Chapter VI: Part 6

And I don't want you to! It isn't a question of that! But you sent for her yourself.--You can't change so completely in a moment as to forget all compassion and sympathy. What did you say to me a while ago? And if the lass goes to the devil ... you know I'm not such a scoundrel that I'd care to drag out my life any longer. It's one thing or the other--don't forget that!

MRS. FLAMM

Well, Christie ... you men are not worth it, to be sure. An' yet, in the end, what is a body to do?--The heart bleeds! 'Tis our own fault. Why does a woman deceive herself again an' again, when she's old enough an' sensible enough to know better! An' don't deceive yourself about this thing either, Christie.... I'm willin'! I can do it! I'll talk to her! Not for your sake, but because it's right. But don't imagine that I can make whole what you've broken.--You men are like children in that respect!

_The MAID comes back._

THE MAID

She don't want to wait no more!

MRS. FLAMM

Send her in!

_The MAID withdraws again._

FLAMM

Be sensible, mother! On my word of honour....

MRS. FLAMM

You needn't give it! You needn't break it!

_FLAMM leaves the room. MRS. FLAMM sighs and picks up her crochet
work again. Thereupon ROSE BERND enters._

ROSE

[_Showily dressed in her Sunday clothes. Her features are peaked and there is a feverish gleam in her eyes._] Good-day, madam.

MRS. FLAMM

Good-day! Sit down. Well, Rose, I've asked you to come here ... I suppose you've kept in mind what we talked about that time. There's many a thing that's changed since then!... In many respects, anyhow! But that made me want to talk to you all the more. That day, to be sure, you said I couldn't help you, that you wanted to fight it all out alone! An' to-day a good bit has grown clear to me--your strange behaviour that time, an' your unwillingness to let me help you.--But I don't see how you're goin' to get along all alone. Come, drink a cup o' coffee. [_ROSE sits down on the edge of a chair by the table._] August was here to see me a while ago. If I had been in your shoes, lass, I'd have risked it long ago an' told him the truth. [_Looking sharply at her._] But now, the way things has gone--I can't even advise you to do it! Isn't that true?

ROSE

Oh, but why, madam?

MRS. FLAMM

'Tis true, the older a person gets, the less can she understand mankind an' their ways. We've all come into the world the same way, but there's no mention to be made o' that! From the Emperor an' the archbishop down to the stable boy--they've all gotten their bit o' life one way ... one way ... an' 'tis the one thing they can't besmirch enough. An' if the stork but flies past the chimney-top--the confusion of people is great. Then they run away in every direction. A guest like that is never welcome!

ROSE

Oh, madam, all that would ha' been straightened up this long time, if it hadn't ha' been for this criminal an' scoundrel here ... this liar ... this Streckmann ...

MRS. FLAMM

No, girl. I don't understand that. How can you bear to say that the man lies? 'Tis your shape that almost tells the story now!

ROSE

He lies! He lies! That's all I know.

MRS. FLAMM

But in what respect does he lie?

ROSE

In every respeck an' in every way!

MRS. FLAMM

I don't believe you've really thought it all out! Do you remember who I am? Think, lass, think! In the first place you confessed it all to me, and furthermore, I know more than what you said: I know all that you didn't say.

ROSE

[_Shivering with nervousness but obdurate._] An' if you was to kill me, I couldn't say what I don't know.

MRS. FLAMM

Is that so? Oh! Is that your policy now? I must say I didn't take you for a girl of that kind! It comes over me unexpectedly! I hope you talked a little plainer than that when you were questioned in court.

ROSE

I said just the same thing there that I'm tellin' you.

