toward kitchen]. In the kitchen.

ELIS [Quietly and closing his eyes]. I hear the spring! I can tell that
the double windows are off, I hear the wheel hubs so plainly. And what's
that?--a robin chirping out in the orchard, and they are hammering down
at the docks and I can smell the fresh paint on the steamers.

CHRISTINE. Can you feel all that--here in town?

ELIS. Here? It's true we are _here_, but I was up there, in the North,
where our home lies. Oh, how did we ever get into this dreadful city
where the people all hate each other and where one is always alone? Yes,
it was our daily bread that led the way, but with the bread came the
misfortunes: father's criminal act and little sister's illness. Tell me,
do you know whether mother has ever been to see father since he's been
in prison?

CHRISTINE. Why, I think she's been there this very day.

ELIS. What did she have to say about it?

CHRISTINE. Nothing--she wouldn't talk about it.

ELIS. Well, one thing at least has been gained, and that is the quiet
that followed the verdict after the newspapers had gorged themselves
with the details. One year is over: and then we can make a fresh start.

CHRISTINE. I admire your patience in this suffering.

ELIS. Don't. Don't admire anything about me. I am full of faults--you
know it.

CHRISTINE. If you were only suffering for your own faults--but to be
suffering for another!

ELIS. What are you sewing on?

CHRISTINE. Curtains for the kitchen, you dear.

ELIS. It looks like a bridal veil. This fall you will be my bride, won't
you, Christine?

CHRISTINE. Yes--but--let's think of summer first.

ELIS. Yes, summer! [Takes out the check book.] You see the money is
already in the bank, and when school is over we will start for the
North, for our home land among the lakes. The cottage stands there just
as it did when we were children, and the linden trees. Oh, that it were
summer already and I could go swimming in the lake! I feel as if this
family dishonor has besmirched me so that I long to bathe, body and
soul, in the clear lake waters.

CHRISTINE. Have you heard anything from Eleonora?

ELIS. Yes--poor little sister! She writes me letters that tear my heart
to pieces. She wants to get out of the asylum--and home, of course. But
the doctor daren't let her go. She would do things that might lead
to prison, he says. Do you know, I feel terribly conscience-stricken
sometimes--

CHRISTINE [Starting]. Why?

ELIS. B