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, glasses, 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, lass; 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

You're just sayin' that!

ROSE

Because 'tis really so!

MARTHEL comes in from the fields with bare arms and feet.

ROSE

An' there's Marthel, too!

MARTHEL

Rose, is that you? Where have you been all day?

ROSE

I dreamed I was at the court.

KLEINERT

No, no; she was really at the court! Take a bit o' care o' your sister, Marthel. Look after her at least till your fatter comes back. 'Tisn't well with the girl.

ROSE

Marthel, hurry! Light the fire, so's we can start to put on the potatoes.—Where's father?

MARTHEL

On August's land.

ROSE

An' August?

MARTHEL

I don't know where he is. He was out on the field to-day.

ROSE

Have you got new potatoes?

MARTHEL

I have an apron full!

[Immediately behind the kitchen door she pours out the potatoes on the floor.

ROSE

Fetch me a pan and a saucepan, so's I can begin the peelin'. I can't get nothin' for myself.

KLEINERT

D'you want me to be givin' a message anywhere?

ROSE

To whom? To the grave-digger, maybe?… No, no, godfather, not on my account. 'Tis a special bit o' ground where I'll find rest.

KLEINERT

Well, good-bye!

ROSE

Good-bye to you!

MARTHEL

[Cheerily.] Come again, godfather!

KLEINERT as usual with his pipe in his mouth, departs shaking his head.

MARTHEL

[Lighting the fire.] Don't you feel well, Rosie?

ROSE

Oh, yes; well enough! [Softly wringing her hands, she speaks to the crucifix.] Jesus, Mary, have mercy on me!

MARTHEL

Rose!

ROSE

What?

MARTHEL

What's the matter with you?

ROSE

Nothin'. Bring me a pan an' the potatoes.

MARTHEL

[Has started the fire to burning and now brings ROSE an earthenware bowl of potatoes and a paring knife.] Oh, but Rosie, I'm that frightened! You look so …!

ROSE

How does I look? Tell me that? How? Has I got spots on my hands? Is it branded over my eyes? Everythin's kind o' ghastly to me this day. [Laughing a ghastly laugh.] Lord! I can't see the face o' you! Now I see one hand! Now I see two eyes! Just dots now! Martha, maybe I'm growin' blind!

MARTHEL

Rosie, did somethin' happen to you?

ROSE

God protect you from what's happened to me…. You'd better be wishin' yourself an early death! Because, even if a body dies to this world, they do say that he passes into rest. Then you don't have to live an' draw breath no more.—How did it go with little Kurt Flamm? I've clean forgot … I'm dizzy … I'm forgettin' … I've forgotten everythin' … life's that hard … If I could only keep on feelin' this way … an' never wake up again …! What's the reason o' such things comin' to pass in this world?

MARTHEL

[Frightened.] If only father would come home!

ROSE

Martha, come! Listen to me! You mustn't tell father that I was here or that I am here … Martha, sure you'll promise me that, won't you?… Many a thing I've done for the love o' you … Martha! You haven't forgotten that, nor you mustn't forget it, even if things grows dark around me now.

MARTHEL

Will you drink a bit of coffee? There's a drop left in the oven.

ROSE

An' don't be frightened! I'll go upstairs in the room an' lie down a wee bit … just a bit. Otherwise I'm all right … otherwise there's nothin' that ails me.

MARTHEL

An' I'm not to say nothin' to father?

ROSE

Not a word!

MARTHEL

An' not to August neither?

ROSE

Not a syllable! Lass, you've never known your mother an' I've raised you with fear an' heartache.—Many's the night I've watched through in terror because you was ill! I wasn't as old as you when I carried you about on my arm till I was near breakin' in two! Here you was—at my breast! An' if you go an' betray me now, 'tis all over between us!

MARTHEL

Rosie, 'tis nothin' bad is it … nothin' dangerous, I mean?

