[_Frightened, suspicious._] Well, what d'you want here? Is Paul home yet? I jus' went down in the street a little with the baby. [_She carries the child behind the partition._ WALBURGA Erich, do mention the summons to Mrs. John! MRS. JOHN Why, Paul's at home. There's his things! SPITTA Miss Hassenreuter wanted very much to talk to you. She received a summons to appear in court. It's probably about those things that were stolen from the loft. You know. MRS. JOHN [_Emerging from behind the partition._] What's that? You reelly got a summons, Miss Walburga? Well, then you better look out! I ain't jokin'. An' maybe you're thinkin' o' the black man! SPITTA What you're saying there is quite incomprehensible, Mrs. John. MRS. JOHN [_Taking up her domestic tasks._] Did you hear that 'way out in the Lauben settlement, beyond the Halle Gate, the lightenin' struck a man an' a woman an' a little girl o' seven this mornin'. It was right under a tall poplar tree. SPITTA No, Mrs. John, we didn't hear that. MRS. JOHN The rain's splashin' down again. _One hears a shower of rain beginning to fall._ WALBURGA [_Nervously._] Come, Erich, let's get out into the open anyhow. MRS. JOHN [_Speaking louder and louder in her incoherent terror._] An' I tell you another thing: I was talking to the woman what was struck by lightenin' jus' a short time before. An' she says--now listen to me, Mr. Spitta--if you takes a dead child what's lyin' in its carridge an' pushes it out into the sun ... but it's gotta be summer an' midday ... it'll draw breath, it'll cry, it'll come back to life!--You don't believe that, eh? But I seen that with my own eyes! [_She circles about the room in a strange fashion, apparently becoming quite oblivious of the presence of the two young people._ WALBURGA Look, here, Mrs. John is positively uncanny! Let's go! MRS. JOHN [_Speaking still louder._] You don' believe that, that it'll come to life again, eh? I tell you, its mother c'n come an' take it. But it's gotta be nursed right off. SPITTA Good-bye, Mrs. John. MRS. JOHN [_In strange excitement accompanies the two young people to the door. Speaking still more loudly._] You don' believe that! But it's the solemn truth, Mr. Spitta! _SPITTA and WALBURGA leave the room._ MRS. JOHN [_Still holding the door in her hand calls out after them._] Anybody that don' believe that don' know nothin' o' the whole secret that I discovered. _The foreman-mason JOHN appears in the door and enters at once._ JOHN Why, there you are, mother! I'm glad to see you. What's that there secret you're talkin' about? MRS. JOHN [_As though awakening, grasps her head._] Me?--Did I say somethin' about a secret? JOHN That you did unless I'm hard o' hearin'. An' it's reelly you unless it's a ghost. MRS. JOHN [_Surprised and frightened._] Why d'you think I might be a ghost? JOHN