D'you see, August, I said to you then: Let her be! The lass will find her own way! Now she's come to her senses! In the old days, before your time, often an' often I worried about her. A kind o' stubbornness used to come over her from time to time. An' 'twas always best to let her be!--Sometimes it seemed, as God lives, as if the lass was runnin' against a wall--a strong wall that nobody else couldn't see, an' as if she had to grope her way around it first. AUGUST What got into her that day ... I'm thankin' God on my knees ... but that day I didn't know what to make of it! Suddenly she--how that came about ...? No, I can't see the rights of it to this day. BERND An' how different did she act this time when we went down to the magistrate. AUGUST I'm glad that it's no longer Squire Flamm. BERND Yes, an' this time she didn't say a word an' in four or five minutes everythin' was straight. That's the way she is. 'Tis the way o' women. AUGUST D'you think it had somethin' to do with Streckmann? He called out some words behind you that day, an' first he had talked to her. BERND It may be so, an' it may not be so. I can't tell you. Times is when one can't get a word out o' her. 'Tis not a good thing. An' on that account I'm glad that she'll be the wife of a man who can influence her an' take that sullen way from her. You two are meant for one another. 'Tis well! The girl needs to be led, an' you have a kind hand an' a gentle one. AUGUST When I see that Streckmann, I feel as if I had to look upon the evil one hisself.... BERND Maybe she thought as the feller meant mischief. He's been a sinner from his childhood on! Many a time his mother complained of it!... It may be! 'Twouldn't surprise no one in him. AUGUST When I see that man, I don't seem to be myself no longer. Hot an' cold shudders run down my back, an' I come near to accusin' our Heavenly Father ... because he didn't make me a Samson in strength. Such times, God forgive me, I have evil thoughts. [_The whizzing of Streckmann's engine is heard._] There he is! BERND Don't take no notice of him. AUGUST I won't. An' when 'tis all over, I'll shut myself up in my four walls an' we can lead a quiet life. BERND A good, quiet life--God grant it! AUGUST And I don't want to know nothin' of the world no more! The whole business fills me with horror! I have taken such a disgust to the world and to men, that I ... Father, I don't hardly know how to say it ... but when the bitterness o' things rises up into my throat--then I laugh! Then I have a feelin' of peace in the thought of death; and I rejoice in it like a child.