ROSE

I don't believe it is! Come, Martha, help me a bit, support me a bit!… A body is left too lonely in this world … too deserted! If only a body wasn't so lonely here … so lonely on this earth!

[ROSE and MARTHEL pass out through the hall door.

For some moments the room remains empty. Then old BERND appears in the kitchen. He puts down his basket and the potato hoe and looks about him, earnestly and inquiringly. Meanwhile MARTHEL re-enters the living-room from the hall.

MARTHEL

Is it you, father?

BERND

Is there no hot water! You know I have to have my foot bath! Isn't Rose here yet?

MARTHEL

She isn't here yet, father!

BERND

What? Hasn't she come back from court yet? That isn't possible hardly!
'Tis eight o'clock. Was August here?

MARTHEL

Not yet.

BERND

Not yet either? Well, maybe she's with him then.—Have you seen that great cloud, Marthel, that was comin' over from the mountain about six o'clock, maybe?

MARTHEL

Yes, father; the world got all dark!

BERND

There'll come a day o' greater darkness than this! Light the lamp on the table for me an' put the Good Book down next to it. The great thing is to be in readiness. Marthel, are you sure you keep thinkin' o' the life eternal, so that you can stand up before your Judge on that day? Few is the souls that think of it here! Just now as I was comin' home along the water's edge, I heard some one cryin' out upon me from behind, as they often does. "Bloodsucker!" cried he. An' was I a bloodsucker when I was overseer on the domain? Nay, I did my duty,—that was all! But the powers of evil is strong! If a man is underhanded, an' closes his eyes to evil, an' looks on quietly upon cheatin'—then his fellows likes him well.—But I leans upon the Lord Jesus. We human bein's all need that support. 'Tisn't enough just to do good works! Maybe if Rose had given more thought to that, maybe we'd ha' been spared many a visitation an' a deal o' heaviness an' bitterness. [A CONSTABLE appears in the doorway.] Who's comin' there?

CONSTABLE

I have a summons to serve, I must speak to your daughter.

BERND

My oldest daughter?

CONSTABLE

[Reads from the document.] To Rose Bernd.

BERND

My daughter hasn't come back from court yet. Can I give her the letter?

CONSTABLE

No; I've got to make a personal search, too. I'll be back at eight in the mornin'.

AUGUST appears hastily.

BERND

There's August, too.

AUGUST

Isn't Rose here?

BERND

No; an' the sergeant here is askin' after her, too. I thought you an' she was together.

CONSTABLE

I has to make a search into one matter an' also to serve this paper.

AUGUST

Always an' forever this Streckmann business. 'Tis not only the loss of my eye—now we has these everlastin' troubles an' annoyances. It seems, God forgive me, to come to no end.

CONSTABLE

Good evenin'. To-morrow mornin' at eight!

[Exit.

AUGUST

Marthel, go into the kitchen a bit of a while.—Father, I've got to speak with you. Go, Marthel; go an' shut the door. But Marthel, didn't you see anythin' o' Rose?

MARTHEL

No, nothin'! [Surreptitiously she beckons to him with her hand.] I'll tell you something August.

AUGUST

Close the door, lass. I have no time now. [He himself closes the kitchen door.] Father, you'll have to withdraw your suit.

BERND

Anythin' but that, August. I can't do that!

AUGUST

'Tis not Christian. Yon must withdraw.

BERND

I don't believe that 'tis not Christian!—For why? 'Tis a piece of infamy to cut off a girl's honour that way. 'Tis a crime that needs to be punished.

AUGUST

I hardly know how to begin, father Bernd…. You've been too hasty in this matter….

BERND

My wife who's in her grave demands that of me! An' my honour demands it … the honour o' my house and o' my lass. An' yours, too, if you come to think.

AUGUST

Father Bernd, father Bernd, how am I to speak to you if you're so set on not makin' peace? You've spoke o' so many kinds of honour. But we're not to seek our honour or glory in this world, but God's only an' no other!