MRS. FLAMM

Girl, come to your senses! You're talking dreadful folly! People don't lie that way before the Judge! Listen to what I'm tellin' you! Drink a bit o' coffee, an' don't be frightened! Nobody's pursuing you, an' I won't eat you up either!--You haven't acted very well toward me: no one could say that you had! You might at least have told me the truth that day; maybe an easier way out could ha' been found. 'Tis a hard matter now! An' yet, we won't be idle, an' even to-day, maybe, some way o' savin' you can be found! Some way it may be possible yet! Well then!... An' especially ... this much is certain ... an' you can trust to that surely ... you shan't, either of you, ever suffer any need in this world! Even if your father abandons you and August, maybe, goes his own way, I'll provide for you an' for your child.

ROSE

I don't hardly know what you mean, madam!

MRS. FLAMM

Well, girl, then I'll tell you straight out! If you don't know that an' have forgotten it, then it's simply because you have a bad conscience! Then you've been guilty of something else! An', if you _has_ another secret, it's connected with nobody but with Streckmann. Then, he's the fellow that's bringin' trouble upon you!

ROSE

[_Violently._] No, how can you think such a thing o' me! You say that ... oh, for the good Lord's sake ... how has I deserved it o' you!... If only my little Kurt ... my dear little fellow ...

[_She wrings her hands hysterically in front of the child's picture._

MRS. FLAMM

Rose, let that be, I beg o' you! It may be that you've deserved well o' me in other days. We're not arguin' about that now! But you're so changed, so ... I can never understand how you've come to change so!

ROSE

Why didn't my little mother take me to herself! She said she would when she died.

MRS. FLAMM

Come to your senses, lass. You're alive. What is your trouble?

ROSE

It has nothin' to do with Streckmann! That man has lied his soul black.

MRS. FLAMM

What did he lie about? Did he make his statements under oath?

ROSE

Oath or no oath! I says he lies, lies ...

MRS. FLAMM

An' did you have to take an oath too?

ROSE

I don't know.--I'm not such a wicked lass ... If that was true,'twould be a bitter crime!... An' that August lost his eye ... it wasn't I that was the cause o' it. The pains that poor man had to suffer ... they follows me day an' night. An' he might well despise me if they didn't. But you try an' work an' pray to save somethin' from the flames o' the world ... an' men comes an' they breaks your strength.

_FLAMM enters in intense excitement._

FLAMM

Who is breaking your strength? Look at mother here! On the contrary, we want to save you!

ROSE

'Tis too late now! It can't be done no more.

FLAMM

What does that mean?

ROSE

Nothin'!--I can't wait no longer. Good-bye, I'll go my ways.

FLAMM

Here you stay! Don't move from this spot! I was at the door and heard everything, and now I want to know the whole truth.

ROSE

But I'm tellin' you the truth!

FLAMM

About Streckmann too?

ROSE

There wasn't nothin' between us. He lies!

FLAMM

Does he say that there was something between you?

ROSE

I say nothin' but that he lies!

FLAMM

Did he swear to that lie?

_ROSE is silent._

FLAMM

[_Regards ROSE long and searchingly. Then:_] Well, mother, think as charitably of me as you can. Try to forgive me as much as possible. I know with the utmost certainty that that matter doesn't concern me in the least any longer! I simply laugh at it! I snap my fingers at it.

MRS. FLAMM

[_To ROSE._] Did you deny everything?

ROSE

...

FLAMM

I spoke the truth in court, of course. Streckmann doesn't lie at such times neither. Perjury is a penitentiary crime--a man doesn't lie under such circumstances!

MRS. FLAMM

An' didn't you tell the truth, girl? You lied when you were under oath, maybe?--Haven't you any idea what that means an' what you've done? How did you happen to do that? How could you think o' such a thing?

ROSE

[_Cries out brokenly._] I was so ashamed!

MRS. FLAMM

But Rose ...

FLAMM

Every word is wasted! Why did you lie to the judge?

ROSE

I was ashamed, I tell ye!... I was ashamed!

FLAMM

And I? And mother? And August? Why did you cheat us all? And you probably cheated Streckmann in the end too? And I wonder with whom else you carried on!... Yes, oh, yes; you have a very honest face. But you did right to be ashamed!

