Them people has gone an' addled your brains for you! They'll have to answer some day for the things they've put into your head! I took as good care o' your girl as I did o' my own. She wouldn't ha' died o' that! But I can't wake the dead. If a body is to die, she dies--in this world. There's no holdin' people like that; they has to go. There never was much strength in Gustel--you know that as well as I. Why do you go axin' me an' lookin' at me as if I done God knows what to her! HENSCHEL [_Suspiciously._] Maybe you did somethin'. 'Tis not impossible. MRS. HENSCHEL [_Beside herself._] Oh, if somebody'd foretold this--I'd ha' gone beggin' my bread first. No, no, O my goodness, if I'd ha' known that! To have to listen to things like that! Didn't I want to go? An' who kept me back? Who held me fast in the house here? I could ha' made my livin' any time! I wasn't afraid; I could always work. But you didn't let up. Now I got my reward. Now _I_ got to suffer for it! HENSCHEL 'Tis true, maybe, that you has to suffer for it. Things comes _as_ they come. What c'n a body do? [_He locks the door again._ MRS. HENSCHEL You're to leave the door open, Wilhelm, or I'll cry for help! HENSCHEL --Sh! Keep still! Did you hear? There's somethin' runnin' along the passage. D'you hear? Now it goes to the washstand. D'you hear the splashin'? She's standin' there an' washin' herself! MRS. HENSCHEL You! Wilhelm! You're dreamin'! The wash-stand is in here! HENSCHEL That's just it! I know very well! They can't deceive me. I know what I know, [_Hurriedly._] That's all I say.--Come, come, let's go to bed. Time'll show. [_While he approaches the door of the next room, Mrs. HENSCHEL softly unlocks the door to the hall and slips out._ HENSCHEL [_Taking down a whip from the frame of the door._] Why, that's my old Triest whip! Where does that old thing come from? I haven't seen it for over a year. That was bought in mother's time. [_He listens._] What d'you say? Eh?--O' course ... Certainly.--Nothin'!--Well, s'posin'! An' why not? 'Tis well!--I know what I has to do!--I won't be stubborn.--You let that be too. _SIEBENHAAR enters by the door which is slightly ajar. By means of gestures he signifies to WERMELSKIRCH, who follows him, that the latter is to remain behind, also to MRS. HENSCHEL. He is fully clad except that he wears a silk kerchief instead of a collar. WERMELSKIRCH is in his dressing-gown._ SIEBENHAAR Good evening, Mr. Henschel! What? Are you still up? You're not well, eh? What's the matter with you? HENSCHEL [_After he has, for several seconds, regarded him with perplexity; simply:_] I just can't sleep. I don't get sleepy at all! I'd like to take some medicine, if I knew any. I don't know how it comes. God knows! SIEBENHAAR I'll tell you somethin', old friend: You go quietly to bed now, and to-morrow, real early, I'll send the doctor in. You must really take some serious step now. HENSCHEL