Page:Poet Lore, volume 31, 1920.djvu/551

Rh Mrs. Rettig.—Lenka dear, you are not listening.

Lenka (Looks up quickly, is silent for a moment; then, hesitatingly).—Madam, did he really believe you?

Mrs. Rettig.—The retainer? Just as I told you: he came to me before the picnic, and I explained to him—

Lenka.—He isn't here in the grove.

Mrs. Rettig (Smiling).—I have been looking around. (Sympathetically.) After all, you expected him.

Lenka (Frightened).—Perhaps he has already gone.—

Mrs. Rettig.—No, he has not gone; and I am going to have another talk with him today. (Goes to the right among the trees and looks out.)

Lenka (Alarmed).—The doctor already—

Mrs. Rettig.—No, it was not he. (Comes back under the oak.) But I must go look for him, that he may not search for us long and vainly. You wait here, Lenka dear.

A hunter's horn is heard at the rear, in the distance. Ah, do you hear? (Listens.) How beautiful! (At the right is heard a fanfare, but more dimly, like an echo.) How beautiful!

Lenka.—But how sad!

Mrs. Rettig (Strokes her softly).—You are remembering, my darling. And you will not cease to do so. Many times will you remember the past, and may it be without regret! You will remember, and—I should be glad to be a false prophet—you will be still more sad, your heart will be even heavier, without comfort and without—hope! And not yourself only, not your heart alone, but another's too, which you have so grievously wounded. Ah, Lenka dear, you did not stop to consider; you are stifling the voice of your heart. Hearken to it, hearken to it, that you may not be unhappy for all your life, not only you and the retainer, but also—the doctor—! (She walks off towards the left. She stands and waits a moment, but when Lenka fails to speak, she goes out on the left in the foreground. has been listening with bowed head. She glances after  as she goes off, and suddenly buries her face in her hands.)

and put out their heads, but immediately disappear when they spy. comes in cautiously from the right, but when he sees he cannot