_A small, blue-tinted kitchen with low ceiling; a window at the left; at the right a door of rough boards leading out into the open; in the rear mall an empty casing from which the door has been lifted.--In the left corner a flat oven, above which hang kitchen utensils in a wooden frame; in the right corner oars and other boating implements. Rough, stubby pieces of hewn wood lie in a heap under the window. An old kitchen bench, several stools, etc.--Through the empty casing in the rear a second room is visible. In it stands a high, neatly, made bed; above it hang cheap photographs in still cheaper frames, small chromolithographs, etc. A chair of soft mood stands with its back against the bed.--It is winter and moonlight. On the oven a tallow-candle is burning in a candle-stick of tin. LEONTINE WOLFF has fallen asleep on a stool by the oven and rests her head and arms on it. She is a pretty, fair girl of seventeen in the working garb of a domestic servant. A woolen shawl is tied over her cotton jacket.--For several seconds there is silence. Then someone is heard trying to unlock the door from without. But the key is in the lock and a knocking follows._ MRS. WOLFF [_Unseen, from without._] Adelaide! Adelaide! [_There is no answer and a loud knocking is heard at the window._] Are you goin' to open or not? LEONTINE [_Drowsily._] No, no, I'm not goin' to be abused that way! MRS. WOLFF Open, girl, or I'll come in through the window! [_She raps violently at the panes._ LEONTINE [_Waking up._] Oh, it's you, mama! I'm coming now! [_She unlocks the door from within._ MRS. WOLFF [_Without laying down a sack which she carries over her shoulder._] What are _you_ doin' here? LEONTINE [_Sleepily._] Evenin', mama. MRS. WOLFF How did you get in here, eh? LEONTINE Well, wasn't the key lyin' on the goat shed? MRS. WOLFF But what do you want here at home? LEONTINE [_Awkwardly affected and aggrieved._] So you don't want me to come no more at all? MRS. WOLFF Aw, you just go ahead and put on that way! I'm so fond o' that! [_She lets the sack drop from her shoulder._] You don't know nothin', I s'ppose, about how late it's gettin'? You hurry and go back to your mistress. LEONTINE It matters a whole lot, don't it, if I get back there a little too late? MRS. WOLFF You want to be lookin' out, y'understand? You see to it that you go, or you'll catch it! LEONTINE [_Tearfully and defiantly._] I ain't goin' back to them people no more, mama! MRS. WOLFF [_Astonished._] Not goin'?... [_Ironically._] Oh, no! That's somethin' quite new! LEONTINE Well, I don't _have_ to let myself be abused that way! MRS. WOLFF