[_Bellowing with laughter._] Here, hopping Baer! Hop again! MRS. SPILLER Well--m--Mr. Kahl, what I want to say is--m--I have the best--m--intentions toward you. You ought to observe very--m--carefully. Something--m--is going on between our young lady and--m-- KAHL If I could j-jist git my d-dogs on that son of a--... Jist once! MRS. SPILLER [_Mysteriously._] And I'm afraid you--m--don't know what kind of an individual that--m--is. Oh, I am so--m--truly sorry for our dear young lady. The wife of the bailiff--she has it straight from the office, I think. He is said to be a--m--really dangerous person. The woman said her husband had--m--orders, just think! actually--m--to keep his eye on him. _LOTH comes from the house and looks about._ MRS. SPILLER You see, now he is going--m--after our young lady. Oh, it's _too_ sad--m--for anything. KAHL Aw! You wait an' see! [_Exit._ _MRS. SPILLER goes to the door of the house. In passing LOTH she makes a deep bow. Then she disappears into the house._ _LOTH disappears slowly through the gateway. The coachman's wife, an emaciated, worried, starved woman, emerges from between the house and the stables. She carries a large pot hidden under her apron and slinks off toward the cow-shed, looking about fearfully at every moment. She disappears into the door of the stable. The two MAIDS, each before her a wheel-barrow laden with clover, enter by the gate. BEIPST, his pipe in his mouth and his scythe across his shoulder, follows them, LIESE has wheeled her barrow in front of the left, AUGUSTE hers in front of the right door of the barn, and both begin to carry great armfuls of clover into the building._ LIESE [_Coming back out of the stable._] Guste! D'ye know, Marie is gone. AUGUSTE Aw, don' tell me! LIESE Go in there'n ask the coachman's wife. She's gittin' her a drop o' milk. BEIPST [_Hangs up his scythe on the wall._] Ye'd better not let that Spiller creature get wind o' it. AUGUSTE Oh, Lord, no! Who'd think o' it! LIESE A poor woman like that with eight-- AUGUSTE Eight little brats. They wants to be fed! LIESE An' they wouldn't give her a drop o' milk even. It's low, that's what I calls it. AUGUSTE Where is she milkin'? LIESE Way back there. BEIPST [_Fills his pipe. Holding his tobacco-pouch with his teeth he mumbles._] Ye say Marie's gone? LIESE Yes, it's true an' certain. The parson's hired man slept with her. BEIPST [_Replacing the tobacco-pouch in his pocket._] Everybody feels that way sometimes--even a woman. [_He lights his pipe and disappears through the gateway. In going:_] I'm goin' fer a bit o' breakfast. THE COACHMAN'S WIFE [_Hiding the pot full of milk carefully under her apron, sticks her head out of the stable door._] Anybody in sight? LIESE Ye c'n come if ye'll hurry. There ain't nobody. Come! Hurry! THE COACHMAN'S WIFE [_Passing by the maids._] It's fer the nursin' baby. LIESE