ROSE

He baited me an' he hunted me down like a dog!

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 ass'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._] God 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, 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

THE RATS

A BERLIN TRAGI-COMEDY

PERSONS

HARRO HASSENREUTER, _formerly a theatrical manager._

MRS. HARRO HASSENREUTER.

WALBURGA, _their daughter._

PASTOR SPITTA.

ERICH SPITTA, _postulant for Holy Orders, his son._

ALICE RUeTTERBUSCH, _actress._

NATHANAEL JETTEL, _court actor._

KAeFERSTEIN, DR. KEGEL, _Pupils of HASSENREUTER._

JOHN, _foreman mason._

MRS. JOHN.

BRUNO MECHELKE, _her brother._

PAULINE PIPERCARCKA, _a servant girl._

MRS. SIDONIE KNOBBE.

SELMA, _her daughter._

QUAQUARO, _house-steward._

MRS. KIELBACKE.

POLICEMAN SCHIERKE.

TWO INFANTS.

THE FIRST ACT

_The attic of a former cavalry barracks in Berlin, A windowless room
that receives all its light from a lamp which burns suspended over a
round table. From the back wall opens a straight passage which
connects the room with the outer door--a door with iron hasps and a
primitive signal bell which any one desiring to enter rings by means
of a bell rope. A door in the right wall leads to an adjoining room,
one in the left wall leads to the stairs into the loft immediately
under the roof. Into this store room, as well as into the space
visible to the spectator, the former theatrical manager, HARRO
HASSENREUTER has gathered his collection of properties. In the
prevalent gloom it is difficult to decide whether the place is the
armour room of an old castle, a museum of antiquities or the shop of
a costumer. Stands with helmets and breast-plates are put up on
either side of the passage; a row of similar stands almost covers the
two sides of the front room. The stairs wind upward between two
mailed figures. At the head of the stairs is a wooden trap-door. In
the left foreground, against the wall, is a high desk. Ink, pens, old
ledgers, a tall stool, as well as several chairs with tall backs and
the round table make it clear that the room serves the purposes of an
office. On the table is a decanter for water and several glasses;
above the desk hang a number of photographs. These photographs
represent HASSENREUTER in the part of Karl Moor (in Schiller's
"Robbers"), as well as in a number of other parts. One of the mailed
dummies wean a huge laurel wreath about its neck. The laurel wreath
is tied with a riband which bears, in gilt letters, the following
inscription: "To our gifted manager Hassenreuter, from his grateful
colleagues." A series of enormous red bows shows the inscriptions:
"To the inspired presenter of Karl Moor ... To the incomparable,
unforgettable Karl Moor" ... etc., etc. The room is utilised as far
as its space will permit for the storing of costumes. Wherever
possible, German, Spanish and English garments of every age hang on
hooks. Swedish riding boots, Spanish rapiers and German broadswords
are scattered about. The door to the left bears the legend: Library.
The whole room displays picturesque disorder, Trumpery of all
kinds--weapons, goblets, cups--is scattered about. It is Sunday
toward the end of May._

_At the table in the middle of the room are sitting, MRS. JOHN
(between thirty-five and forty) and a very young servant girl,
PAULINE PIPERCARCKA. PAULINE, vulgarly overdressed--jacket, hat,
sunshade--sits straight upright. Her pretty, round little face shows
signs of long weeping. Her figure betrays the fact that she is
approaching motherhood. She draws letters on the floor with the end
of her sunshade._

MRS. JOHN

Well, sure now! That's right! That's what I says, Pauline.

PAULINE

All right. So I'm goin' to Schlachtensee or to Halensee. I gotta go and see if I c'n meet him!

[_She dries her tears and is about to rise._

MRS. JOHN

[_Prevents PAULINE from getting up._] Pauline! For God's sake, don't you be doin' that! Not that there, for nothin' in the world! That don't do nothin' but raise a row an' cost money an' don't bring you in nothin'. Look at the condition you're in! An' that way you want to go an' run after that there low lived feller?

