_] 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.
_Hoffman:_
That isn't the question now. We are going away--the best of us--to be
shot, most likely. Don't you suppose we want to send some part of
ourselves into the future, since we can't live ourselves? There, that's
straight; and right, too.
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