BERND

'Tis otherwise in this matter. Here woman's honour is God's too! Or have you any complaint to make against Rose?

AUGUST

I've said to you: I make no complaint!

BERND

Or is your own conscience troublin' you on her account?

AUGUST

You know me in that respeck, father Bernd. Before I'd depart from the straight an' narrow way …

BERND

Well, then. I know that! I always knew that! An' so justice can take its course.

AUGUST

[Wiping the sweat from his forehead.] If only we knew where Rose is!

BERND

Maybe she isn't back from the court at Striegau yet!

AUGUST

An examination like that don't take very long. She meant to be home by five o'clock.

BERND

Maybe she went to buy some things on the way. Wasn't she to get several things yet? I thought you were wantin' one thing or another.

AUGUST

But she didn't take along any money. An' the things we was needin' for the shop—curtains for the windows an' the door—we intended to buy those together.

BERND

I was thinkin' that she'd come with you!

AUGUST

I went to meet her on the road—more'n a mile, but I heard an' saw nothin' of her. Instead o' that, I met Streckmann.

BERND

I calls that meetin' the devil!

AUGUST

Ah, father, that man has a wife an' children too! His sins are no fault o' theirs! What good does it do me that he's got to go to gaol? If a man repents … that's all I asks!

BERND

That bad man don't know repentance!

AUGUST

It looked very much as if he did.

BERND

Did you speak to him?

AUGUST

He gave me no peace. He ran along next to me an' talked an' talked. There wasn't a soul to be seen far an' wide! In the end I felt sorry for him; I couldn't help it.

BERND

You answered him! What did he say?

AUGUST

He said you should withdraw your suit.

BERND

I couldn't rest quiet in my grave if I did! 'Twouldn't matter if it concerned me! I can bear it; I can laugh at it! I'm not only a man but a Christian! But 'tis a different thing with my child! How could I look you in the face if I let that shameful thing stick to her! An' now, especially, after that terrible misfortune! Look, August, that can't be! That mustn't be!—Everybody's always been at our heels, because we lived different from the rest o' the world! Hypocrites they called us an' bigots, an' sneaks an' such names! An' always they wanted to trump up somethin' against us! What a feast this here thing would be to 'em! An' besides … How did I bring up the lass? Industrious an' with the fear o' God in her heart so that if a Christian man marries her, he can set up a Christian household! That's the way! That's how I gives her out o' my care! An' am I goin' to let that poison cling to her? Rather would I be eatin' bread an' salt all my days than take a penny from you then!

AUGUST

Father Bernd, God's ways is mysterious! He can send us new trials daily! No man has a right to be self-righteous! An' even if I wanted to be, I couldn't! I can't spare you the knowledge no longer, father. Our Rose has been but a weak human bein' like others.

BERND

How do you mean that, August?

AUGUST

Father, don't ask me no more,

BERND

[Has sat down on a chair by the table in such a way that his face is turned to the wall. At AUGUST'S last words he has looked at him with eyes, wide-open and estranged. Then he turns to the table, opens the Bible with trembling hands, and turns its leaves hither and thither in growing excitement. He ceases and looks at AUGUST again. Finally he folds his hands over the book and lets his head sink upon them while his body twitches convulsively. In this posture he remains for a while, Then he straightens himself up.] No. I don't understand you rightly! Because, you see, if I did understand you rightly … that'd be really … an' I wouldn't know … my God, the room swims with me … why, I'd have to be deaf an' blind!—Nay, August, an' I'm not deaf an' blind! Don't let Streckmann impose on you! He'll take any means to get out o' the trap that he's in now. It's comin' home to him, an' he wants to sneak out at any cost! An' so he's incitin' you against the lass. No, August, … truly, August … not on that bridge … you mustn't start for to cross that bridge!… Anybody can see through his villainy! … He's laid traps enough for the lass. An' if one way don't succeed, he'll try another!… Now he's hit on this here plan.—Maybe he'll separate you two! It's happened in this world, more than once or twice that some devil with his evil schemes has tore asunder people that God meant for each other. They always grudged the girl her good fortune. Good: I'm willin'! I won't throw Rose after you! We've satisfied our hunger up to now! But if you'll heed my word: I'll put my right hand in the fire for….

