Minna: [Faintly.]

No.  Let me go.

Hedwig:

So!  And how long had Franz and I been engaged?  Now say.

Minna: [Beginning to be frightened.]

Two years.

Hedwig: [Flinging her off.]

Of course.  Everybody knows it.  Every village this side the river knew we were to be married this summer.  We’ve dreamed and worked for nothing else all these months.  It had nothing to do with the war—­our love, our marriage.  So, you see, I am no war bride. [Walks scornfully away.] Not like you, anyway.

[They all stare at her.]

Hoffman: [Stepping forward indignantly.]

I don’t know why you should have this contempt for our war brides, and speak like that.

Hedwig: [Sits down, half turned away.  She shrugs her shoulders, and her lips curl in a little smile.]

Hoffman:

They are coming to the rescue of their country.  Saving it; else it will perish.

Hedwig: [Bitterly.]

Ha!

Hoffman: [Waxing warmer.]

They are the saviors of the future.

Hedwig: [Sadly.]

The future!

Mother: [Softly, laying her hand on Hedwig’s shoulder.]

Hedwig, be more respectful.  Herr Hoffman is a lieutenant.

Hoffman:

When we are gone,—­the best of us,—­what will the country do if it has no children?

Hedwig:

Why didn’t you think of that before—­before you started this wicked war?

Hoffman:

I tell you it is a glory to be a war bride.  There!

Hedwig: [With a shrug.]

A breeding-machine! [They all draw back.] Why not call it what it is? 
Speak the naked truth for once.

Hoffman:

You’ll take that back to-morrow, when your sister stands up in the church with me.

Hedwig: [Starting up.]

Amelia?  Marry you?  No!  Amelia, is this true?

Amelia: [Hesitating, troubled, and uncertain.]

They tell me I must—­for the fatherland.

Hedwig:

Marry this man, whom you scarcely know, whom surely you cannot love!  Why, you make a mock of marriage!  It isn’t that they have tempted you with the widow’s pension?  It is so tiny; it’s next to nothing.  Surely you wouldn’t yield to that?

Amelia: [Frightened.]

I did want to go as a nurse, but the priests and the generals—­they say we must marry—­to—­for the fatherland, Hedwig.

Hoffman: [To Hedwig.]

I command you to be silent!

Hedwig:

Not when my sister’s happiness is at stake.  If you come back, she will have to live with you the rest of her life.