_Through the great gate comes BAER called HOPPING BAER. He is a lank fellow with a vulture's neck and goitre. His feet and head are bare. His breeches, badly ravelled at the bottom, scarcely reach below the knee. The top of his head is bald. Such hair as he has, brown, dusty, and clotted, hangs down over his shoulders. His gait is ostrich-like. By a cord he draws behind him a child's toy waggon full of sand. His face is beardless. His whole appearance shows him to be a god-forsaken peasant lad in the twenties._ BAER [_With a strangely bleating voice._] Sa--a--and! Sa--a--and! _He crosses the yard and disappears between the house and the stables. HOFFMANN and HELEN come from the house. HELEN is pale and carries an empty glass in her hand._ HOFFMANN [_To HELEN._] Entertain him a bit! You understand? Don't let him go. I should hate to have him.--Injured vanity like that!... Good-bye!... Oh, maybe I oughtn't to go at all? How is Martha doing?--I've got a queer kind of feeling as if pretty soon.... Nonsense!--Good-bye! ... awful hurry!... [_Calls out._] Franz! Give the horses their heads! [_Leaves rapidly through the main gate._ _HELEN goes to the pump, fills her glass and empties it at one draught. She empties half of another glass. She then sets the glass on the pump and then strolls slowly, looking backward from time to time, through the gate-may. BAER emerges from between the house and the stables and stops with his waggon before the house door, where MIELE takes some sand from him. In the meantime KAHL has become visible at the right, beyond the dividing fence. He is in conversation with MRS. SPILLER, who is on the hither side of the fence and therefore close to the entrance of the yard. As the conversation proceeds, both walk slowly along the fence._ MRS. SPILLER [_Mildly agonised._] Ah yes--m--Mr. Kahl! I have--m--many a time thought of--m--you when ... when our--m--dear Miss Helen ... She is so to--m--speak betrothed to you and so--m--ah! I--m--must say ... in my time...! KAHL [_Mounts a rustic bench under the oak-tree and fastens a bird trap to the lowest branch._] When is th-that b-beast of a doctor goin' to git out o' here? Ha? MRS. SPILLER Ah, Mr. Kahl! I don't--m--think so very soon.--Ah, Mr. Kahl, I--m--have, so to speak, come--m--down in the world, but I--m--know--m--what refinement is. In this respect, Mr. Kahl, I--must say--dear Miss Helen isn't--m--acting quite right toward you. No--m--in that respect, so to speak--m--I've never had anything with which to--m--reproach myself--m--my conscience, dear Mr. Kahl, is as pure in that--m--respect--so to speak, as new-fallen snow. _BAER has finished the sale of his sand and, at this moment, passes by KAHL in order to leave the yard._ KAHL [_Discovers BAER and calls out._] Heres hopping Baer! Hop a bit! _BAER takes a, huge leap._ KAHL