A chair of soft mood stands with its back
against the bed.--It is winter and moonlight. On the oven a
tallow-candle is burning in a candle-stick of tin. LEONTINE WOLFF has
fallen asleep on a stool by the oven and rests her head and arms on
it. She is a pretty, fair girl of seventeen in the working garb of a
domestic servant. A woolen shawl is tied over her cotton jacket.--For
several seconds there is silence. Then someone is heard trying to
unlock the door from without. But the key is in the lock and a
knocking follows._
MRS. WOLFF
[_Unseen, from without._] Adelaide! Adelaide! [_There is no answer and a
loud knocking is heard at the window._] Are you goin' to open or not?
LEONTINE
[_Drowsily._] No, no, I'm not goin' to be abused that way!
MRS. WOLFF
Open, girl, or I'll come in through the window!
[_She raps violently at the panes._
LEONTINE
[_Waking up._] Oh, it's you, mama! I'm coming now!
[_She unlocks the door from within._
MRS. WOLFF
[_Without laying down a sack which she carries over her shoulder._] What
are _you_ doin' here?
LEONTINE
[_Sleepily._] Evenin', mama.
MRS. WOLFF
How did you get in here, eh?
LEONTINE
Well, wasn't the key lyin' on the goat shed?
MRS.
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