oughtful. {473} At last he bids her
farewell with a kiss and departs without having looked at any of the
other girls.

The second act takes place a year later. The scene is laid in the
Rodelbauer's court-yard. Johannes has come once more to the village
with his parents, who press him to make up his mind and to choose a
wife at last. Krappenzacher, in whose house they live promises to let
him see the right bride, and goes to prepare Rosel for the coming of
the rich suitor. He advises her to take off her finery and to appear
as a practical and capable peasant girl, and Rosel promises to comply
with his wishes.

A little later Amrei arrives with her brother Dami. He is decorated
with the iron cross, but he wears his arm in a sling. His sister has
brought him home from the battle field in order to nurse him; she has
caught cold herself, so that her whole face is bound up in a woolen
shawl. Rosel, reappearing in a simple working-dress greets her old
lover, but Dami speaks very bitterly, when he hears that she is to
marry a rich peasant, and he leaves her in scorn and wrath, while Rosel
goes to the stable to milk the cows.

Johannes, coming into the court-yard finds only Amrei, who is sweetly
singing the second part to Rosel's song, heard from the stable. Amrei
recognizes him at once, but he does not recognize his fair partner in
the simple servant, whose face is disfigured by the bandage. Desirous
to know something about the girl he is to wed, he asks {474} Amrei, if
she leads a hard life in the house and if Rosel is good to her. She
answers in the affirmative, and so he lets himself be led to the stable
by the old Rodelbauer under the pretext of inspecting a white horse,
but in reality to look at the girl. Meanwhile Rosel comes out tired of
her unaccustomed work.

She wavers between her desire to get a rich husband and her love for
Dami. The appearance of Amrei, who comes out of the house in her
Sunday dress excites her wrath. Notwithstanding Amrei's resistance she
wrenches the garnet-necklace from her throat and beats her. The girl's
screams bring out all the neighbours including Johannes, who, pulling
Rosel back from the weeping girl, recognizes his partner of the year
before.

Forgetting everything but his love, which has only grown deeper in the
interval, he strains her to his heart.

The Rodelbauer turning to his sister is about to beat her, but Dami
intervenes and Rosel, quite ashamed of herself