ARNO: You are wanted.
[Hoffman moves with military precision to the door; then turns to Hedwig.]
Hoffman:
I shall take the time to report you.
[Goes.]
Minna: [To Arno.]
Does Heinrich's regiment go, too?
Arno:
Heinrich who?
Minna:
Heinrich Berg.
Arno:
No. To-morrow.
[Minna, now thoroughly scared, is slinking to the door when Hedwig stops her.]
Hedwig:
Ha! little Minna, why do you run so fast? Heinrich does not go until to-morrow. [Looks at her thoughtfully.] Are you going to be able to fight it through, little Minna, when the hard days come? If you do give the empire a soldier, will it be any comfort to know you are helping the falling birth-rate?
Minna: [Shivering.]
Oh, I am afraid of you!
Hedwig:
Afraid of the truth, you mean. You see it at last in all its brutal bareness. Poor little Minna! [She puts her arm around Minna with sudden tenderness.] But you need not be afraid of me, little Minna. Oh, no. The trouble with me is I want no more war. Franz is at the war. I'm half mad with dreaming they have killed him. Any moment I may hear. If you loved your man as I do mine, little Minna, you'd understand.' Well, go now, and to-morrow say good-by to your husband—of a day.
[Minna, with a frightened backward glance, runs out the door.
Arno, who has been talking in low tones to his mother, now rises.]
Arno:
Well, Mother, I haven't much time.
[She clings to his hand.]
Hedwig: [Starting.]
Arno!
Arno:
I am going, too. Get those little things for me, Mother, will you?
Mother: [Goes to door and calls.]
Amelia! Come. Arno has been called. [Amelia comes in. Each in turn embraces him, sadly, but bravely. Then the mother and sister gather together handkerchiefs, linen, writing-pad and pencil, and small necessaries.]
Arno:
I have only a few minutes.
Hedwig: [Tenderly.]
Arno, my little brother, oh, why—why must you go? You seem so young.
Arno:
I'm a man, like the others; don't forget that, Hedwig. Be brave—to help me to be brave.
[They sit on the settle.]
Hedwig: [Sighing.]
Yes, it cannot be helped. Will you see my Franz, Arno? You look so like him to-day—the day I first saw him in the fields, the day of the factory picnic. It seems long ago. Tell him how happy he made me, and how I loved him. He didn't believe in this war no more than I, yet he had to go. He dreaded lest he meet his friends on the other side. You remember those two young men from across the border? They worked all one winter side by side in the factory with Franz. They went home to join their regiments when the war was let loose on us. He never could stand it, Franz couldn't, if he were ordered to drive his bayonet into them. [Gets up, full of emotion that is past expression.] Oh, it is too monstrous! And for what—for what?
Arno:
It is our duty. We belong to the fatherland. I would willingly give my life for my country.
Hedwig:
I would willingly give mine for peace.
Arno:
I must go. Good-by, Hedwig.
Hedwig: [Controlling her emotion as she kisses him.]
Good-by, my brave, splendid little brother.
Amelia:
I may come to the front, too.
[They embrace tenderly.]
Mother: [Strong and quiet, unable to speak, holds his head against her breast for a moment.]
Fight well, my son.
Arno:
Yes, Mother.
[He tears himself away. The silent suffering of the mother is pitiful. Her hands are crossed on her breast, her lips are seen to move in prayer. It is Hedwig who takes her in her arms and comforts her.]
Hedwig:
And this is war—to tear our hearts out like this! Make mother some tea, Amelia, can't you?
[Amelia prepares the cup of tea for her mother.]
Mother: [After a few moments composes herself.]
There, I am right now. I must remember—and you must help me, my daughters—it is for the fatherland.
Hedwig: [On her knees by the fire, shakes her head slowly.]
I wonder, I wonder. O Mother, I'm not patient like you. I couldn't stand it. To have a darling little baby and see him grow into a man, and then lose him like this! I'd rather never see the face of my child.
Mother:
We have them for a little while. I am thankful to God for what I have had.
Hedwig:
Then I must be very wicked.
Mother:
Are you sleeping better now, child?
Hedwig:
No; I am thinking of Franz. He may be lying there alone on the battle-field, with none to help, and I here longing to put my arms around him.
[Buries her face on the mother's knees and sobs.]
Mother:
Hush, Hedwig! Be brave! Take care of yourself! We must see that Franz's child is well born.
Hedwig:
If Franz returns, yes; if not—I—
[Gets up impulsively, as if to run out of the house.]
Amelia:
Don't you want your tea, Hedwig?
[Hedwig throws open the door, and suddenly confronts a man who apparently was about to enter the house. He is an official, the military head of the town, known as Captain Hertz. He is well along in years, rheumatic, but tremendously self-important.]
Hertz: [Stopping Hedwig.]
Wait one moment. You are the young woman I wish to see. You don't get away from me like that.
Hedwig: [Drawing herself up, moves back a step or two.]
What is it?
Hertz: [Turning to the old mother.]
Well, Maria, another son must go—Arno. You are an honored woman, a noble example to the state. [Turns to Amelia.] You have lost a very good husband, I understand. Well, you are a foolish girl. As for you [Turning to Hedwig, and eyeing her critically and severely], I hear pretty bad things. Yes, you have been talking to the women—telling them not to marry, not to multiply. In so doing you are working directly against the Government. It is the express request and command that our soldiers about to be called to the front and our young women should marry. You deliberately set yourself in opposition to that command. Are you aware that that is treason?
