D'you really mean that, Hanne? HANNE All over--an' I want you to remember that. FRANZ I'll remember it all right! [_More and more excited and finally weeping more than speaking._] You don't need to think I'm such a fool; I noticed it long before to-day. But I kept thinkin' you'd come to your senses. HANNE That's just what I've done. FRANZ It's all the way you look at it. I'm a poor devil--that's certain; an' Henschel--he's got a chest full o' money. There's one way, come to think of it, in which maybe you has come to your senses. HANNE You start at me with such talk an' it just makes things worse an' worse. That's all. FRANZ It's not true, eh? You're not schemin' right on to be Mrs. Henschel? I'm not right, eh? HANNE That's my business. That don't concern you. We all has to look out for ourselves. FRANZ Well, now, supposin' I was to look out for myself, an' goes to Henschel an' says: Hanne, she promised to marry me; we was agreed, an' so.... HANNE Try it, that's all I says. FRANZ [_Almost weeping with pain and rage._] An' I will try it, too! You take care o' yourself an' I'll take care o' myself. If that's the way you're goin' to act, I c'n do the same! [_With a sudden change of front._] But I don't want to have nothin' more to do with you! You c'n throw yourself at his head for all I cares! A crittur like you isn't good enough for me! [_Exit hastily._ HANNE So it worked at last. An' that's all right. _While HANNE continues busy at her washing, WERMELSKIRCH appears in the passage at the rear. He is a man in the fifties; the former actor is unmistakable in him. He wears a thread-bare dressing-gown, embroidered slippers, and smokes a very long pipe._ WERMELSKIRCH [_Having looked in for a while without being noticed by HANNE._] Did you hear him cough? HANNE Who? WERMELSKIRCH Why, a guest--a patient--has arrived upstairs. HANNE 'Tis time they began to come. We're in the middle of May. WERMELSKIRCH [_Slowly crosses the threshold and hums throatily._] A pulmonary subject I, Tra la la la la, bum bum! It can't last long until I die, Tra la la la la, bum bum! [_HANNE laughs over her washing._] Things like that really do one good. They show that the summer is coming. HANNE One swallow don't make no summer, though! WERMELSKIRCH [_Clears a space for himself on the bench and sits down._] Where is Henschel? HANNE Why he went down, to the cemetery to-day. WERMELSKIRCH To be sure, it's his wife's birthday. [_Pause._] It was a deuce of a blow to him, that's certain.--Tell me, when is he coming back? HANNE I don't know why he had to go an' drive there at all. We needs the horses like anything an' he took the new coachman with him too. WERMELSKIRCH I tell you, Hanne, anger spoils one's appetite. HANNE