AUGUST

But Mr. Flamm took oath.

BERND

Ten oaths against me … twenty oaths against me!… Then he has sworn falsely an' damned hisself in this world an' in the world to come!

AUGUST

Father Bernd….

BERND

Now wait a bit before ever you say another word! Here I take the books! Here I take my hat! Here I take the collecting box o' the missions. An' all these things I puts together here. An' if that's true what you've been sayin'—if there's so much in it as a grain o' truth—then I'll go this minute to the pastor an' I'll say: Your reverence, this is how things is: I can't be a deacon no more; I can't take care o' the treasury for missions no more! Good-bye! And then nobody would see me no more! No, no, no, for the love o' God! But now go on! Say your say! But don't torture me for nothin'.

AUGUST

I had the same thought, too. I want to sell my house an' my land! Maybe one could find contentment somewhere else.

BERND

[In unspeakable astonishment.] You want to sell your house an' your land, August? How do all these strange things come about all of a sudden! It's enough … A body might be tempted to make the sign o' the cross, even though we're not Catholics.—Has the whole world gone mad? Or is the Day o' Judgment at hand? Or maybe, 'tis but my last hour that has come. Now answer me, August, how is it? As you hope for a life to come, how is it?

AUGUST

However it is, father Bernd, I won't desert her.

BERND

You can do about that as you please. That don't concern me! I don't want to know if a man'd like a wench o' that kind in his house or not. Not me! I'm not that kind of a man. Well now …?

AUGUST

I can't say nothin' more than this—somethin' must ha' happened to her!
Whether 'twas with Flamm or with Streckmann….

BERND

That makes two of 'em …!

AUGUST

I can't tell exactly …!

BERND

Well, then I'll be goin' to the pastor! Brush me off, August, clean me a bit! I feel as if I had the itch on my body!

[He steps into the hall.

At the same moment MARTHEL rushes out of the kitchen and speaks to AUGUST in intense terror.

MARTHEL

I believe a misfortune has happened to Rose! She's upstairs! She's been home this long time!

BERND

[Returns, changed somewhat by a fright which he has felt.] Somebody must be upstairs.

AUGUST

Marthel is just sayin' that Rose is there.

MARTHEL

I hear her. She's comin' down the stairs.

BERND

God forgive me the sin! I don't want to see her.

He sits down at the table, as before, holds his thumbs over his ears and bends his head deep over the Bible. ROSE appears in the door. She has her house skirt on and a loose bodice of cotton cloth. She keeps herself erect by sheer force of will. Her hair hangs down, partly loose, partly braided. There is in her face an expression of terrible, fatalistic calm and of bitter defiance. For several moments she lets her eyes wander over the room, over OLD BERND sitting there with his Bible, over AUGUST who has slowly turned from the door and pretends to be looking intently out of the window. Then, groping for some support, she begins to talk with desperate energy.

ROSE

Good-evenin' to all o' ye!—?—Good evenin'.

AUGUST

[After some hemming.] The same to you.

ROSE

[With bitter iciness.] If you don't want me, I can go again.

AUGUST

[Simply.] Where else do you want to go to? An' where have you been?

ROSE

He that asks much, hears much. More sometimes than he'd like to.—Marthel, come over here to me a bit. [MARTHEL goes. Rose has seated herself not far from the stove and takes the younger girl's hand. Then she says:] What's the matter with father?

MARTHEL

[Embarrassed, timid, speaks softly.] I don't know that neither.

ROSE

What's the matter with father? You can speak right out! An' with you,
August? What is the matter with you?… You've got cause, that you have,
August, to despise me. I don't deny that. No….

