ROSE [_Gets up._] August, it's all over with me! First there was a burnin' in my body like flames o' fire! Then I fell into a kind o' swoon! Then there came one hope: I ran like a mother cat with her kitten in her mouth! But the dogs chased me an' I had to drop it.... BERND Do you understand one word, August? AUGUST No, not o' this.... BERND Do you know how I feel? I feel as if one abyss after another was openin', was yawnin' for us here. What'll we hear before the end? ROSE A curse! A curse will ye have to hear: I see you! I'll meet you! On the Day o' Judgment I'll meet you! I'll tear out your gullet an' your jaws together! You'll have to give an accountin'! You'll have to answer me, there! AUGUST Whom do you mean, Rosie? ROSE _He_ knows ... _he_ knows. [_A great exhaustion overtakes her and, almost swooning, she sinks upon a chair. A silence follows._ AUGUST [_Busying himself about her._] What is it that's come over you? Suddenly you're so.... ROSE I don't know.--If you'd asked me earlier, long ago, maybe ... to-day I can't tell you!--There wasn't nobody that loved me enough. AUGUST Who can tell which love is stronger--the happy or the unhappy love. ROSE Oh, I was strong, strong, so strong! Now I'm weak! Now it's all over with me. _The CONSTABLE appears._ THE CONSTABLE [_With a quiet voice._] They say your daughter is at home. Kleinert said she was here. AUGUST It's true. We didn't know it a while ago. THE CONSTABLE Then I might as well get through now. There's somethin' to be signed here. [_Without noticing ROSE in the dim room, he lays several documents on the table._ AUGUST Rose, here's somethin' you're to sign. _ROSE laughs with horrible and hysterical irony._ THE CONSTABLE If you're the one, Miss, it's no laughin' matter.--Please! ROSE You can stay a minute yet. AUGUST An' why? ROSE [_With flaming eyes, a malice against the whole world in her voice._] I've strangled my child. AUGUST What are you sayin'? For the love of God, what are you sayin'? THE CONSTABLE [_Draws himself up, looks at her searchingly, but continues as though he had not heard._] It'll be somethin' connected with the Streckmann 'affair. ROSE [As before, harshly, almost with a bark.] Streckmann? He strangled my child. BERND Girl, be still. You're out o' your mind. THE CONSTABLE Anyhow, you have no child at all--? ROSE What? I has none? Could I ha' strangled it with my hands?... I strangled my baby with these hands!!! THE CONSTABLE You're possessed! What's wrong with you? ROSE My mind's clear. I'm not possessed. I woke up clear in my mind, so clear.... [_Coldly, mildly, but with cruel firmness._] It _was_ not to live! I didn't want it to live! I didn't want it to suffer my agonies! It was to stay where it belonged. AUGUST Rose, think! Don't torment yourself! You don't know what you're sayin' here! You'll bring down misery on us all. ROSE