Mother, you know that better than I! You know very well ... you spoke of it yourself.... For heaven's sake, don't be petty at this moment! She mustn't go from our door in any such fashion! MRS. FLAMM I can't clean her boots, Flamm! FLAMM And I don't want you to! It isn't a question of that! But you sent for her yourself.--You can't change so completely in a moment as to forget all compassion and sympathy. What did you say to me a while ago? And if the lass goes to the devil ... you know I'm not such a scoundrel that I'd care to drag out my life any longer. It's one thing or the other--don't forget that! MRS. FLAMM Well, Christie ... you men are not worth it, to be sure. An' yet, in the end, what is a body to do?--The heart bleeds! 'Tis our own fault. Why does a woman deceive herself again an' again, when she's old enough an' sensible enough to know better! An' don't deceive yourself about this thing either, Christie.... I'm willin'! I can do it! I'll talk to her! Not for your sake, but because it's right. But don't imagine that I can make whole what you've broken.--You men are like children in that respect! _The MAID comes back._ THE MAID She don't want to wait no more! MRS. FLAMM Send her in! _The MAID withdraws again._ FLAMM Be sensible, mother! On my word of honour.... MRS. FLAMM You needn't give it! You needn't break it! _FLAMM leaves the room. MRS. FLAMM sighs and picks up her crochet work again. Thereupon ROSE BERND enters._ ROSE [_Showily dressed in her Sunday clothes. Her features are peaked and there is a feverish gleam in her eyes._] Good-day, madam. MRS. FLAMM Good-day! Sit down. Well, Rose, I've asked you to come here ... I suppose you've kept in mind what we talked about that time. There's many a thing that's changed since then!... In many respects, anyhow! But that made me want to talk to you all the more. That day, to be sure, you said I couldn't help you, that you wanted to fight it all out alone! An' to-day a good bit has grown clear to me--your strange behaviour that time, an' your unwillingness to let me help you.--But I don't see how you're goin' to get along all alone. Come, drink a cup o' coffee. [_ROSE sits down on the edge of a chair by the table._] August was here to see me a while ago. If I had been in your shoes, lass, I'd have risked it long ago an' told him the truth. [_Looking sharply at her._] But now, the way things has gone--I can't even advise you to do it! Isn't that true? ROSE Oh, but why, madam? MRS. FLAMM