Very well. The future will show. [_He stretches himself, gets up, and stamps his feet gently on the floor. To WULKOW._] This is our excellent washerwoman. She thinks that all people are like herself. [_To MRS. WOLFF._] But unfortunately the world is differently made. You see human beings from the outside; a man like myself has learned to look a little deeper. [_He takes a few paces, then stops before her and lays his hand on her shoulder._] And as surely as it is true when I say: Mrs. Wolff is an honest woman; so surely I tell you: this Dr. Fleischer of yours, of whom we were speaking, is a thoroughly dangerous person! MRS. WOLFF [_Shaking her head resignedly._] Well, then I don't know no more what to think ... THE CURTAIN FALLS THE CONFLAGRATION PERSONS: FIELITZ, _Shoemaker and Spy. Near sixty years old._ MRS. FIELITZ, _formerly MRS. WOLFF, his wife. Of the same age._ LEONTINE, _her oldest daughter by her first marriage; unmarried; near thirty._ SCHMAROWSKI, _Architect._ LANGHEINRICH, _Smith. Thirty years old._ RAUCHHAUPT, _retired Prussian Constable._ GUSTAV, _his oldest son, a congenital imbecile._ MIEZE, LOTTE, TRUDE, LENCHEN, LIESCHEN, MARIECHEN, TIENCHEN, HANNCHEN, _his daughters._ DR. BOXER, _a vigorous man of thirty-six. Physician. Of Jewish birth._ VON WEHRHAHN, _Justice._ EDE, _Journeyman at LANGHEINRICH'S._ GLASENAPP, _Clerk in the Justice's Court._ SCHULZE, _Constable._ MRS. SCHULZE, _his aunt._ TSCHACHE, _Constable._ A FIREMAN. A BOY. JANITOR OF THE COURT. VILLAGE PEOPLE. Scene: Anywhere in the neighbourhood of Berlin. THE FIRST ACT _The work shop of the shoemaker FIELITZ. A low room with blue tinted walls. A window to the right. In each of the other walls a door. Under the window at the right a small platform. Upon it a cobbler's bench and a small table. On the latter a stand upholding three spheres of glass filled with water. Near them stands an unlit coal-oil lamp. In the corner, left, a brown tile oven surrounded by a bench and kitchen utensils of various kinds._ _SHOEMAKER FIELITZ is still crouching over his work. On the platform and around it old shoes and boots of every size are heaped up. FIELITZ is hammering a piece of leather into flexibility._ _MRS. FIELITZ (formerly MRS. WOLFF) is thoughtfully turning over in her hands a little wooden box and a stearin candle. It is toward evening, at the end of September._ FIELITZ You get outta this here shop. Go on now! MRS. FIELITZ [_Briefly and contemptuously._] Who d'you think'll come in here now? It's past six. FIELITZ You get outta the shop with that trash o' yours. MRS. FIELITZ I wish you wouldn't act so like a fool. What's wrong about this here little box, eh? A little box like this ain't no harm. FIELITZ [_Working with enraged violence._] It's somethin' good, ain't it now? MRS. FIELITZ