S. HEYST. No. I shall stay and tell him a few things.

ELIS. Dear, dear mother, you must go in or it will be too painful.

MRS. HEYST [Rising, with scorn]. Oh, may the day that I was born be
forgotten--

CHRISTINE. Don't blaspheme, mother.

MRS. HEYST. Should not the lost have this trouble rather than that the
worthy should suffer torture?

ELIS. Mother!

MRS. HEYST. Oh, God! Why have you forsaken me and my children? [Goes out
L.]

ELIS. Oh--do you know that mother's indifference and submission torture
me more than her wrath?

CHRISTINE. Her submission is only pretended or make-believe. There was
something of the roar of the lioness in her last words. Did you notice
how big she became?

ELIS [At window, listening]. He has stopped--perhaps he thinks the time
ill-chosen.--But that can't be it--he who could write such terrible
letters,--and always on that blue paper! I can't look at a blue paper
now without trembling.

CHRISTINE. What will you tell him--what do you mean to propose?

ELIS. I don't know. I have lost all my reasoning powers.--Shall I
fall on my knees to him and beg mercy--can you hear him? I can't hear
anything but the blood beating in my ears.

CHRISTINE. Let us face the worst calmly--he will take everything and--

ELIS. Then the landlord will come and ask for some other security, which
I cannot furnish.--He will demand security, when the furniture is no
longer here to assure him of the rent.

CHRISTINE [Peeking through the curtain]. He isn't there now.--He is
gone!

ELIS [Rushing to window]. He's gone?--Do you know, now that I think of
Lindkvist, I see him as a good-natured giant who only scares children.
How could I have come to think that?

CHRISTINE. Oh, thoughts come and go--

ELIS. How lucky that I was not at that dinner yesterday--I would surely
have made a speech against the Governor, and so I would have spoiled
everything for us.

CHRISTINE. Do you realize that now?

ELIS. Thanks for your advice, Christine. You knew your Peter.

CHRISTINE. My Peter?--

ELIS. I meant--my Peter.--But--look--he is here again, woe unto us!

[One can see the shadow of Lindkvist on the curtain, who is nearing
slowly. The shadow gets larger and larger, until it is giant-like. They
stand in fear and tremble.]

ELIS. Look,--the giant--the giant that wants to swallow us.

CHRISTINE. Now it's time to laugh, as when reading fairy-tales.

ELIS. I can't laugh any more.

[The shadow slowly disapp