I'll see what c'n be found in Paul's drawer. [_She opens the drawer of the table and turns pale._] O Lord! [_She takes from the drawer a lock of child's hair held together by a riband._] I found a bit of a lock o' hair here that was cut off the head of our little Adelbert by his father when he was lyin' in the coffin. [_A profound, grief-stricken sadness suddenly comes over her face, which gives way again, quite as suddenly, to a gleam of triumph._] An' now the crib is full again after all! [_With an expression of strange joyfulness, the lock of hair in her hand, she leads the young people to the door of the partition through which the perambulator projects into the main room by two-thirds of its length. Arrived there she holds the lock of hair close to the head of the living child._] Come on! Come on here! [_With a strangely mysterious air she beckons to WALBURGA and SPITTA, who take up their stand next to her and to the child._] Now look at that there hair an' at this! Ain't it the same? Wouldn't you say it was the same identical hair? SPITTA Quite right. It's the same to the minutest shade, Mrs. John. MRS. JOHN All right! That's all right! That's what I wanted to know. [_Together with the child she disappears behind the partition._ WALBURGA Doesn't it strike you, Erich, that Mrs. John's behaviour is rather peculiar? SPITTA [_Taking WALBURGA'S hands and kissing them shyly but passionately._] I don't know, I don't know ... Or, at least, my opinion musn't count to-day. The sombre state of my own mind colours all the world. Did you get the letter? WALBURGA Yes. But I couldn't make out why you hadn't been at our house in such a long while. SPITTA Forgive me, Walburga, but I couldn't come. WALBURGA And why not? SPITTA Because my mind was not at one with itself. WALBURGA You want to become an actor? Is that true? You're going to change professions? SPITTA What I'll be in the end may be left to God. But never a parson--never a country parson! WALBURGA Listen! I've had my fortune told from the cards. SPITTA That's nonsense, Walburga. You mustn't do that. WALBURGA I swear to you, Erich, that it isn't nonsense. The woman told me I was betrothed in secret and that my betrothed is an actor. Of course I laughed her to scorn. And immediately after that mama told me that you wanted to be an actor. SPITTA Is that a fact? WALBURGA It's true--every bit of it. And in addition the clairvoyant said that we would have a visitor who would cause us much trouble. SPITTA My father is coming to Berlin, Walburga, and it's undoubtedly true that the old gentleman will give us not a little trouble. Father doesn't know it, but my views and his have been worlds asunder for a long time. It didn't need these letters of his which seem actually to burn in my pocket and by which he answered my confession--it didn't need these letters to tell me that. WALBURGA