Rose! ROSE What? MARTHEL What's the matter with you? ROSE Nothin'. Bring me a pan an' the potatoes. MARTHEL [_Has started the fire to burning and now brings ROSE an earthenware bowl of potatoes and a paring knife._] Oh, but Rosie, I'm that frightened! You look so ...! ROSE How does I look? Tell me that? How? Has I got spots on my hands? Is it branded over my eyes? Everythin's kind o' ghastly to me this day. [_Laughing a ghastly laugh._] Lord! I can't see the face o' you! Now I see one hand! Now I see two eyes! Just dots now! Martha, maybe I'm growin' blind! MARTHEL Rosie, did somethin' happen to you? ROSE God protect you from what's happened to me.... You'd better be wishin' yourself an early death! Because, even if a body dies to this world, they do say that he passes into rest. Then you don't have to live an' draw breath no more.--How did it go with little Kurt Flamm? I've clean forgot ... I'm dizzy ... I'm forgettin' ... I've forgotten everythin' ... life's that hard ... If I could only keep on feelin' this way ... an' never wake up again ...! What's the reason o' such things comin' to pass in this world? MARTHEL [_Frightened._] If only father would come home! ROSE Martha, come! Listen to me! You mustn't tell father that I was here or that I am here ... Martha, sure you'll promise me that, won't you?... Many a thing I've done for the love o' you ... Martha! You haven't forgotten that, nor you mustn't forget it, even if things grows dark around me now. MARTHEL Will you drink a bit of coffee? There's a drop left in the oven. ROSE An' don't be frightened! I'll go upstairs in the room an' lie down a wee bit ... just a bit. Otherwise I'm all right ... otherwise there's nothin' that ails me. MARTHEL An' I'm not to say nothin' to father? ROSE Not a word! MARTHEL An' not to August neither? ROSE Not a syllable! Lass, you've never known your mother an' I've raised you with fear an' heartache.--Many's the night I've watched through in terror because you was ill! I wasn't as old as you when I carried you about on my arm till I was near breakin' in two! Here you was--at my breast! An' if you go an' betray me now, 'tis all over between us! MARTHEL Rosie, 'tis nothin' bad is it ... nothin' dangerous, I mean? ROSE I don't believe it is! Come, Martha, help me a bit, support me a bit!... A body is left too lonely in this world ... too deserted! If only a body wasn't so lonely here ... so lonely on this earth! [_ROSE and MARTHEL pass out through the hall door._ _For some moments the room remains empty. Then old BERND appears in the kitchen. He puts down his basket and the potato hoe and looks about him, earnestly and inquiringly. Meanwhile MARTHEL re-enters the living-room from the hall._ MARTHEL Is it you, father? BERND Is there no hot water! You know I have to have my foot bath! Isn't Rose here yet? MARTHEL She isn't here yet, father! BERND