BERND
[Who has been listening a little, arises and frees MARTHEL'S wrist from ROSE'S grasp.] Don't poison the little lass's mind. Take your hand away!—March off to bed! [MARTHEL goes weeping.] A man would like to be deaf, to be blind! A man'd like to be dead.
[He becomes absorbed again in his Bible.
ROSE Father!—I'm alive!—I'm sittin' here!—That's somethin'!—Yes, that's something when you considers!—I think, father, you might understand that! This is a world …! Nobody can never do nothin' more to me! O Jesus, my Saviour—! All o' you, all o' you—you live together in a bit o' chamber an' you don't know what goes on outside in the world! I know it now … I've learned it in bitterness an' wailin'! I had to get out o' that little chamber! An' then—somehow—the walls gave way, one wall an' another … an' there I stood, outside, in the storm … an' there—was nothin' under me an' nothin' above me … nothin'. You're all like children compared to me.
AUGUST
[Frightened.] But, Rose, if it's true what Streckmann says, then you've committed perjury!…
ROSE
[Laughing bitterly.] I don't know. 'Tis possible … I can't just remember this moment. The world is made up o' lies an' deception.
BERND
[Sighs.] O God … my refuge evermore.