A room, furnished peasant fashion, in the basement of the "Grey Swan" hotel. Through two windows set high in the left wall, the gloomy light of a late winter afternoon sickers in. Under the windows there stands a bed of soft wood, varnished yellow, in which MRS. HENSCHEL is lying ill. She is about thirty-six years of age. Near the bed her little six-months-old daughter lies in her cradle. A second bed stands against the back wall which, like the other walls, is painted blue with a dark, plain border near the ceiling. In front, toward the right, stands a great tile-oven surrounded by a bench. A plentiful supply of small split kindling wood is piled up in the roomy bin. The wall to the right has a door leading to a smaller room. HANNE SCHÄL, a vigorous, young maid servant is very busy in the room. She has put her wooden pattens aside and walks about in her thick, blue stockings. She takes from the oven an iron pot in which food is cooking and puts it back again. Cooking spoons, a twirling stick and a strainer lie on the bench; also a large, thick earthenware jug with a thin, firmly corked neck. Beneath the bench stands the water pitcher. HANNE'S skirts are gathered up in a thick pad; her bodice is dark grey; her muscular arms are bare. Around the top of the oven is fastened a square wooden rod, on which long hunting stockings are hung up to dry, as well as swaddling clothes, leathern breeches and a pair of tall, water-tight boots. To the right of the oven stand a clothes press and a chest of drawers—old fashioned, gaily coloured, Silesian pieces of furniture. Through the open door in the rear wall one looks out upon a dark, broad, underground corridor which ends in a glass door with manicoloured panes. Behind this door wooden steps lead upward. These stairs are always illuminated by a jet of gas so that the panes of the door shine brightly. It is in the middle of February; the weather without is stormy.

FRANZ, a young fellow in sober coachman's livery, ready to drive out, looks in.

FRANZ

Hanne!

HANNE

Eh?

FRANZ

Is the missis asleep?

HANNE

What d'you suppose? Don't make so much noise!

FRANZ

There's doors enough slammin' in this house. If that don't wake her up—!
I'm goin' to drive the carriage to Waldenburg.

HANNE

Who's goin'?

FRANZ

The madam. She's goin' to buy birthday presents.

HANNE

Whose birthday is it?

FRANZ

Little Karl's.

HANNE

Great goin's on—those. To hitch up the horses on account o' that fool of a kid an' travel to Waldenburg in such weather!

FRANZ

Well, I has my fur coat!

HANNE

Those people don't know no more how to get rid o' their money! We got to slave instead!

In the passage appears, slowly feeling his may, the veterinarian GRUNERT. He is a small man in a coat of black sheep's fur, cap and tall boots. He taps with the handle of his whip against the door post in order to call attention to his presence.

GRUNERT

Isn't Henschel at home yet?

HANNE

What's wanted of him?

GRUNERT

I've come to look at the gelding.

HANNE

So you're the doctor from Freiburg, eh? Henschel, he's not at home. He went to Freiburg carryin' freight; seems to me you must ha' met him.

GRUNERT

In which stall do you keep the gelding?

HANNE

'Tis the chestnut horse with the white star on his face, I believe they put him in the spare stall. [To FRANZ.] You might go along an' show him the way.

FRANZ

Just go straight across the yard, 's far as you can, under the big hall, right into the coachman's room. Then you c'n ask Frederic; he'll tell you!

[Exit GRUNERT.

HANNE

Well, go along with him.

FRANZ

Haven't you got a few pennies change for me?

HANNE

I s'pose you want me to sell my skin on your account?

FRANZ

[Tickling her.] I'd buy it right off.

HANNE

Franz! Don't you—! D'you want the woman to wake up? You don't feel reel well, do you, if you can't wring a few farthings out o' me! I'm fair cleaned out. [Rummaging for the money.] Here! [She presses something into his hand.] Now get out!

[The bell rings.

FRANZ

[Frightened.] That's the master. Good-bye.

[He goes hastily.

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Has waked up and says weakly.] Girl! Girl! Don't you hear nothin'?

HANNE

[Roughly.] What d'you want?

MRS. HENSCHEL

I want you to listen when a body calls you!

