There’s an order to march at once—­your regiment.

Hoffman:

Now?

Arno:

At once.  You are wanted.  They told me to tell you.

[Illustration:  ARNO:  You are wanted.]

[Hoffman moves with military precision to the door; then turns to Hedwig.]

Hoffman:

I shall take the time to report you.

[Goes.]

Minna: [To Arno.]

Does Heinrich’s regiment go, too?

Arno:

Heinrich who?

Minna:

Heinrich Berg.

Arno:

No.  To-morrow.

[Minna, now thoroughly scared, is slinking to the door when Hedwig stops her.]

Hedwig:

Ha! little Minna, why do you run so fast?  Heinrich does not go until to-morrow. [Looks at her thoughtfully.] Are you going to be able to fight it through, little Minna, when the hard days come?  If you do give the empire a soldier, will it be any comfort to know you are helping the falling birth-rate?

Minna: [Shivering.]

Oh, I am afraid of you!

Hedwig:

Afraid of the truth, you mean.  You see it at last in all its brutal bareness.  Poor little Minna! [She puts her arm around Minna with sudden tenderness.] But you need not be afraid of me, little Minna.  Oh, no.  The trouble with me is I want no more war.  Franz is at the war.  I’m half mad with dreaming they have killed him.  Any moment I may hear.  If you loved your man as I do mine, little Minna, you’d understand.’  Well, go now, and to-morrow say good-by to your husband—­of a day.

[Minna, with a frightened backward glance, runs out the door.

Arno, who has been talking in low tones to his mother, now rises._]

Arno:

Well, Mother, I haven’t much time.

[She clings to his hand.]

Hedwig: [Starting.]

Arno!

Arno:

I am going, too.  Get those little things for me, Mother, will you?

Mother: [Goes to door and calls.]

Amelia!  Come.  Arno has been called. [Amelia comes in.  Each in turn embraces him, sadly, but bravely.  Then the mother and sister gather together handkerchiefs, linen, writing-pad and pencil, and small necessaries.]

Arno:

I have only a few minutes.

Hedwig: [Tenderly.]

Arno, my little brother, oh, why—­why must you go?  You seem so young.

Arno:

I’m a man, like the others; don’t forget that, Hedwig.  Be brave—­to help me to be brave.

[They sit on the settle.]

Hedwig: [Sighing.]