No one at home! If I didn’t know the rat-hole under the threshold where they keep the key, when they all go out, I wouldn’t have been able to get in. Well, that wouldn’t have mattered. I could run round the town twenty times and imagine there was no greater pleasure in the world than using your legs. Let’s have a light. (_Lights up._) The matches are just where they used to be, I’ll bet, because in this house we’ve got twice ten commandments. “Put your hat on the third nail, not the fourth.” “You must be sleepy at half-past nine.” “You’ve no right to be chilly before Martinmas and no right to sweat after it.” And that’s on a level with “Thou shalt fear God and love Him.” I’m thirsty. (_Calls._) Mother! Phew! I’d forgotten she’d gone where there’s no waiters to serve you. I didn’t blubber in that gloomy cell when I heard them ringing the bell for her; but--you red-coat! You didn’t let me have my last throw in the skittle-alley, although I’d the ball in my hand. I won’t give you time to breathe your last, when I find you by yourself. And that may be to-night. I know where to find you at ten o’clock. And then off to sea! What keeps Clara out? I’m as hungry as I’m thirsty. To-day’s Thursday. They’ve had veal broth. If it was winter, there’d have been cabbage; white cabbage up to Shrove Tuesday and green after. That’s as certain as that Thursday comes after Wednesday and that it can’t say to Friday, “Take my place, my feet are tired.” SCENE 8 CLARA _enters_. KARL. At last! You shouldn’t do so much kissing. Where four red lips get baked together, there’s a bridge for the devil to cross. What have you got there? CLARA. Where? What? KARL. Where? What? In your hand. CLARA. Nothing. KARL. Nothing! Is it secrets? (_Snatches_ LEONARD’S _letter from her_.) Give it to me! When your father’s out, your brother’s your guardian. CLARA. I kept the thing in my hand, and yet the wind is so strong that it is blowing slates off the roofs. As I went past the church, one fell right at my feet. I nearly fell over it. “O God,” I thought, “one more”--and stood still. It would have been so beautiful. They’d have buried me and said it was an accident. But I hoped in vain for a second. KARL (_who has read the letter_). Damnation! I’ll smash the arm of the man that wrote that. Fetch me a bottle of wine! Or is the money-box empty? CLARA. There’s one bottle left in the house. I bought it secretly and hid it for mother’s birthday. It was to have been to-morrow----(_Turns away._) KARL. Give it to me. [CLARA _brings the wine_. KARL (_drinking quickly_).