HANNE

I hear all right! But if you don't talk louder I can't hear. I got only just two ears.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Are you goin' to cut up rough again?

HANNE

[Surly.] Ah, what do I—!

MRS. HENSCHEL

Is that right, eh? Is it right o' you to talk rough like that to a sick woman?

HANNE

Who starts it, I'd like to know! You don't hardly wake up but what you begin to torment me. Nothin's done right, no matter how you do it!

MRS. HENSCHEL

That's because you don't mind me!

HANNE

You better be doin' your work yourself. I slaves away all day an' half o' the night! But if things is that way—I'd rather go about my business!

[She lets her skirts fall and runs out.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Girl! Girl!—Don't do that to me! What is it I said that was so bad? O Lord, O Lord! What'll happen when the men folks comes home? They wants to eat! No, girl … girl!

[She sinks back exhausted, moans softly, and begins to rock her baby's cradle by means of a cord which is within her reach.

Through the glass door in the rear KARLCHEN squeezes himself in with some difficulty. He carries a dish full of soup and moves carefully and timidly toward MRS. HENSCHEL'S bed. There he sets down the dish on a wooden chair.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Eh, Karlchen, is that you! Do tell me what you're bringin' me there?

KARLCHEN

Soup! Mother sends her regards and hopes you'll soon feel better and that you'll like the soup, Mrs. Henschel.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Eh, little lad, you're the best of 'em all. Chicken soup! 'Tis not possible. Well, tell your mother I thank her most kindly. D'you hear? Don't go an' forget that! Now I'll tell you somethin', Karlchen! You c'n do me a favour, will you? See that rag over there? Get on this bench, will you, an' pull the pot out a bit. The girl's gone off an' she put it too far in.

KARLCHEN

[After he has found the rag mounts the bench cheerfully and looks into the oven. He asks:] The black pot or the blue one, Mrs. Henschel?

MRS. HENSCHEL

What's in the blue pot?

KARLCHEN

Sauerkraut.

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Agitated.] Pull it out! That'll be boilin' to nothin'!—Eh, what a girl, what a girl!

KARLCHEN

[Has pulled the pot in question forward.] Is this right?

MRS. HENSCHEL

You c'n let it stand that way! Come here a bit now an' I'll give you a piece o' whip cord. [She takes the cord from the window-sill and gives it to him.] An' how is your mother?

KARLCHEN

She's well. She's gone to Waldenburg to buy things for my birthday.

MRS. HENSCHEL

I'm not well, myself. I think I'm goin' to die!

KARLCHEN

Oh, no, Mrs. Henschel!

MRS. HENSCHEL

Yes, yes, you c'n believe me; I'm goin' to die. For all I care you can say so to your mother.

KARLCHEN

I'm goin' to get a Bashly cap, Mrs. Henschel.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Yes, yes, you c'n believe me. Come over here a bit. Keep reel still an' listen. D'you hear how it ticks? D'you hear how it ticks in the rotten wood?

KARLCHEN

[Whose wrist she holds in her fevered grasp.] I'm afraid, Mrs. Henschel.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Oh, never mind. We all has to die! D'you hear how it ticks? Do you? What is that? 'Tis the deathwatch that ticks. [She falls back.] One … two … one …—Oh, what a girl, what a girl!

KARLCHEN, released from her grasp, withdraws timidly toward the door. When his hand is on the knob of the glass door a sudden terror overtakes him. He tears the door open and slams it behind him with such force that the panes rattle. Immediately thereupon a vigorous cracking of whips is heard without. Hearing this noise MRS. HENSCHEL starts up violently.

MRS. HENSCHEL

That's father comin'!

HENSCHEL

[Out in the hallway and yet unseen.] Doctor, what are we goin' to do with the beast?

[He and the veterinarian are visible through the doorway.

GRUNERT

He won't let you come near him. We'll have to put the twitch on him, I think.

HENSCHEL

[He is a man of athletic build, about forty-five years old. He wears a fur cap, a jacket of sheep's fur under which his blue carter's blouse is visible, tall boots, green hunting stockings. He carries a whip and a burning lantern.] I don't know no more what's wrong with that beast. I carted some hard coal from the mine yesterday. I came home an' unhitched, an' put the horses in the stable, an'—that very minute—the beast throws hisself down an' begins to kick.

