WENDLA--Good-bye, Ina.--Bring me some primroses when you come again. Good-bye. Kiss your youngster for me.... [INA _goes_.]--What else did he say, mother, when he was out there? MRS. BERGMANN--He didn’t say anything. He said the Baroness von Witzleben was also subject to fainting-spells. It was almost always that way with chlorosis. WENDLA--Did he say, mother, that I had chlorosis? MRS. BERGMANN--You’re to drink milk and eat meat and vegetables when your appetite has come back. WENDLA--Oh, mother, mother, I don’t believe I have chlorosis!... MRS. BERGMANN--You have chlorosis, child. Lie still, Wendla, lie still. You have chlorosis. WENDLA--No, mother, no! I know I haven’t! I feel it! I haven’t got chlorosis--I’ve got the dropsy.... MRS. BERGMANN--You have chlorosis. Yes, he did say you had chlorosis. Quiet down, girlie. It will get better. WENDLA--It won’t get better. I have the dropsy. I must die, mother.--Oh, mother, I must die! MRS. BERGMANN--You must not die, child! You must not die!... Merciful Heaven, you must not die! WENDLA--But why do you cry, then, so miserably? MRS. BERGMANN--You must not die--child! You haven’t got dropsy. You have a =baby=, girl! You have a baby!--Oh, why, why did you do that to me? WENDLA--I didn’t do anything---- MRS. BERGMANN--Oh, don’t deny it now, Wendla!--I know, I know. See, I couldn’t have said a word to you,--Wendla, my Wendla!... WENDLA--But that is quite impossible, mother! I’m not married! MRS. BERGMANN--Great God, that’s just it--that you’re not married! That is just the frightful thing about it!--Wendla, Wendla, Wendla, what did you do! WENDLA--Why, really, I don’t remember any more! We were lying in the hay.... I haven’t loved a soul in the world but you--only you, mother. MRS. BERGMANN--My darling---- WENDLA--Oh, mother, why didn’t you tell me everything? MRS. BERGMANN--Child, child, let’s not make each other’s hearts still heavier. Control yourself! Don’t despair, my child!--What, tell that to a fourteen-year-old girl? Why, I should sooner have expected the sun to go out! I haven’t done anything different with you than my dear good mother did with me.--Oh, let us trust in the good God, Wendla; let us hope for pity, and bear our lot! See, there’s still time: nothing has happened =yet=, child; and if we just don’t get cowardly now, the good God won’t forsake us either.--Be brave, Wendla, be =brave=!--One may be sitting at the window so with her hands in her lap, because so far everything has turned out good,--and then something bursts in on her and makes her heart feel like breaking on the spot.... Wha-what are you trembling for? WENDLA--Somebody knocked. MRS. BERGMANN--I didn’t hear anything, dear heart. [_Goes to the door and opens it._] WENDLA--Oh, I heard it very clearly.--Who is outside? MRS. BERGMANN--No one.--Schmidt’s mother from Garden Street.--You come just right, Mother Schmidtin. CURTAIN