PAULINE

Then my landlady c'n wait an' wait for me to-day. I'll jump into the Landwehr canal an' drownd myself.

MRS. JOHN

Pauline! An' what for? What for, I'd like to know? Now you just listen to me for a speck of a minute, just for God's sake, for the teeniest speck of one an' pay attention to what I'm goin' to propose to you! You know yourself how I says to you, out on Alexander square, right by the chronomoneter--says I to you right out, as I was comin' out o' the market an' sees your condition with half an eye. He don't want to acknowledge nothin', eh? That's what I axed you right out!--That happens to many gals here, to all of 'em--to millions! An' then I says to you ... what did I say? Come along, I says, an' I'll help you!

PAULINE

O' course, I don't never dare to show myself at home lookin' this way. Mother, she'd cry it out at the first look. An' father, he'd knock my head against the wall an' throw me out in the street. An' I ain't got no more money left neither--nothin' but just two pieces o' gold that I got sewed up in the linin' o' my jacket. That feller didn't leave me no crown an' he didn't leave me no penny.

MRS. JOHN

Miss, my husband, he's a foreman mason. I just wants you to pay attention ... just for heaven's sake, pay attention to the propositions that I'm goin' to make to you. They'll help us both. You'll be helped out an' the same way I'll be. An' what's more, Paul, that's my husband, he'll be helped, because he'd like, for all the world, to have a child, an' our only one, little Adelbert, he went an' died o' the croup. Your child'll be as well taken care of as an own child. Then you c'n go an' you c'n look up your sweetheart an' you c'n go back into service an' home to your people, an' the child is well off, an' nobody in the world don't need to know nothin'.

PAULINE

I'll do it just outa spite--that's what! An' drownd myself! [_She rises._] An' a note, a note, I'll leave in my jacket, like this: You drove your Pauline to her death with your cursed meanness! An' then I'll put down his name in full: Alois Theophil Brunner, instrument-maker. Then he c'n see how he'll get along in the world with the murder o' me on his conscience.

MRS. JOHN

Wait a minute, Miss! I gotta unlock the door first.

_MRS. JOHN acts, as though she were about to conduct PAULINE to the
door._

_Before the two women reach the passage, BRUNO MECHELKE enters with
slow and suspicious demeanour by the door at the left and remains
standing in the room. BRUNO is short rather than tall, but with a
powerful bull's neck and athletic shoulders. His forehead is low and
receding, his close-clipped hair like a brush, his skull round and
small. His face is brutal and his left nostril has been ripped open
sometime and imperfectly healed. The fellow is about nineteen years
old. He bends forward, and his great, lumpish hands are joined to
muscular arms. The pupils of his eyes are small, black and piercing.
He is trying to repair a rat trap._

_BRUNO whistles to his sister as he would to a dog._

MRS. JOHN

I'm comin' now, Bruno! What d'you want?

BRUNO

[_Apparently absorbed by the trap._] Thought I was goin' to put up traps here.

MRS. JOHN

Did you put the bacon in? [_To PAULINE._] It's only my brother. Don't be scared, Miss.

BRUNO

[_As before._] I seen the Emperor William to-day. I marched along wi' the guard,

MRS. JOHN

[_To PAULINE, who stands fearful and moveless in BRUNO'S presence._] 'Tain't nothin' but my brother. You c'n stay.--[_To BRUNO._] Boy, what're you lookin' that way for again? The young lady is fair scared o' you.

BRUNO

[_As before, without looking up._] Brrr-rr-rr! I'm a ghost.

MRS. JOHN

Hurry an' go up in the loft an' set your traps.

BRUNO

[_Slowly approaching the table._] Aw, that business ain't no good 'cept to starve on! When I goes to sell matches, I gets more outa it.

PAULINE

Good-bye, Mrs. John.

MRS. JOHN

[_Raging at her brother._] Are you goin' to leave me alone?