[He puts his long whip in a corner and hangs up his cap.

HANNE returns and takes up her work again, although visibly enraged.

HENSCHEL

Girl, get a light!

HANNE

One thing after another!

HENSCHEL

[Puts out the light in the lantern and hangs it up.] Heaven only knows what all this is comin' to. First my wife gets sick! Then this here horse drops down! It looks as if somethin' or somebody had it in for me! I bought that gelding Christmas time from Walther. Two weeks after an' the beast's lame. I'll show him. Two hundred crowns I paid.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Is it rainin' outside?

HENSCHEL

[In passing.] Yes, yes, mother; it's rainin'.—An' it's a man's own brother-in-law that takes him in that way.

[He sits down on the bench.

HANNE has lit a tallow candle and puts it into a candle stick of tin, which she sets on the table.

MRS. HENSCHEL

You're too good, father. That's what it is. You don't think no evil o' people.

GRUNERT

[Sitting down at the table and writing a prescription.] I'll write down something for you to get from the chemist.

MRS. HENSCHEL

No, I tell you, if that chestnut dies on top o' everythin' else—! I don't believe God's meanin' to let that happen!

HENSCHEL

[Holding out his leg to HANNE.] Come, pull off my boots for me! That was a wind that blew down here on the road from Freiburg. People tell me it unroofed the church in the lower village more'n half, [To HANNE.] Just keep on tuggin'! Can't you get it?

MRS. HENSCHEL

[To HANNE.] I don't know! You don't seem to learn nothin'!

[HANNE succeeds in pulling off one boot. She puts it aside and starts on the other.

HENSCHEL

Keep still, mother! You don't do it any better!

HANNE

[Pulls off the second boot and puts it aside. Then in a surly voice to HENSCHEL.] Did you bring me my apron from Kramsta?

HENSCHEL

All the things I'm axed to keep in my head! I'm content if I c'n keep my own bit of business straight an' get my boxes safe to the railroad. What do I care about women or their apron-strings?

GRUNERT

No, you're not famous for caring about them.

MRS. HENSCHEL

An' it'd be a bad thing if he was!

HENSCHEL

[Slips on wooden pattens and rises. To HANNE.] Hurry now! Hurry! We got to get our dinner. This very day we still has to go down to the smithy.

GRUNERT

[Has finished writing his prescription, which he leaves lying on the table. He slips his note book and pencil back into his pocket and says as he is about to go:] You'll hurry this to the chemist's. I'll look in early in the morning.

[HENSCHEL sits down at the table.

HAUFFE comes in slowly. He has wooden pattens on and leathern breeches and also carries a lighted lantern.

HAUFFE

That's dirty weather for you again!

HENSCHEL

How's it goin' in the stable?

HAUFFE

He's goin' to end by knockin' down the whole stall.

[He blows out the light in the lantern and hangs it up next to HENSCHEL'S.

GRUNERT

Good night to all of you. All we can do is to wait. We doctors are only human too.

HENSCHEL

To be sure. We know that without your telling us! Good night; I hope you won't overturn. [GRUNERT goes.] Now tell me, mother, how is it with you?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Oh. I've been worritin' so much again!

HENSCHEL

What is it that worries you?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Because for all I c'n do, I'm not able to lend a hand even.

HANNE places a disk of dumplings and one of sauerkraut on the table; she takes forks from the table drawer and puts them on the table.

HENSCHEL

The girl's here to do the work!

MRS. HENSCHEL

A girl like her is that thoughtless!

HENSCHEL

Oh, we gets enough to eat an' everythin' seems to go smoothly.—If you hadn't got up out o' bed too soon the first time, you might be dancin' this day!

MRS. HENSCHEL

O Lord, me an' dancin'. What an idea!

HANNE has prepared three plates, putting a small piece of pork on each. She now draws up a stool for herself and sits down at the table.

HAUFFE

There's not much left o' the oats, neither.

