[_Deeply affected._] Is that so? That's news to me! I didn't know about that. Nor that Christie went to see old Bernd!... I wonder where my smellin' bottle is?--No, August, you might as well go home now. I'm a bit ... I don't know what to call it! An' any special advice I can't give you, the way it all turns out. There's something that's gone through an' through me. Go home an' wait to see how everything goes. But if you love the lass truly, then ... look at me: I could tell you a tale! If a body is made that way: whether 'tis a man that the women run after, or a woman that all the men are mad about--then there's nothin' to do but just to suffer an' suffer and be patient!--I've lived that way twelve long years. [_She pats her hand to her eyes and peers through her fingers._] An' if I want to see things at all, I have to see them from behind my hands. AUGUST I can't never believe that, Mrs. Flamm. MRS. FLAMM Whether you believe me or not. Life don't ask us if we want to believe things. An' I feel exactly like you: I can't hardly realise it either. But we have to see how we can reconcile ourselves to it--I made a promise to Rose! 'Tis easy promisin' an' hard keepin' the promise sometimes in this world. But I'll do the best in my power.--Good-bye--I can't expect you to ... God must take pity on us. That's all. _AUGUST, deeply moved, grasps the hand which MRS. FLAMM offers him and withdraws in silence._ MRS. FLAMM leans her head far back and, lost in thought, looks up. She sighs twice deeply and with difficulty. FLAMM enters, very pale, looks sidewise at his wife and begins to whistle softly. He opens the book case and pretends to be eagerly hunting for something._ MRS. FLAMM Yes, yes; there it is--you whistle everything down the wind! But this ... this ... I wouldn't ha' thought you capable of. _FLAMM swings around, falls silent, and looks straight at her. He lifts both hands slightly and shrugs his shoulders very high. Then, he relaxes all his muscles and gazes simply and without embarrassment--thoughtfully rather than shamefacedly--at the floor._ MRS. FLAMM You men take these things very lightly! What's to happen now? FLAMM [_Repeating the same gesture but less pronouncedly._] That's what I don't know.--I want to be quite calm now. I should like to tell you how that came about. It may be that you will be able to judge me less harshly then. If not ... why, then I should be very sorry for myself. MRS. FLAMM I don't see how a body can fail to judge such recklessness harshly. FLAMM Recklessness? I don't think that it was mere recklessness. What would you rather have it be, mother--recklessness, or something more serious? MRS. FLAMM To destroy the future of just this girl, for whom we have to bear all the responsibility! We made her come to the house! An' she an' her people had blind confidence in us! 'Tis enough to make one perish o' shame! It looks as if one had ... that ... in view!