[With growing excitement.] Who? Old Bernd?
AUGUST
No; Mr. Flamm.
MRS. FLAMM
Was my husband examined too? What did he have to do with the affair?
AUGUST
Yes, he was examined too.
MRS. FLAMM
[Deeply affected.] Is that so? That's news to me! I didn't know about that. Nor that Christie went to see old Bernd!… I wonder where my smellin' bottle is?—No, August, you might as well go home now. I'm a bit … I don't know what to call it! An' any special advice I can't give you, the way it all turns out. There's something that's gone through an' through me. Go home an' wait to see how everything goes. But if you love the lass truly, then … look at me: I could tell you a tale! If a body is made that way: whether 'tis a man that the women run after, or a woman that all the men are mad about—then there's nothin' to do but just to suffer an' suffer and be patient!—I've lived that way twelve long years. [She pats her hand to her eyes and peers through her fingers.] An' if I want to see things at all, I have to see them from behind my hands.