HENSCHEL

I bought some yesterday; thirty sacks. Saturday a load o' hay'll come too. The feed gets dearer all the time.

HAUFFE

If the beasts is to work they has to eat.

HENSCHEL

But people thinks they live on air, an' so everybody wants to cut down the carting charges.

HAUFFE

He said somethin' like that to me too.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Who said that—the inspector?

HENSCHEL

Who else but him? But this time he met the wrong man.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Well, well, I'm not sayin', but that's the end of everythin'! What's to become of us these hard times?

HANNE

The inspector of roads was here. He wants you to send him teams for the big steam roller, I believe. They're in Hinterhartau now.

Behind the glass door MR. SIEBENHAAR is seen descending the stairs. He is little over forty. Most carefully dressed; black broadcloth coat, white waist-coat, light-coloured, English trousers—an elegance of attire derived from the style of the 'sixties. His hair, already grey, leaves the top of his head bald; his moustache, on the contrary, is thick and dark blond. SIEBENHAAR wears gold-rimmed spectacles. When he desires to see anything with exactness, he must use, in addition, a pair of eye-glasses which he slips in behind the lenses of his spectacles. He represents an intelligent type.

SIEBENHAAR

[Approaches the open door of the room. In his right hand he holds a candle-stick of tin with an unlit candle in it and a bunch of keys; with his left hand he shades his sensitive eyes.] Has Henschel come back yet?

HENSCHEL

Yes, Mr. Siebenhaar.

SIEBENHAAR

But you're just at your dinner. I have something to do in the cellar. We can talk that matter over later.

HENSCHEL

No, no; you needn't put nothin' off on my account. I'm through!

SIEBENHAAR

In that case you'd better come up to see me. [He enters the room and lights his candle by the one which is burning on the table.] I'll only get a light here now. We're more undisturbed in my office.—How are you, Mrs. Henschel? How did you like the chicken-soup?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Oh, goodness, gracious! I clean forgot about it!

SIEBENHAAR

Is that so, indeed?

HANNE

[Discovering the dish of chicken soup.] That's true; there it stands.

HENSCHEL

That's the way that woman is! She'd like to get well an' she forgets to eat and to drink.

SIEBENHAAR

[As a violent gust of wind is felt even indoors.] Do tell me: what do you think of it? My wife's driven over to Waldenburg, and the weather is getting wilder and wilder. I'm really beginning to get worried. What's your opinion?

HENSCHEL

I s'pose it sounds worse than it is.

SIEBENHAAR

Well, well, one shouldn't take such risks. Didn't you hear that rattling? The wind broke one of the large windows in the dining-hall looking out over the verandah. You know. It's a tremendous storm!

HENSCHEL

Who'd ha' thought it!

MRS. HENSCHEL

That'll be costin' you a good bit again!

SIEBENHAAR

[Leaving the room by way of the passage to the left.] There's nothing inexpensive except death.

HENSCHEL

He's got his bunch o' troubles like the rest of us.

MRS. HENSCHEL

What do you think he wants o' you again, father?

HENSCHEL

Nothin'! How c'n I tell? I'll hear what he says.

MRS. HENSCHEL

I do hope he won't be askin' for money again.

HENSCHEL

Don't begin talkin' nonsense, mother.

HANNE

But if them people is as hard up as all that, why does the woman has to have a twenty shillin' hat?

HENSCHEL

You hold your tongue! No one asked you! You poke your nose over your kneadin' board an' not into other folks' affairs! It takes somethin' to keep a hotel like this goin'. Two months in the year he makes money. The rest o' the time he has to do the best he can.

HAUFFE

An' he had to go an' build atop o' that!

MRS. HENSCHEL

An' 'twas that as got him in worse'n ever. He should ha' let it be.

HENSCHEL

Women don't understand nothin' o' such affairs. He had to build; he couldn't do no different. We gets more an' more people who come here for their health nowadays; there wasn't half so many formerly. But in those times they had money; now they wants everythin' for nothin'. Get the bottle. I'd like to drink a nip o' whiskey.

HAUFFE

[Slowly clasping his knife and getting ready to rise.] Forty rooms, three big halls, an' nothin' in 'em excep' rats an' mice. How's he goin' to raise the interest?

