Don’t listen to her, Amelia.

Amelia: [Pushing Hoffman violently from her, runs from the room.]

No, no, I can’t marry you!  I won’t!  I won’t!

[She shuts the door in his face.]

Hedwig: [Triumphantly.]

She will never be your war bride, Hans Hoffman!

Hoffman: [Suddenly, angrily.]

By thunder!  I’ve made a discovery.  You’re the woman!  You’re the woman!

Hedwig:

What woman?

Hoffman:

Yesterday there were twenty war brides.  The day before there were nearly thirty.  To-day there were only ten.  There are rumors—­[Excitedly.] I’ll report you.  They’ll find you guilty.  I myself can prove it.

Hedwig:

Well?

Hoffman:

I heard them say at the barracks that some one was talking the women out of marrying.  They didn’t know who; but they said if they caught her—­caught any one talking as you have just now, daring to question the wisdom of the emperor and his generals, the church, too,—­she’d be guilty of treason.  You are working against the emperor, against the fatherland.  Here you have done it right before my very eyes; you have taken Amelia right out of my arms.  You’re the woman who’s been upsetting the others, and don’t you deny it.

Hedwig:

Deny it?  I am proud of it.

Hoffman:

Then the place for you is in jail.  Do you know what will be the end of you?

Hedwig: [Suddenly far away.]

Yes, I know, if Franz does not come back.  I know; but first [Clenching her hands] I must get my message to the emperor.

Hoffman: [Very angry.]

You will be shot for treason.

Hedwig: [Coming back, laughing slightly.]

Shot?  Oh, no, Herr Hans, you’d never shoot me!

Hoffman:

Why not?

Hedwig:

Do I have to tell you, stupid?  I am a woman:  I can get in the crops; I can keep the country going while you are away fighting, and, most important, I might give you a soldier for your next army—­for the kingdom.  Don’t you see my value? [Laughs strangely.] Oh, no, you’d never shoot me!

Mother:

There, there, don’t excite her, sir.

Hedwig: [Her head in her hands, on the table.]

God!  I wish you would shoot me!  If you don’t give me back my Franz!  I’ve no mind to bring a son into the world for this bloody thing you call war.

Hoffman:

I am going straight to headquarters to report you.

[Starts to go.

Enter Arno excitedly.  He is boyish and fair, in his early twenties, and looks even younger than he really is._]

Arno: [To Hoffman.]