Volume 9 / Act 5 — SCENE IV

Enter the FORESTER in haste; pale and distracted; SOPHY.

SOPHY (going to meet him).

Back already?—[Correcting herself] at last?

FORESTER (looking shyly about).

Did anybody ask for me?

SOPHY.

No. Are they pursuing you?

FORESTER.

Who?

SOPHY.

Godfrey—

FORESTER.

Why?

SOPHY.

Because you come in as if you were being hunted.

FORESTER.

I meant the soldiers.—Why do I see Mary everywhere! In the Dell—

SOPHY (is frightened).

In the Dell!

[Aside.]

Good Heavens!

FORESTER.

And all the way back I heard her walking behind me.

SOPHY.

On your way back—

FORESTER.

Whenever I walked, I heard her behind me; whenever I stood still, she also stood still, but I did not look around.

SOPHY (relieved).

You did not look around?

FORESTER.

Why, I knew it was nothing. I have a feeling as though even now she were still standing behind me.

SOPHY (wishes to divert him from the subject).

Did you shoot anything? Is it outside?

FORESTER (shuddering involuntarily).

Outside?

SOPHY.

Before the door. What a strange look you give me! What is that on your clothes?

FORESTER (turns away involuntarily).

What is it?

SOPHY.

A spot—

FORESTER.

What you see—

SOPHY.

Why will you not let me see it?

FORESTER.

It is nothing.

[Turns to the table at the right, takes down his gun.]

Is the soup warm? My tongue is glued to the roof of my mouth.

SOPHY (takes a plate and spoon from the closet, goes to the stove where she pours out the soup).

If he should look into the room! What I ask, I ask only in anxiety to have him forget about Mary.

[She puts the soup before the FORESTER on the table to the right; listens.]

Isn't there a noise in the room?

[Walks about the FORESTER'S chair, so as to distract him.]

Ulrich, don't you think that Robert could still restore the old friendly relations?

[FORESTER makes a movement.]

SOPHY.

Why do you start so?

FORESTER.

Don't wake up Mary! Wasn't there some one at the window?

SOPHY.

That is the old rose-bush outside, which is always nodding so anxiously and knocking at the window, as if it had to prevent a catastrophe, and nobody paid any attention to it.

[Pause; aside.]

It is so still. I must keep on talking, otherwise he can hear me breathing, and will notice my anxiety—and also that he may not hear Mary when she climbs in at the window.

[Listening repeatedly.]

The whole evening I have been thinking about it. Only yesterday Robert said to me—

FORESTER.

Always Robert—

SOPHY (has seated herself by his side).

We were walking along the willows, where the pine-thicket is, under the rock, in the Dell—

FORESTER (violently).

Don't mention that—

SOPHY.

How you start! It was at sunset; and as I looked around, something was coming out from under the pines—so red. I—frightened—For God's sake, I say, why, that is blood!

[FORESTER throws down his spoon and rises.]

SOPHY.

Then the evening glow was reflected in the water.—But what is the matter with you?

FORESTER.

Always with your Dell. What do you care about the Dell?

SOPHY.

Did something happen to you there? People say the place is haunted. Robert said so to me yesterday. They say that there is an accursed spot! There some one committed a murd—

FORESTER (seizes his gun).

What do you know?

SOPHY (recoiling in terror).

Ulrich!—

FORESTER.

Will you keep quiet?

SOPHY (stops before him, shuddering, filled with a presentiment).

Ulrich! What have you done?

FORESTER (has recovered his self-possession).

Stuff and nonsense! Is this a night for such stories?

[Lost in thought.]

SOPHY.

Go ahead. Whether an hour sooner, or an hour later. You have me on your conscience.

[Sinks down upon a chair to the left.]

FORESTER (pause; then he walks slowly up and down, and gradually comes near her, hesitating).

I must tell you something, Sophy—if you do not already know it; it will not let me rest. I am in the right; but—and then I cannot tell—is it true or is it only an oppressive dream?—a dream in which one cannot do what one wishes—and exhausts oneself—because one must always do what one does not wish. Come here! Do you hear? Place your hand on the Bible.

SOPHY.

Great God! What can be the meaning of this!

FORESTER.

It would be horrible if I had been obliged to kill her, and after all everything were only—and then I should have in vain—Sophy!

[Quite close to her; softly.]

There is a report that a corpse is lying in the Dell!

SOPHY.

You are drunk or mad!

FORESTER.

I am in my right mind. Look at me, woman! Do you believe in a God in Heaven? Very well, Very well! Then place your hand upon the Bible, right here. There my right is written. Now say after me: "As truly as I hope to be saved—"

SOPHY (faintly).

As truly as I hope to be saved—

FORESTER.

"So truly shall it remain a secret what I am now about to hear."

SOPHY.

So truly shall it remain a secret what I am now about to hear.

[Is obliged to sit down.]

FORESTER.

And now give heed.—It is short—no But and no If about it—it is clear as the right—and right must remain right—else we need no God in Heaven! [After he has made several attempts to begin, in a dejected and low voice, while he leads her to the footlights.] Do not be frightened. Robert shot our Andrew, and I—I have executed judgment upon him.

SOPHY.

Oh, God! [She can scarcely keep herself on her feet; wants to go to the chair. He supports her.]

FORESTER.

I have judged him. As it is written there—"Eye for eye, tooth for tooth." I have judged him, because the courts no longer judge right. They have two kinds of law, and here it is written: "Ye shall have one manner of law." I have not murdered him, I have executed judgment upon him. [He walks up and down, then loses himself in thought at the place where he believes SOPHY still to be, who totters to the chair.] But I do not know whether it did happen—what has happened. My brain is so wild and confused—[Recollects with difficulty] but I suppose it really did happen—what has happened—and as it was about to happen—what has happened—I saw Mary before my eyes, as if she put herself in front of him and made a sign to me to stop, and cried: "It is"—well, you know who! It was a delusion; it was only in my imagination. After I have had wine, I always am in a state that I see things which do not exist. And if it should have been she—the bullet then was no longer under any control.

SOPHY.

Almighty God!

[She drags herself with difficulty into MARY'S room.]

FORESTER (does not notice it and, staring before him, continues as if she were still standing beside him).

It was not she. How could Mary have come there? It is nothing but the effect of the wine, that today I see her everywhere. But nevertheless I was frightened until I saw it had only been the smoke from the gun. Everything was turning around before my eyes. But when the smoke had cleared away—that was only a moment—then I saw him—still standing as before, but only for a moment—then he collapsed—then had happened what did happen. Then I folded my hands over my gun, and said: "You have been judged according to your desert." And I prayed: "God have mercy on his poor soul." Then a swarm of owls flew up and screeched. That sounded as though they said Amen. Then I stood again erect on my feet. For God and Earth and Heaven and every creature demand justice.

[He loses himself in a brown study.]