[He rises.

FRANZISKA WERMELSKIRCH peeps in. She is a pretty, lively girl of sixteen. She wears her long, dark hair open. Her costume is slightly eccentric: the skirts white and short, the bodice cut in triangular shape at the neck, the sash long and gay. Her arms are bare above the elbows. Around her neck she wears a coloured ribbon from which a crucifix hangs down.

FRANZISKA

[Very vivaciously.] Wasn't Mr. Siebenhaar here just now? I wish you a pleasant meal, ladies and gentlemen! I merely took the liberty of asking whether Mr. Siebenhaar hadn't been here just now?

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Gruffly.] We don't know nothin'. He wasn't with us!

FRANZISKA

No? I thought he was!

[She puts her foot coquettishly on the bench and ties her shoe strings.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Mr. Siebenhaar here an' Mr. Siebenhaar there! What are you always wantin' of the man?

FRANZISKA

I? nothing! But he's so fond of gooseliver. Mama happens to have some and so papa sent me to tell him so.—By the way, Mr. Henschel, do you know that you might drop in to see us again, too!

MRS. HENSCHEL

You just let father bide where he is! That'd be a fine way! He's not thinkin' about runnin' into taverns these days.

FRANZISKA

We're broaching a new keg to-day, though.

HENSCHEL

[While HAUFFE grins and HANNE laughs.] Mother, you stick to your own affairs. If I should want to go an' drink a glass o' beer I wouldn't be askin' nobody's consent, you c'n be sure.

FRANZISKA

—How are you anyhow, Mrs. Henschel?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Oh, to-morrow I'll be gettin' me a sash too an' take to rope-dancin'.

FRANZISKA

I'll join you. I can do that splendidly. I always practice on the carriage shafts.

HENSCHEL

So that's the reason why all the shafts are bent!

FRANZISKA

Do you see, this is the way it's done; this is the way to balance oneself. [Imitating the movements of a tight rope dancer, she prances out by the door.] Right leg! Left leg! Au revoir!

[Exit.

HAUFFE

[Taking down his lantern.] She'll go off her head pretty soon if she don't get no husband.

[Exit.

MRS. HENSCHEL

If she had to lend a hand an' work good an' hard, she'd get over that foolishness.

HANNE

She's not allowed to come upstairs. Mrs. Siebenhaar won't have her.

MRS. HENSCHEL

An' she's right there. I wouldn't bear it neither.

HANNE

She's always chasin' an' sniffin' around Mr. Siebenhaar. I'm willin' people should please theirselves. But she's goin' it hard.

MRS. HENSCHEL

The Siebenhaars ought to put them people out. The goin's on with the men an' the wenches.

HENSCHEL

Aw, what are you talkin' about, mother?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Well, in the tap room.

HENSCHEL

Well, they has to live same as anybody. D'you want to see 'em put in the streets? Wermelskirch's not a bad fellow at all.

MRS. HENSCHEL

But the woman's an old witch.

HENSCHEL

If he pays his rent nothin' won't happen to him on that account. An' not on account o' the girl by a long way. [He has arisen and bends over the cradle.] We've got a little thing like that here too, an' nobody's goin' to put us out for that!

MRS. HENSCHEL

Eh, that would be …! She's asleep all the time; she don't seem to want to wake up!

HENSCHEL

There's not much strength in her.—Mother, sure you're not goin' to die!—[Taking his cap from the nail.] Hanne, I was just foolin' you a while ago. Your apron is lyin' out there in the waggon.

HANNE

[Eagerly.] Where is it?

HENSCHEL

In the basket. Go an' look for it!

[HENSCHEL leaves by way of the middle door; HANNE disappears into the small adjacent room.

MRS. HENSCHEL

So he brought her the apron after all!

HANNE runs quickly through the room again and goes out by the middle door.

MRS. HENSCHEL

An' he brought her the apron after all!

SIEBENHAAR enters carefully, carrying his candle and keys as before and, in addition, two bottles of claret.

SIEBENHAAR

All alone, Mrs. Henschel?

