The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume Ii Part 83

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 n.o.body 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 doc.u.ments 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 G.o.d, 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--?