Hedwig:
Why are they asking this, Herr Captain?
Hertz:
Our statesmen are wise. They are thinking of the future state. The nation is fast being depopulated. We must take precautionary measures. We must have men for the future. I warn you, that to do or say anything which subverts the plan of the empire for its own welfare, especially at a time when our national existence is in peril—well, it is treason. Were it not that you are the daughter-in-law of my old friend [Indicating the Mother], I should not take the trouble to warn you, but pack you off to jail at once. Not another word from you, you understand?
Hedwig: [Calmly, even sweetly, but with fire in her eye.]
If I say I will keep quiet, will you promise me something in return?
Hertz:
What do you mean? Quiet? Of course you'll keep quiet. Quiet as a tombstone, if I have anything to say about it.
Hedwig: [Calm and tense.]
I mean what I say. Promise to see to it that if we bear you the men for your nation, there shall be no more war. See to it that they shall not go forth to murder and be murdered. That is fair. We will do our part,—we always have,—will you do yours? Promise.
Hertz:
I—I—ridiculous! There will always be war.
Hedwig:
Then one day we will stop giving you men. Look at mother. Four sons torn from her in one month, and none of you ever asked her if she wanted war. You keep us here helpless. We don't want dreadnoughts and armies and fighting, we women. You tear our husbands, our sons, from us,—you never ask us to help you find a better way,—and haven't we anything to say?
Hertz:
No. War is man's business.
Hedwig:
Who gives you the men? We women. We bear and rear and agonize. Well, if we are fit for that, we are fit to have a voice in the fate of the men we bear. If we can bring forth the men for the nation, we can sit with you in your councils and shape the destiny of the nation, and say whether it is to war or peace we give the sons we bear.
Hertz: [Chuckling.]
Sit in the councils? That would be a joke. I see. Mother, she's a little—[Touches his forehead suggestively.] Sit in the councils with the men and shape the destiny of the nation! Ha! ha!
Hedwig:
Laugh, Herr Captain, but the day will come; and then there will be no more war. No, you will not always keep us here, dumb, silent drudges. We will find a way.
Hertz: [Turning to the mother.]
That is what comes of letting Franz go to a factory town, Maria. That is where he met this girl. Factory towns breed these ideas. [To Hedwig.] Well, we'll have none of that here. [Authoritatively.] Another word of this kind of insurrection, another word to the women of your treason, and you will be locked up and take your just punishment. You remember I had to look out for you in the beginning when you talked against this war. You're a firebrand, and you know how we handle the like of you. [Goes to door, turns to the mother.] I am sorry you have to have this trouble, Maria, on top of everything else. You don't deserve it. [To Hedwig.] You have been warned. Look out for yourself.
[Hedwig is standing rigid, with difficulty repressing the torrent of her feelings. Drums are heard coming nearer, and singing voices of men.]
Amelia: [At door.]
They are passing this way.
Hedwig:
Wave to Arno. Come, Mother. Ah, how quickly they go!
[The official steps out of the door. There is quick rhythm of marching feet as the departing regiment passes not very far from the house.]
There he is! Wave, Mother. Good-by! good-by!
[The women stand in the doorway, waving their sad farewells, smiling bravely. The sounds grow less and less, until there is the usual silence.]
In another month, in another week, perhaps, all the men will be gone. We will be a village of women. Not a man left.
[She leads the old mother into the house once more.]
Hertz: [In the door.]
What did you say?
Hedwig:
Not a man left, I said.
Hertz:
You forget. I shall be here.
Hedwig:
You are old. You don't count. They think you are only a woman, Herr Captain.
Hertz: [Insulted.]
You—you—
Hedwig:
Oh, don't take it badly, sir. You are honored. Is the name of woman always to be despised? Look out in those fields. Who cleared them, and plucked the vineyards clean? You think we are left at home because we are weak. Ah, no; we are strong. That is why. Strong to keep the world going, to keep sacred the greatest things in life—love and home and work. To remind men of—peace. [With a quick change.] If only you really were a woman, Herr Captain, that you might breed soldiers for the empire, your glory would be complete.
[The old captain is about to make an angry reply when there is a commotion outside. The words "News from the front" are distinguished, growing more distinct. The captain rushes out. The women are paralyzed with apprehension for a moment.]
Mother:
Amelia, go and see. Hedwig, come here.
[Hedwig crouches on the floor close to the mother, her eyes wide with dread. In a few moments Amelia returns, dragging her feet, woe in her face, and unable to deal the blow which must fall on the two women, who stare at her with blanched faces.]
Amelia: [Falling at her mother's knee.]
Mother!
Mother: [Scarcely breathing.]
Which one?
Amelia:
All of them.
Mother: [Dazed.]
All? All my boys?
Amelia:
Emil, Otto—be thankful Arno is left.
[The Mother drops her head back against the chair and silently prays. Hedwig creeps nearer Amelia and holds her face between her hands, looking into her eyes.]
Hedwig: [Whispering.]
Franz?
Amelia:
Franz, too.