MRS. HENSCHEL

An' he brought the apron …

SIEBENHAAR

It's me, Mrs. Henschel. Did you think it was a stranger?

MRS. HENSCHEL

I don't hardly believe …

SIEBENHAAR

I hope I didn't wake you up. It's me—Siebenhaar.

MRS. HENSCHEL

To be sure. Yes. To be sure.

SIEBENHAAR

And I'm bringing you a little wine which you are to drink. It will do you good.—Is it possible you don't recognize me?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Well, now, that'd be queer. You are, sure—you are our Mr. Siebenhaar. Things hasn't come to such a pass with me yet. I recognise you all right!—I don't know: has I been dreamin' or what?

SIEBENHAAR

You may have been. How are you otherwise?

MRS. HENSCHEL

But sure enough you're Siebenhaar.

SIEBENHAAR

Perhaps you thought I was your husband!

MRS. HENSCHEL

I don't know … I reely can't say … I was feelin' so queer …

SIEBENHAAR

Seems to me you're not lying comfortably. Let me straighten your pillows a bit. Does the doctor see you regularly?

MRS. HENSCHEL

[With tearful excitement.] I don't know how it is—they just leaves me alone. No, no, you're Mr. Siebenhaar, I know that. An' I know more'n that: you was always good to me an' you has a good heart, even if sometimes you made an angry face. I can tell you: I'm that afraid! I'm always thinkin': it don't go quick enough for him.

SIEBENHAAR

What doesn't go quick enough?

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Bursting into tears.] I'm livin' too long for him—! But what's to become o' Gustel?

SIEBENHAAR

But, my dear Mrs. Henschel, what kind of talk is that?

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Sobbing softly to herself.] What's to become o' Gustel if I die?

SIEBENHAAR

Mrs. Henschel, you're a sensible woman! And so do listen to me! If one has to lie quietly in bed, you see, the way you have had to do unfortunately—week after week—why then one naturally has all kinds of foolish thoughts come into one's head. One has all sorts of sickly fancies. But one must resist all that resolutely, Mrs. Henschel! Why, that would be a fine state of affairs, if that—! Such stuff! Put it out of your mind, Mrs. Henschel! it's folly!

MRS. HENSCHEL

Dear me, I didn't want to believe it: I know what I says!

SIEBENHAAR

That's just what you don't know. That's just what, unfortunately, you don't know at present. You will simply laugh when you look back upon, it later. Simply laugh!

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Breaking out passionately.] Didn't he go an' see her where she sleeps!

SIEBENHAAR

[Utterly astonished but thoroughly incredulous.] Who went to see whom?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Henschel! The girl!

SIEBENHAAR

Your husband? And Hanne? Now look here; whoever persuaded you of that is a rascally liar.

MRS. HENSCHEL

An' when I'm dead he'll marry her anyhow!

HENSCHEL appears in the doorway.

SIEBENHAAR

You're suffering from hallucinations, Mrs. Henschel!

HENSCHEL

[In good-natured astonishment.] What's the matter, Malchen? Why are you cryin' so?

SIEBENHAAR

Henschel, you mustn't leave your wife alone!

HENSCHEL

[Approaches the bed in kindly fashion.] Who's doin' anythin' to you?

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Throws herself in sullen rage on her other side, turning her back to HENSCHEL and facing the wall.] … Aw, leave me in peace!

HENSCHEL

What's the meanin' o' this?

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Snarling at him through her sobs.] Oh, go away from me!

HENSCHEL, visibly taken aback, looks questioningly at SIEBENHAAR, who polishes his glasses and shakes his head.

SIEBENHAAR

[Softly.] I wouldn't bother her just now.

MRS. HENSCHEL

[As before.] You're wishin' me into my grave!

SIEBENHAAR

[To HENSCHEL, who is about to fly into a rage.] Sh! Do me the favour to keep still!

MRS. HENSCHEL

A body has eyes. A body's not blind! You don't has to let me know everythin'. I'm no good for nothin' no more; I c'n go!

HENSCHEL

[Controlling himself.] What do you mean by that, Malchen?

MRS. HENSCHEL

That's right! Go on pretendin'!