AUGUST

I don't despise no one in this world.

ROSE

But I do! All of 'em … all … all!

AUGUST

Those is dark words to me that you're speakin'.

ROSE

Dark? Yes! I know it. The world's dark! An' you hear the roarin' o' wild beasts in it. An' then, later, it gets brighter … but them are the flames o' hell that make it bright.—Martha….

BERND

[Who has been listening a little, arises and frees MARTHEL'S wrist from ROSE'S grasp.] Don't poison the little lass's mind. Take your hand away!—March off to bed! [MARTHEL goes weeping.] A man would like to be deaf, to be blind! A man'd like to be dead.

[He becomes absorbed again in his Bible.

ROSE Father!—I'm alive!—I'm sittin' here!—That's somethin'!—Yes, that's something when you considers!—I think, father, you might understand that! This is a world …! Nobody can never do nothin' more to me! O Jesus, my Saviour—! All o' you, all o' you—you live together in a bit o' chamber an' you don't know what goes on outside in the world! I know it now … I've learned it in bitterness an' wailin'! I had to get out o' that little chamber! An' then—somehow—the walls gave way, one wall an' another … an' there I stood, outside, in the storm … an' there—was nothin' under me an' nothin' above me … nothin'. You're all like children compared to me.

AUGUST

[Frightened.] But, Rose, if it's true what Streckmann says, then you've committed perjury!…

ROSE

[Laughing bitterly.] I don't know. 'Tis possible … I can't just remember this moment. The world is made up o' lies an' deception.

BERND

[Sighs.] O God … my refuge evermore.

AUGUST

Is it so easy that you take the swearin' o' false oaths?

ROSE

That's nothin'! Nothin'! How could that be anythin'? There's somethin' that lies, out there, under a willow … That's … somethin' … The rest don't concern me! There … there … I wanted to look up at the stars! I wanted to cry out an' to call out! No heavenly Father stirred to help me.

BERND

[Frightened, trembling.] You're blasphemin' our heavenly Father? Has it gone so far with you? Then I don't know you no more!

ROSE

[Approaching him on her knees.] 'Tis gone so far! But you know me anyhow, father! You cradled me on your knees, an' I've stood by you too many a time.—Now somethin' has come over us all—I've fought against it and struggled against it….

BERND

[Deeply perplexed.] What is it?

ROSE

I don't know … I don't know!

[Trembling and kneeling, she crouches and stares at the floor.

AUGUST

[Overwhelmed and taken out of himself by the pity of the sight.] Rosie, get up! I won't desert you! Get up, I can't bear to see you lyin' there! We're all sinners together! An' anyone who repents so deep, is bound to be forgiven. Get up, Rose, Father, raise her up! We're not among them that condemns—not I, at least. There's nothin' in me o' the Pharisee! I see how it goes to her heart! Come what will, I'll stand by you! I'm no judge … I don't judge. Our Saviour in Heaven didn't judge neither. Truly, he bore our sickness for us, an' we thought he was one that was tortured an' stricken, by God! Maybe we've all been guilty of error. I don't want to acquit myself neither. I've been thinkin'. Before the lass hardly knew me, she had to say her yea an' amen! What do I care about the world? It don't concern me.

ROSE

August, they clung to me like burrs … I couldn't walk across the street safe … All the men was after me!… I hid myself … I was that scared! I was so afraid o' men!… It didn't help! 'Twas worse an' worse! After that I fell from one snare into another, till I hardly came to my senses no more.

BERND

You used to have the strictest notion o' such things. You condemned the Leichner girl an' despised the Kaiser wench! You boasted—you'd like to see someone come across your path! You struck the miller's journeyman in the face! A girl as does that, you said, don't deserve no pity; she can go an' hang herself! An' now you speak o' snares.

ROSE

I know better now.

AUGUST

Come what will, I'll stand by you, Rose. I'll sell my land! We'll go out into the world! I have an uncle in Brazil, across the ocean. We'll get our bit o' livin' somehow—one way or t'other. Maybe 'tis only now that we're ripe an' ready to take up our life together.

