[_Laughing bitterly._] I don't know. 'Tis possible ... I can't just remember this moment. The world is made up o' lies an' deception. BERND [_Sighs._] O God ... my refuge evermore. AUGUST Is it so easy that you take the swearin' o' false oaths? ROSE That's nothin'! Nothin'! How could that be anythin'? There's somethin' that lies, out there, under a willow ... That's ... somethin' ... The rest don't concern me! There ... there ... I wanted to look up at the stars! I wanted to cry out an' to call out! No heavenly Father stirred to help me. BERND [_Frightened, trembling._] You're blasphemin' our heavenly Father? Has it gone so far with you? Then I don't know you no more! ROSE [_Approaching him on her knees._] 'Tis gone so far! But you know me anyhow, father! You cradled me on your knees, an' I've stood by you too many a time.--Now somethin' has come over us all--I've fought against it and struggled against it.... BERND [_Deeply perplexed._] What is it? ROSE I don't know ... I don't know! [_Trembling and kneeling, she crouches and stares at the floor._ AUGUST [_Overwhelmed and taken out of himself by the pity of the sight._] Rosie, get up! I won't desert you! Get up, I can't bear to see you lyin' there! We're all sinners together! An' anyone who repents so deep, is bound to be forgiven. Get up, Rose, Father, raise her up! We're not among them that condemns--not I, at least. There's nothin' in me o' the Pharisee! I see how it goes to her heart! Come what will, I'll stand by you! I'm no judge ... I don't judge. Our Saviour in Heaven didn't judge neither. Truly, he bore our sickness for us, an' we thought he was one that was tortured an' stricken, by God! Maybe we've all been guilty of error. I don't want to acquit myself neither. I've been thinkin'. Before the lass hardly knew me, she had to say her yea an' amen! What do I care about the world? It don't concern me. ROSE August, they clung to me like burrs ... I couldn't walk across the street safe ... All the men was after me!... I hid myself ... I was that scared! I was so afraid o' men!... It didn't help! 'Twas worse an' worse! After that I fell from one snare into another, till I hardly came to my senses no more. BERND You used to have the strictest notion o' such things. You condemned the Leichner girl an' despised the Kaiser wench! You boasted--you'd like to see someone come across your path! You struck the miller's journeyman in the face! A girl as does that, you said, don't deserve no pity; she can go an' hang herself! An' now you speak o' snares. ROSE I know better now. AUGUST Come what will, I'll stand by you, Rose. I'll sell my land! We'll go out into the world! I have an uncle in Brazil, across the ocean. We'll get our bit o' livin' somehow--one way or t'other. Maybe 'tis only now that we're ripe an' ready to take up our life together. ROSE O Jesus, Jesus, what did I do? Why did I go an' creep home? Why didn't I stay with my little baby? AUGUST With whom?