_A bedchamber.--Frau Bergmann, Ina Müller and Doctor von Brausepulver. Wendla, in bed._ DR. VON BRAUSEPULVER. How old are you, exactly? WENDLA. Fourteen and a half. DR. VON BRAUSEPULVER. I have been ordering Blaud's pills for fifteen years and have noticed astonishing results in the majority of cases. I prefer them to cod liver oil and wine of iron. Begin with three or four pills a day, and increase the number just as soon as you are able. I ordered Fräulein Elfriede, Baroness von Witzleben to increase the number of them by one, every third day. The Baroness misunderstood me and increased the number every day by three. Scarcely three weeks later the Baroness was able to go to Pyrmont with her mother to complete her cure.----I will allow you to dispense with exhausting walks and extra meals; therefore, promise me, dear child, to take frequent exercise and to avoid unwholesome food as soon as the desire for it appears again. Then this palpitation of the heart will soon cease----and the headache, the chills, the giddiness----and this frightful indigestion. Fräulein Elfriede, Baroness von Witzleben, ate a whole roast chicken with new potatoes for her breakfast eight days after her convalescence. FRAU BERGMANN. May I offer you a glass of wine, Doctor? DR. VON BRAUSEPULVER. I thank you, dear Frau Bergmann, my carriage is waiting.----Do not take it so to heart. In a few weeks our dear little patient will be again as fresh and bright as a gazelle. Be of good cheer.----Good-day, Frau Bergmann, good-day, dear child, good-day, ladies----good-day. (_Frau Bergmann accompanies him to the door._) INA. (_At the window._) Now your plantains are in bloom again.----Can you see that from your bed?----A short display, hardly worth rejoicing over them, they come and go so quickly. I, too, must go right away now. Müller is waiting for me in front of the post-office, and I must go first to the dressmaker's. Mucki is to have his first trousers and Karl is to have new knit leggings for winter. WENDLA. Sometimes I feel so happy----all joy and sunshine. I had not guessed that it could go so well in one's heart! I want to go out, to go over the meadows in the twilight, to look for primroses along the river and to sit down on the banks and dream--Then comes the toothache, and I feel as if I had to die the next morning at daybreak; I grow hot and cold, it becomes dark before my eyes; and then the beast flutters inside.----As often as I wake up, I see Mother crying. Oh, that hurts me so.----I can't tell you how much, Ina! INA. Shall I lift your pillows higher? FRAU BERGMANN. (_Returning._) He thinks the vomiting will soon cease; and then you can get up in peace----I, too, think it would be better if you got up soon, Wendla. INA.