ROSE

O Jesus, Jesus, what did I do? Why did I go an' creep home? Why didn't I stay with my little baby?

AUGUST

With whom?

ROSE

[Gets up.] August, it's all over with me! First there was a burnin' in my body like flames o' fire! Then I fell into a kind o' swoon! Then there came one hope: I ran like a mother cat with her kitten in her mouth! But the dogs chased me an' I had to drop it….

BERND

Do you understand one word, August?

AUGUST

No, not o' this….

BERND

Do you know how I feel? I feel as if one abyss after another was openin', was yawnin' for us here. What'll we hear before the end?

ROSE

A curse! A curse will ye have to hear: I see you! I'll meet you! On the Day o' Judgment I'll meet you! I'll tear out your gullet an' your jaws together! You'll have to give an accountin'! You'll have to answer me, there!

AUGUST

Whom do you mean, Rosie?

ROSE

He knows … he knows.

[A great exhaustion overtakes her and, almost swooning, she sinks upon a chair. A silence follows.

AUGUST

[Busying himself about her.] What is it that's come over you? Suddenly you're so….

ROSE

I don't know.—If you'd asked me earlier, long ago, maybe … to-day I can't tell you!—There wasn't nobody that loved me enough.

AUGUST

Who can tell which love is stronger—the happy or the unhappy love.

ROSE

Oh, I was strong, strong, so strong! Now I'm weak! Now it's all over with me.

The CONSTABLE appears.

THE CONSTABLE

[With a quiet voice.] They say your daughter is at home. Kleinert said she was here.

AUGUST

It's true. We didn't know it a while ago.

THE CONSTABLE

Then I might as well get through now. There's somethin' to be signed here.

[Without noticing ROSE in the dim room, he lays several documents on the table.

AUGUST

Rose, here's somethin' you're to sign.

ROSE laughs with horrible and hysterical irony.

THE CONSTABLE

If you're the one, Miss, it's no laughin' matter.—Please!

ROSE

You can stay a minute yet.

AUGUST

An' why?

ROSE

[With flaming eyes, a malice against the whole world in her voice.] I've strangled my child.

AUGUST

What are you sayin'? For the love of God, what are you sayin'?

THE CONSTABLE

[Draws himself up, looks at her searchingly, but continues as though he had not heard.] It'll be somethin' connected with the Streckmann 'affair.

ROSE

[As before, harshly, almost with a bark.] Streckmann? He strangled my child.

BERND

Girl, be still. You're out o' your mind.

THE CONSTABLE

Anyhow, you have no child at all—?

ROSE

What? I has none? Could I ha' strangled it with my hands?… I strangled my baby with these hands!!!

THE CONSTABLE

You're possessed! What's wrong with you?

ROSE

My mind's clear. I'm not possessed. I woke up clear in my mind, so clear…. [Coldly, mildly, but with cruel firmness.] It was not to live! I didn't want it to live! I didn't want it to suffer my agonies! It was to stay where it belonged.

AUGUST

Rose, think! Don't torment yourself! You don't know what you're sayin' here! You'll bring down misery on us all.

ROSE

You don't know nothin' … that's it … You don't see nothin'. You was all blind together with your eyes open. He can go an' look behind the great willow … by the alder-trees … behind the parson's field … by the pool … there he can see the wee thing….

BERND

You've done somethin' so awful?

AUGUST

You've been guilty o' somethin' so unspeakable?

ROSE faints. The men look upon her confounded and helpless. AUGUST supports her.

THE CONSTABLE

'Twould be best if she came along with me to headquarters. There she can make a voluntary confession. If what she says isn't just fancies, it'll count a good deal in her favour.

AUGUST

[From the depth of a great experience.] Those are no fancies, sergeant. That girl … what she must have suffered!

THE CURTAIN FALLS