GLASENAPP, Clerk in the Justice's court.
MITTELDORF, Constable.
Scene of the action: anywhere in the neighbourhood of Berlin.
THE FIRST ACT
A small, blue-tinted kitchen with low ceiling; a window at the left; at the right a door of rough boards leading out into the open; in the rear mall an empty casing from which the door has been lifted.—In the left corner a flat oven, above which hang kitchen utensils in a wooden frame; in the right corner oars and other boating implements. Rough, stubby pieces of hewn wood lie in a heap under the window. An old kitchen bench, several stools, etc.—Through the empty casing in the rear a second room is visible. In it stands a high, neatly, made bed; above it hang cheap photographs in still cheaper frames, small chromolithographs, etc. A chair of soft mood stands with its back against the bed.—It is winter and moonlight. On the oven a tallow-candle is burning in a candle-stick of tin. LEONTINE WOLFF has fallen asleep on a stool by the oven and rests her head and arms on it. She is a pretty, fair girl of seventeen in the working garb of a domestic servant. A woolen shawl is tied over her cotton jacket.—For several seconds there is silence. Then someone is heard trying to unlock the door from without. But the key is in the lock and a knocking follows.
MRS. WOLFF
[Unseen, from without.] Adelaide! Adelaide! [There is no answer and a loud knocking is heard at the window.] Are you goin' to open or not?
LEONTINE
[Drowsily.] No, no, I'm not goin' to be abused that way!