Hedwig creeps nearer Amelia and holds her face between her hands,
looking into her eyes._]
_Hedwig:_ [_Whispering._]
Franz?
_Amelia:_
Franz, too.
[Illustration: HEDWIG: Franz?
AMELIA: Franz, too.]
[_Hedwig lies prostrate on the floor. Their grief is very silent;
terrible because it is so dumb and stoical. The Mother is the first to
rouse herself. She bends over Hedwig._]
_Mother:_
Hedwig. [_Hedwig sobs convulsively._] Don't, child. Be careful for the
little one's sake. [_Hedwig sits up._] For your child be quiet, be
brave.
_Hedwig:_
I loved him so, Mother!
_Mother:_
Yes, he was my boy--my first-born.
_Hedwig:_
Your first-born, and this is the end.
[_She rises up in unutterable wrath and despair._]
O God!
_Mother:_ [_Anxious for her._]
Promise me you will be careful, Hedwig. For the sake of your child,
_your_ first-born, that is to be--
_Hedwig:_
_My child_? For this end? For the empire--the war that is to be? No!
_Mother:_ [_Half to herself._]
He may look like Franz.
[_Hedwig quickly seizes the pistol from the mantel-shelf and moves to
the bedroom door._
_Amelia, watching her, sees her do it, and cries out in alarm and
rushes to take it from her.
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