HORNIG
I must be off now too.
[He goes, is seen talking to the people in the entry-room before he leaves the house.
SURGEON SCHMIDT
[A jerky little ball of a man, with a red, knowing face, comes into the entry-room.] Good-morning, all! These are fine goings on! Take care! take care! [Threatening with his finger.] You're a sly lot—that's what you are. [At HILSE'S door without coming in.] Morning, father Hilse. [To a woman in the outer room.] And how are the pains, mother? Better, eh? Well, well. And how's all with you, father Hilse? [Enters.] Why the deuce! what's the matter with mother?
LUISE
It's the eye veins, sir—they've dried up, so as she can't see at all now.
SURGEON SCHMIDT
That's from the dust and weaving by candlelight. Will you tell me what it means that all Peterswaldau's on the way here? I set off on my rounds this morning as usual, thinking no harm; but it wasn't long till I had my eyes opened. Strange doings these! What in the devil's name has taken possession of them, Hilse? They're like a pack of raging wolves. Riot—why, it's revolution! they're getting refractory—plundering and laying waste right and left … Mielchen! where's Mielchen? [MIELCHEN, her face red with crying, is pushed in by her mother.] Here, Mielchen, put your hand into my coat pocket. [MIELCHEN does so.] The ginger-bread nuts are for you. Not all at once, though, you baggage! And a song first! The fox jumped up on a … come, now … The fox jumped up … on a moonlight … Mind, I've heard what you did. You called the sparrows on the churchyard hedge a nasty name, and they're gone and told the pastor. Did any one ever hear the like? Fifteen hundred of them agog—men, women, and children. [Distant bells are heard.] That's at Reichenbach— alarm-bells! Fifteen hundred people! Uncomfortably like the world coming to an end!