BRUNO

[_Knuckling under._] Aw, don' go on so. I'm leavin'.

_Obediently he withdraws into the adjoining room. MRS. JOHN locks the
door behind him with a determined gesture._

PAULINE

That's a feller I wouldn't like to meet in the _Tiergarten_. Not by night an' not by day neither.

MRS. JOHN

If I sets Bruno on anyone an' he gets at him, God help him!

PAULINE

Good-bye. I don't like this here place. If you wants to see me again, Mrs. John, I'd rather meet you at a bench on the _Kreuzberg_.

MRS. JOHN

Pauline, I brought up Bruno with sorrow and trouble by day an' by night. An' I'll be twenty times better to your child. So when it's born, Pauline, I'll take it, an' I swears to you by my father an' mother what died in the Lord an' what I goes to visit the graves of out in Ruedersdorf one Sunday a year an' puts candles on 'em an' don' let nobody keep me back--I swears to you that little crittur'll live on the fat o' the land just like a born prince nor a born princess couldn't be treated no better.

PAULINE

I'm goin' and with my last penny I'm goin' to buy vitriol--I don' care who it hits! An' I'll throw it in the face o' the wench that he goes with ... I don' care who it hits ... right in the middle o' the mug. I don' care! It c'n burn up his fine-lookin' phiz! I don' care! It c'n burn off his beard an' burn out his eyes if he goes with other women! What did he do? Cheated me! Ruined me! Took my money! Robbed me o' my honour! That's what the damn' dog did--seduced me an' lied to me an' left me an' kicked me out into the world! I don' care who it hits! I wants him to be blind! I wants the stuff to burn his nose offa his face! I wants it to burn him offa the earth!

MRS. JOHN

Pauline, as I hopes to be happy hereafter, I tells you, from the minute where that there little one is born ... it's goin' to be treated like ... well, I don' know what!... as if it was born to be put in silks an' in satins. All you gotta do is to have some confidence--that's what! You just say: Yes. I got it all figgered out. It c'n be done, it c'n be done--that's what I tells you! An' no doctor an' no police an' no landlady don't has to know nothin'. An' then, first of all, you gets paid a hundred an' twenty crowns what I saved scrubbin' an' charrin' here for manager Hassenreuter.

PAULINE

I might strangle it when it's born, rather 'n sell it!

MRS. JOHN

Who's talkin' about sellin'?

PAULINE

Look at the frights an' the misery I've stood from October las' to this very day. My intended gives me the go; my landlady puts me out! They gives me notice at a lodgin's. What does I do that I has to be despised an' cursed an' kicked aroun'?

MRS. JOHN

That's what I says. That's cause the devil is still gettin' the better of our Lord Jesus.

_Unnoticed and busy with the trap as before BRUNO has quietly
re-entered by the door._

BRUNO

[_With a strange intonation, sharply and yet carelessly._] Lamps!

PAULINE

That feller scares me. Lemme go!

MRS. JOHN

[_Makes violently for BRUNO._] Is you goin' to go where you belongs? I told you I'd call you!

BRUNO

[_In the same tone as before._] Well, Jette, I jus' said: Lamps!

MRS. JOHN

Are you crazy? What's the meanin' o' that--lamps?

BRUNO

Ain't that a ringin' o' the front bell?

MRS. JOHN

[_Is frightened, listens and restrains PAULINE, who makes a motion to go._] Sh, Miss, wait! Just wait one little minute!

[_BRUNO continues whittling as the two women stop to listen._

MRS. JOHN

[_Softly and in a frightened tone to BRUNO._] I don't hear nothin'!

BRUNO

You ol' dried up piece! You better go an' get another pair o' ears!

MRS. JOHN

That'd be the first time in all the three months that the manager'd be comin' in when it's Sunday.

BRUNO

If that there theayter feller comes, he c'n engage me right on the spot.

MRS. JOHN

[_Violently._] Don' talk rot!

BRUNO