O God, O God, have mercy! Have mercy on this old man! Take me! It’s the only way to help him. Look! The sunshine lies so golden on the street that the children snatch at it. The birds fly about. Flowers and plants are never weary of growing. Everything lives and wants to live. Thousands of sick people tremble before thee at this hour, O Death! Those who called to thee in the oppression of the night, because their pain was more than they could bear, now once more find comfort in their beds. To thee I call! Spare him whose soul shrinks furthest from thee! Let him live until this lovely world again seems grey and desolate. Take me for him! I will not shudder at thy chilly hand. I will seize it bravely, and follow thee more gladly than ever any child of man has followed thee before. SCENE 3 WOLFRAM (_enters_). Good morning, Miss Clara, isn’t your father at home? CLARA. He’s just gone out. WOLFRAM. I came to--my jewels have turned up! CLARA. O father, if only you were here! There are his spectacles! He’s forgotten them. If only he’d notice it and come back! How did you find them? Where? At whose house? WOLFRAM. My wife--Tell me frankly, Miss Clara, did you never hear anything strange about my wife? CLARA. I did. WOLFRAM. That she--(_tapping his forehead_). What? CLARA. That she’s a bit wrong in the head? Yes. WOLFRAM (_bursting into anger_). My God! My God! All in vain! I’ve never let a servant go, that I’ve once taken into my house. I’ve paid each one double wages and winked at all sorts of carelessness, to purchase their silence, and yet--Oh the false, ungrateful creatures! Oh my poor children! ’Twas for your sakes alone that I tried to conceal it. CLARA. Don’t blame your servants. They’re innocent enough. Ever since that day the house next door was burned down, when your wife stood at the open window and laughed and clapped and puffed her cheeks and blew at the flames to fan them, people have had to choose between calling her a she-devil or a madwoman. And hundreds of people saw that. WOLFRAM. That is true. Well, since the whole town knows my misfortune, it would be folly to ask you to keep it quiet. Listen to me, then. This theft, that your brother is in prison for, was due to insanity. CLARA. Your own wife---- WOLFRAM.