to come down....

FLAMM

[_Stricken to the heart, breaks out in repressed sobbing._] G.o.d forgive me, mother, but ... I can't help it.

THE CURTAIN FALLS

FIFTH ACT

_The living room in old BERND'S cottage. The room is fairly large; it has grey walls and an old-fashioned whitewashed ceiling supported by visible beams. A door in the background leads to the kitchen, one at the left to the outer hall. To the right are two small windows. A yellow chest of drawers stands between the two windows; upon it is set an unlit kerosene lamp; a mirror hangs above it on the wall. In the left corner a great stove; in the right a sofa, covered with oil-cloth, a table with a cloth on it and a hanging lamp above it.

Over the sofa on the wall hangs a picture with the Biblical subject: "Suffer little children to come unto me"; beneath it a photograph of BERND, showing him as a conscript, and several of himself and his wife. In the foreground, to the left, stands a china closet, filled with painted cups, gla.s.ses, etc. A Bible is lying on the chest of drawers; over the door to the hall hangs a chromolithograph of "Christ with the crown of thorns." Mull curtains hang in front of the windows. Each of four or five chairs of yellow wood has its own place. The whole room makes a neat but very chilly impression.

Several Bibles and hymnals lie on the china closet. On the door-post of the door to the hall hangs a collecting-box._

_It is seven o'clock in the evening of the same day on which the events in Act Four have taken place. The door that leads to the hall as well as the kitchen door stands open. A gloomy dusk fills the house._

_Voices are heard outside, and a repeated knocking at the window.

Thereupon a voice speaks through the window._

THE VOICE

Bernd! Isn't there a soul at home? Let's be goin' to the back door!

_A silence ensues. Soon, however, the back door opens and voices and steps are heard in the hall. In the door that leads to the hall appear KLEINERT and ROSE BERND. The latter is obviously exhausted and leans upon him._

ROSE

[_Weak and faint._] No one's at home. 'Tis all dark.

KLEINERT

I can't be leavin' you alone this way now!

ROSE

An' why not, Kleinert? There's nothin' the matter with me!

KLEINERT

Somebody else can believe that--that there's nothin' wrong! I wouldn't ha' had to pick you up in that case!

ROSE

Eh, but I'd only gotten a bit dizzy. Truly ... 'tis better now. I really don't need you no more.

KLEINERT

No, no, la.s.s; I can't leave you this way!

ROSE

Oh, yes, father Kleinert! I do thank you, but 'tis well! There's nothin'

wrong with me! I'm on my feet an' strong again! It comes over me that way sometimes; but 'tis nothin' to worry over.

KLEINERT

But you lay half dead yonder behind the willow! An' you writhed like a worm.

ROSE

Kleinert, go your ways.... I'll be lightin' a light! An' I must light a fire, too ... go your ways ... the folks will be comin' to their supper!... Oh, no, Kleinert, Kleinert! But I'm that tired! Oh, I'm so terrible tired! No one wouldn't believe how tired I am.

KLEINERT

An' then you want to be lightin' a fire here? That's nothin' for you! Bed is the place where you ought to be!

ROSE

Kleinert, go your ways, go! If father, an' if August ... they mustn't know nothin'! For my sake, go! Don't do nothin' that'll only harm me!

KLEINERT

I don't want to do nothin' that'll harm you!

ROSE

No, no, I know it! You was always good to me! [_She has arisen from the chair at the right on which, she had sunk down, gets a candle from behind the oven and lights it._] Oh, yes, yes, I'm well off again.--There's nothin' wrong.--You can be easy in your mind.

KLEINERT