[Approaching.] The madame is willing to increase your wages, if you…. [Whispering suddenly.] What d'ye care, girl! She just gits kinder rough now an' then.
MARIE
[Furiously.] She c'n keep her dirty money to herself!—[Tearfully.] I'd rather starve! [She follows GOLISCH, who has preceded her with the wheelbarrow.] Naw, just to think of it!—It's enough to make you….
[She disappears, as does MRS. SPILLER.
Through the great gate comes BAER called HOPPING BAER. He is a lank fellow with a vulture's neck and goitre. His feet and head are bare. His breeches, badly ravelled at the bottom, scarcely reach below the knee. The top of his head is bald. Such hair as he has, brown, dusty, and clotted, hangs down over his shoulders. His gait is ostrich-like. By a cord he draws behind him a child's toy waggon full of sand. His face is beardless. His whole appearance shows him to be a god-forsaken peasant lad in the twenties.
BAER
[With a strangely bleating voice.] Sa—a—and! Sa—a—and!
He crosses the yard and disappears between the house and the stables. HOFFMANN and HELEN come from the house. HELEN is pale and carries an empty glass in her hand.
HOFFMANN
[To HELEN.] Entertain him a bit! You understand? Don't let him go. I should hate to have him.—Injured vanity like that!… Good-bye!… Oh, maybe I oughtn't to go at all? How is Martha doing?—I've got a queer kind of feeling as if pretty soon…. Nonsense!—Good-bye! … awful hurry!… [Calls out.] Franz! Give the horses their heads!