War Brides: A Play in One Act | Page 5

didn't know who; but they said if they caught her--caught any one talking as you have just now, daring to question the wisdom of the emperor and his generals, the church, too,--she'd be guilty of treason. You are working against the emperor, against the fatherland. Here you have done it right before my very eyes; you have taken Amelia right out of my arms. You're the woman who's been upsetting the others, and don't you deny it.
Hedwig:
Deny it? I am proud of it.
Hoffman:
Then the place for you is in jail. Do you know what will be the end of you?
Hedwig: [Suddenly far away.]
Yes, I know, if Franz does not come back. I know; but first [_Clenching her hands_] I must get my message to the emperor.
Hoffman: [Very angry.]
You will be shot for treason.
Hedwig: [Coming back, laughing slightly.]
Shot? Oh, no, Herr Hans, you'd never shoot me!
Hoffman:
Why not?
Hedwig:
Do I have to tell you, stupid? I am a woman: I can get in the crops; I can keep the country going while you are away fighting, and, most important, I might give you a soldier for your next army--for the kingdom. Don't you see my value? [Laughs strangely.] Oh, no, you'd never shoot me!
Mother:
There, there, don't excite her, sir.
Hedwig: [Her head in her hands, on the table.]
God! I wish you would shoot me! If you don't give me back my Franz! I've no mind to bring a son into the world for this bloody thing you call war.
Hoffman:
I am going straight to headquarters to report you.
[_Starts to go.
Enter Arno excitedly. He is boyish and fair, in his early twenties, and looks even younger than he really is._]
Arno: [To Hoffman.]
There's an order to march at once--your regiment.
Hoffman:
Now?
Arno:
At once. You are wanted. They told me to tell you.
[Illustration: ARNO: You are wanted.]
[_Hoffman moves with military precision to the door; then turns to Hedwig._]
Hoffman:
I shall take the time to report you.
[Goes.]
Minna: [To Arno.]
Does Heinrich's regiment go, too?
Arno:
Heinrich who?
Minna:
Heinrich Berg.
Arno:
No. To-morrow.
[_Minna, now thoroughly scared, is slinking to the door when Hedwig stops her._]
Hedwig:
Ha! little Minna, why do you run so fast? Heinrich does not go until to-morrow. [Looks at her thoughtfully.] Are you going to be able to fight it through, little Minna, when the hard days come? If you do give the empire a soldier, will it be any comfort to know you are helping the falling birth-rate?
Minna: [Shivering.]
Oh, I am afraid of you!
Hedwig:
Afraid of the truth, you mean. You see it at last in all its brutal bareness. Poor little Minna! [_She puts her arm around Minna with sudden tenderness._] But you need not be afraid of me, little Minna. Oh, no. The trouble with me is I want no more war. Franz is at the war. I'm half mad with dreaming they have killed him. Any moment I may hear. If you loved your man as I do mine, little Minna, you'd understand.' Well, go now, and to-morrow say good-by to your husband--of a day.
[_Minna, with a frightened backward glance, runs out the door.
Arno, who has been talking in low tones to his mother, now rises._]
Arno:
Well, Mother, I haven't much time.
[She clings to his hand.]
Hedwig: [Starting.]
Arno!
Arno:
I am going, too. Get those little things for me, Mother, will you?
Mother: [Goes to door and calls.]
Amelia! Come. Arno has been called. [_Amelia comes in. Each in turn embraces him, sadly, but bravely. Then the mother and sister gather together handkerchiefs, linen, writing-pad and pencil, and small necessaries._]
Arno:
I have only a few minutes.
Hedwig: [Tenderly.]
Arno, my little brother, oh, why--why must you go? You seem so young.
Arno:
I'm a man, like the others; don't forget that, Hedwig. Be brave--to help me to be brave.
[They sit on the settle.]
Hedwig: [Sighing.]
Yes, it cannot be helped. Will you see my Franz, Arno? You look so like him to-day--the day I first saw him in the fields, the day of the factory picnic. It seems long ago. Tell him how happy he made me, and how I loved him. He didn't believe in this war no more than I, yet he had to go. He dreaded lest he meet his friends on the other side. You remember those two young men from across the border? They worked all one winter side by side in the factory with Franz. They went home to join their regiments when the war was let loose on us. He never could stand it, Franz couldn't, if he were ordered to drive his bayonet into them. [Gets up, full of emotion that is past expression.] Oh, it is too monstrous! And for what--for what?
Arno:
It is our duty. We belong to the fatherland. I would willingly give my life for my country.
Hedwig:
I would willingly give mine for peace.
Arno:
I must go. Good-by, Hedwig.
Hedwig: [Controlling her emotion as she kisses him.]
Good-by, my brave, splendid little brother.
Amelia:
I may come to the front, too.
[They embrace