The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Ix Part 113

I must get my mind off the subject.

SOPHY.

You always become so excited after wine. If you drink now it may be your death.

FORESTER.

Better to drink oneself to death than live as a scoundrel! And a scoundrel I must remain before the world. William, a bottle and a gla.s.s.

Have matters come to that pa.s.s, that I am no longer master in my own house? Hurry up, there!

[_Exit_ WILLIAM.]

SOPHY.

If only you would change your mind! But you will not do it, and--I must leave you.

FORESTER.

That matter is settled, woman, and my resolution is taken. None of your lamentations! Tomorrow I am going. Since I am not an official of the State and--today I intend to be right jolly.

[WILLIAM _brings wine; the_ FORESTER _pours out and drinks repeatedly, every time a full gla.s.s. Between gla.s.ses he whistles and drums_.]

FORESTER.

Put that light away, so that I may not see my shadow.

[WILLIAM _puts the lamp on the table near the women, seats himself by them and takes the still opened Bible before him_.]

SOPHY (_aside and to Mary_).

Andrew still stays out, and it has been dark for a long while. And tomorrow I must go. Now I say indeed: I must go; and yet I am not sure that, when the moment comes, I shall have the strength of mind to carry out my intention--after we have lived together for twenty years, sharing joys and sorrows! And to say farewell to the forest with its green leaves which all day long looks into every window! How still it will seem to us, when during the entire day we no longer shall hear the rustling of the trees, the singing of the birds, and the sound of the wood-cutter's ax. And the old cuckoo-clock there--it was ticking when I was a bride, and now you too have been betrothed here! There in that corner you raised yourself on your feet for the first time, Mary, and began to walk, and took three steps; and there where your father is sitting, I sat and wept for joy. Is that what life is? An everlasting bidding farewell? If, after all, I were to remain? And yet when I think of all the things uncle said might happen! If Robert's letter--William, please go into the garden. I must have left the gla.s.s by the spring, or in the arbor or somewhere thereabouts.

[_Exit_ WILLIAM.]

SCENE V

_The same, without_ WILLIAM. SOPHY _and_ MARY _in front of the stage busied with the lamp. The_ FORESTER _sometimes seated in the rear, sometimes walking up and down past the table to the window_.

SOPHY (_having waited till_ WILLIAM _is out_).

Suppose you find out what Robert has been writing.

MARY.

You mean I should open the letter, mother?

SOPHY.

Perhaps everything can still be arranged, and Robert writes us how. If you will not open it, give me the letter. If I do it, you have nothing to reproach yourself for.

[_Opens it_.]

If I only could read by lamp-light. If I put on my spectacles, he would notice it. Read it to me, Mary.

MARY.

You want me to read it, mother?

SOPHY.

If I give you permission, you may surely do so. Put it there next to the Bible. And if he comes near, or his attention is attracted, you read from the Bible.

MARY.

But what?

SOPHY.

Whatever your eyes light upon. If I cough, you read from the Bible.

First the letter.

MARY (_reads_).

"Dear Mary. I have so much to--

SOPHY.

He is getting up again from his chair. Read from the Bible till he is at the window.

MARY.

"Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again."

[FORESTER _drums on the window_.]

SOPHY (_constantly watching him_).

Now the letter, Mary. Till I cough.

MARY.

"I have so much to tell you. Sometime during the evening or the night come to the Dell by the spring under the willows. There I shall wait for you. Come, Mary. Tomorrow morning I am going out into the world to win happiness for you and for me. If you do not come, I know what you mean, and you will never see me again."

SOPHY.

He intends to go? Out into the world? Forever, if you do not go? Then everything would be lost!