H-m! Miners.
HELEN
Some are going to the mine, some are coming from the mine: all day, all day … At least, I seem always to see them. Do you suppose I even care to go into the street alone? At most I slip through the back gate out into the fields. And they are such a rough set! The way they stare at one—so menacing and morose as if one were actually guilty of some crime. Sometimes, in winter, when we go sleighing, they come in the darkness, in great gangs, over the hills, through the storm, and, instead of making way, they walk stubbornly in front of the horses. Then, sometimes the farmers use the handles of their whips; it's the only way they can get through. And then the miners curse behind us. Ugh! I've been so terribly frightened sometimes!
LOTH
And isn't it strange that I have come here for the sake of these very people of whom you are so much afraid.
HELEN
Oh, surely not….
LOTH
Quite seriously. These people interest me more than any one else here.