_LEONTINE tries to make her escape. In the door, however, she runs into her father, but slips quickly by him with a perfunctory_ Evenin'. _JULIUS WOLFF, the father, is a shipwright. A tall man, with dull eyes and slothful gestures, about forty-three years old.--He places two long oars, which he has brought in across his shoulder in a corner and silently throws down his shipwright's tools._ MRS. WOLFF Did you meet Emil? JULIUS _growls._ MRS. WOLFF Can't you talk? Yes or no? Is he goin' to come around, eh? JULIUS [_Irritated._] Go right ahead! Scream all you want to! MRS. WOLFF You're a fine, brave fellow, ain't you? An' all the while you forget to shut the door. JULIUS [_Closes the door._] What's up again with Leontine? MRS. WOLFF Aw, nothin'.--What kind of a load did Emil have? JULIUS Bricks again. What d'you suppose he took in?--But what's up with that girl again? MRS. WOLFF Did he have half a load or a whole load? JULIUS [_Flying into a rage._] What's up with the wench, I asks you? MRS. WOLFF [_Outdoing him in violence._] An' I want to know how big a load Emil had--a half or a whole boat full? JULIUS That's right! Go on! The whole thing full. MRS. WOLFF Sst! Julius! [_Suddenly frightened she shoots the window latch._ JULIUS [_Scared and staring at her, is silent. After a few moments, softly._] It's a young forester from Rixdorf. MRS. WOLFF Go an' creep under the bed, Julius. [_After a pause._] If only you wasn't such an awful fool. You don't open your mouth but what you act like a regular tramp. You don't understand nothin' o' such things, if you want to know it. You let me look out for the girls. That ain't no part o' your concern. That's a part of my concern. With boys that'd be a different thing. I wouldn't so much as give you advice. But everybody's got their own concerns. JULIUS Then don't let her come runnin' straight across my way. MRS. WOLFF I guess you want to beat her till she can't walk. Don't you take nothin' like that into your head. Don't you think I'm goin' to allow anythin' like that! I let her be beaten black an' blue? We c'n make our fortune with that girl. I wish you had sense about some things! JULIUS Well, then let her go an' see how she gets along! MRS. WOLFF Nobody needn't be scared about that, Julius. I ain't sayin' but what you'll live to see things. That girl will be livin' up on the first floor some day and we'll be glad to have her condescend to know us. What is it the doctor said to me? Your daughter, he says, is a handsome girl; she'd make a stir on the stage. JULIUS Then let her see about gettin' there. MRS. WOLFF