HENSCHEL

[Perplexed in the extreme.] Now do tell me—anybody …!

MRS. HENSCHEL

Things c'n go any way they wants to … I won't be deceived, an' you c'n all sneak aroun' all you want to! I c'n see through a stone wall! I c'n see you for all—yes—for all! You thinks: a woman like that is easy to deceive. Rot, says I! One thing I tell you now—If I dies, Gustel dies along with me! I'll take her with me! I'll strangle her before I'd leave her to a damned wench like that!

HENSCHEL

But mother, what's come over you?

MRS. HENSCHEL

You're wishin' me into my grave!

HENSCHEL

Hold on, now, hold on! Or I'll be gettin' wild!

SIEBENHAAR

[Warning him softly.] Be calm, Henschel. The woman is ill.

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Who has overheard.] Ill? An' who was it made me ill? You two—you an' your wench!

HENSCHEL

Now I'd like to know who in the world put notions like that into your head? The girl an' I! I don't understand the whole blasted thing! I'm supposed to have dealin's with her?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Don't you fetch aprons an' ribands for her?

HENSCHEL

[With renewed perplexity.] Aprons and ribands?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Yes, aprons and ribands.

HENSCHEL

Well, that's the queerest thing—!

MRS. HENSCHEL

Don't you think everythin' she does right an' fine? D'you ever give her a angry word? She's like the missis of the house this very day.

HENSCHEL

Mother, keep still: I'm advisin' you!

MRS. HENSCHEL

'Tis you that has to keep still, 'cause there's nothin' you c'n say!

SIEBENHAAR

[Standing by the bed.] Mrs. Henschel, you must collect yourself! All this you're saying is the merest fancy!

MRS. HENSCHEL

You're no better'n he; you don't do no different! An' the poor women—they dies of it! [Dissolved in self-pitying tears.] Well, let 'em die!

SIEBENHAAR gives a short laugh with an undertone of seriousness, steps up to the table and opens one of the bottles of wine resignedly.

HENSCHEL

[Sitting on the edge of the bed speaks soothingly] Mother, mother—you turn over now an' I'll say a word to you in kindness. [He turns her over with kindly violence.] Look at it this way, mother: You've been havin' a dream. You dreamed—that's it! Our little dog, he dreams queer things too now an' then. You c'n see it. But now wake up, mother! Y'understan'? The stuff you been talkin'—if a man wanted to make a load o' that the strongest freight waggon'd break down. My head's fair spinnin' with it.

SIEBENHAAR

[Having looked for and found a glass which he now fills.] And then you raked me over the coals too!

HENSCHEL

Don't take no offence, sir. A woman like that! A man has his troubles with her.—Now you hurry up, mother, an' get well, or some fine day you'll be tellin' me I been to Bolkenhain an' stole horses.

SIEBENHAAR

Here, drink your wine and try to gain some strength.

MRS. HENSCHEL

If only a body could be sure!

SIEBENHAAR supports her while she drinks.

HENSCHEL

What's wrong now again?

MRS. HENSCHEL

[After she has drunk.] Could you give me a promise?

HENSCHEL

I'll give you any promise you wants.

MRS. HENSCHEL

If I dies, would you go an' marry her?

HENSCHEL

Don't ask such fool questions.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Yes or no!

HENSCHEL

Marry Hanne? [Jestingly.] O' course I would!

MRS. HENSCHEL

I mean it—serious …!

HENSCHEL

Now I just wish you'd listen to this, Mr. Siebenhaar! What's a man to say? You're not goin' to die!

MRS. HENSCHEL

But if I does?

HENSCHEL

I won't marry her anyhow! Now you see? An' now you know it! We can make an end o' this business.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Can you promise it?

HENSCHEL

Promise what?

MRS. HENSCHEL

That you wouldn't go an' marry the girl!

HENSCHEL

I'll promise, too; I'm willin' to.

MRS. HENSCHEL

An' you'll give me your hand in token?

HENSCHEL

I'm tellin' you: Yes. [He puts his hand into hers.] But now it's all right. Now don't worry me no more with such stuff.

THE CURTAIN FALLS.