NEIGHBOUR. That's a secret to all of us. But it is sweet of you to ask for him before you ask for your own Adolph.
AMELIA. Adolph—yes, where is he? The children are crying for him, and Christmas is near.—Oh, what a Christmas this will be to us!
NEIGHBOUR. Leave to each day its own trouble—and now take your Christmas present and go. The affairs connected with the auction are to be settled, and then you'll hear news.
AMELIA. [Takes the portrait of her mother] I go, but no longer alone—and I have a feeling that something good is about to happen, but what I cannot tell.
[She goes out to the right.
NEIGHBOUR. But I know! Yet you had better go, for what is about to happen here should not be seen by children.
He opens the door in the rear and rings a bell to summon the people to the auction. The people enter in the following order: THE POOR, a large number of them; the SAILOR; the CHIMNEY-SWEEP; the NEIGHBOUR, who takes his place in front of the rest; the WIDOW and the FATHERLESS CHILDREN; the SURVEYOR; THE OTHER ONE, carrying the auctioneer's hammer and a pile of documents.
THE OTHER ONE. [Takes his place at the table and raps with the hammer] At a compulsory auction held at the court-house for the disposal of property left by the late circuit judge, the items now to be described were bid in by the Court on behalf of absent creditors, and may now be obtained and taken away by their respective owners.
JUDGE. [Enters, looking very aged and miserable] In the name of the law—hold!
THE OTHER ONE. [Pretends to throw something at the JUDGE, who stands aghast and speechless] Don't speak of the law! Here the Gospel is preached—but not for you, who wanted to buy heaven with stolen money.—First: the widow and her fatherless children. There is the silver set which the judge accepted from you for his false report as executor. In his stained hands the silver has turned black, but I hope that in yours it will once more turn white.—Then we come to the ward, who had to become a chimney-sweep, after being cheated out of his inheritance. Here are the receipted bills and the property due to you from your guardian. And you need not thank him for his accounting.—Here stands the surveyor who, although he was innocent, had to serve two years in prison because he had made an illegal partition—the maps handed to him for the purpose having been falsified in advance. What can you do for him, Judge? Can you undo what has happened, or restore his lost honour?