[Sits down and drinks.]

SOPHY.

The night is advancing further and further, and Andrew does not come. 
And with such talk one becomes doubly frightened.  If you went to
Robert—­

MARY.

To Robert?  What, in the world, are you thinking of, mother?

SOPHY.

That it is God’s finger—­that letter of Robert’s.

MARY.

I am to go to Robert?  Now?  To the Dell?

SOPHY.

What is to prevent it?  You are not afraid.

MARY.

The idea of being afraid!

[Proudly.]

Ulrich’s daughter!

SOPHY.

How often have you not been out at a more advanced hour of the night!

MARY.

But then father knew it.  If I have father’s permission and yours, I know that an angel stands behind every tree.  And father said:  “If I am mistaken in Mary”—­

SOPHY.

I cannot slip away, without his noticing it, as well as you can.  The matter might still have taken a favorable turn, but it was not to be.  And your dream?  You felt so light, the sky became so blue—­you see, in the Dell by the spring under the willows, there the sorrow that weighs on you and on us all is to end.

MARY (shaking her head).

Do you really think so, mother?

SOPHY.

If you would go.  We might then remain with father, Robert would try once more to persuade his father, uncle Wilkens also would yield, and when you wear the bridal wreath a second time it would be even more becoming to you.

MARY.

I am to deceive my father, mother?  In that case I believe no good could ever come to me again in this world.

SOPHY.

You would have the satisfaction of knowing that you went for his sake.  Perhaps if, tomorrow, he must go forth into misery, or if they confine him in the tower, or if something still worse happens—­

MARY.

To father?

SOPHY.

Yes.  Then you will think, perhaps too late:  “Had I only gone!”

MARY.

But mother, if I were in the forest, and father should meet me?  Or if he should find us together?

SOPHY.

We must ask him, whether he is going to stay home.

MARY.

I cannot look at him without feeling as if my heart were bursting.

SOPHY.

Ask him on account of the soup.

MARY.

I shall ask him at once.

[She approaches the FORESTER timidly, stands next to him without his noticing her.]

SOPHY (encouraging her).

Don’t be a child.

MARY (softly).

Father!

[She bends over him, beside herself with pity.]

Father, poor father!

[Is going to embrace him.]

FORESTER (looking about, roughly).