remember, we have a meeting this afternoon at five o'clock.

The Three Men: Yes--quite so--of course. (They go out to the right.)

Bernick (who has read the telegram): This is thoroughly American! Absolutely shocking!

Mrs. Bernick: Good gracious, Karsten, what is it?

Bernick: Look at this, Krap! Read it!

Krap (reading): "Do the least repairs possible. Send over 'Indian Girl' as soon as she is ready to sail; good time of year; at a pinch her cargo will keep her afloat." Well, I must say--

Rorlund: You see the state of things in these vaunted great communities!

Bernick: You are quite right; not a moment's consideration for human life, when it is a question of making a profit. (To KRAP:) Can the "Indian Girl" go to sea in four--or five--days?

Krap: Yes, if Mr. Vigeland will agree to our stopping work on the "Palm Tree" meanwhile.

Bernick: Hm--he won't. Well, be so good as to look through the letters. And look here, did you see Olaf down at the quay?

Krap: No, Mr. Bernick. (Goes into BERNICK'S room.)

Bernick (looking at the telegram again): These gentlemen think nothing of risking eight men's lives--

Hilmar: Well, it is a sailor's calling to brave the elements; it must be a fine tonic to the nerves to be like that, with only a thin plank between one and the abyss--

Bernick: I should like to see the ship-owner amongst us who would condescend to such a thing! There is not one that would do it--not a single one! (Sees OLAF coming up to the house.) Ah, thank Heaven, here he is, safe and sound. (OLAF, with a fishing-line in his hand, comes running up the garden and in through the verandah.)

Olaf: Uncle Hilmar, I have been down and seen the steamer.

Bernick: Have you been down to the quay again?

Olaf: No, I have only been out in a boat. But just think, Uncle Hilmar, a whole circus company has come on shore, with horses and animals; and there were such lots of passengers.

Mrs. Rummel: No, are we really to have a circus?

Rorlund: We? I certainly have no desire to see it.

Mrs. Rummel: No, of course I don't mean we, but--

Dina: I should like to see a circus very much.

Olaf: So should I.

Hilmar: You are a duffer. Is that anything to see? Mere tricks. No, it would be something quite different to see the Gaucho careering over the Pampas on his snorting mustang. But, Heaven help us, in these wretched little towns of ours.

Olaf (pulling at MARTHA'S dress): Look, Aunt Martha! Look, there they come!

Mrs. Holt: Good Lord, yes--here they come.

Mrs. Lynge: Ugh, what horrid people!

(A number of passengers and a whole crowd of townsfolk, are seen coming up the street.)

Mrs. Rummel: They are a set of mountebanks, certainly. Just look at that woman in the grey dress, Mrs. Holt--the one with a knapsack over her shoulder.

Mrs. Holt: Yes--look--she has slung it on the handle of her parasol. The manager's wife, I expect.

Mrs. Rummel: And there is the manager himself, no doubt. He looks a regular pirate. Don't look at him, Hilda!

Mrs. Holt: Nor you, Netta!

Olaf: Mother, the manager is bowing to us.

Bernick: What?

Mrs. Bernick: What are you saying, child?

Mrs. Rummel: Yes, and--good Heavens--the woman is bowing to us too.

Bernick: That is a little too cool--

Martha (exclaims involuntarily): Ah--!

Mrs. Bernick: What is it, Martha?

Martha: Nothing, nothing. I thought for a moment--

Olaf (shrieking with delight): Look, look, there are the rest of them, with the horses and animals! And there are the Americans, too! All the sailors from the "Indian Girl"! (The strains of "Yankee Doodle," played on a clarinet and a drum, are heard.)

Hilmar (stopping his ears): Ugh, ugh, ugh!

Rorlund: I think we ought to withdraw ourselves from sight a little, ladies; we have nothing to do with such goings on. Let us go to our work again.

Mrs. Bernick: Do you think we had better draw the curtains?

Rorlund: Yes, that was exactly what I meant.

(The ladies resume their places at the work-table; RORLUND shuts the verandah door, and draws the curtains over it and over the windows, so that the room becomes half dark.)

Olaf (peeping out through the curtains): Mother, the manager's wife is standing by the fountain now, washing her face.

Mrs. Bernick: What? In the middle of the marketplace?

Mrs. Rummel: And in broad daylight, too!

Hilmar: Well, I must say if I were travelling across a desert waste and found myself beside a well, I am sure I should not stop to think whether--. Ugh, that frightful clarinet!

Rorlund: It is really high time the police interfered.

Bernick: Oh no; we must not be too hard on foreigners. Of course these folk have none of the deep-seated instincts of decency which restrain us within proper bounds. Suppose they do behave outrageously, what does it concern us? Fortunately this spirit of disorder, that flies in the face of all that is customary and right, is absolutely a stranger to our community, if I may say so--. What is this! (LONA HESSEL walks briskly in from the door on the right.)

The Ladies (in low, frightened tones): The circus woman! The manager's wife!

Mrs. Bernick: Heavens, what does this mean?

Martha (jumping up): Ah--!

Lona: How do you do, Betty dear! How do you do, Martha! How do you do, brother-in-law!

Mrs. Bernick (with a cry): Lona--!

Bernick (stumbling backwards): As sure as I am alive--!

Mrs. Holt: Mercy on us--!

Mrs. Rummel: It cannot possibly be--!

Hilmar: Well! Ugh!

Mrs. Bernick: Lona--! Is it really--?

Lona: Really me? Yes, indeed it is; you may fall on my neck if you like.

Hilmar: Ugh, ugh!

Mrs. Bernick: And coming back here as--?

Mrs. Bernick: And actually mean to appear in--?

Lona: Appear? Appear in what?

Bernick: Well, I mean--in the circus--

Lona: Ha, ha, ha! Are you mad, brother-in-law? Do you think I belong to the circus troupe? No, certainly I have turned my hand to a good many things and made a fool of myself in a good many ways--

Mrs. Rummel: Hm!

Lona: But I have never tried circus riding.

Bernick: Then you are not--?

Mrs. Bernick: Thank Heaven!

Lona: No, we travelled like other respectable folk, second-class, certainly, but we are accustomed to that.

Mrs. Bernick: We, did you say?

Bernick (taking a step for-ward): Whom do you mean by "we"?

Lona: I and the child, of course.

The Ladies (with a cry): The child!

Hilmar: What?

Rorlund: I really must say--!

Mrs. Bernick: But what do you mean, Lona?

Lona: I mean John, of course; I have no other child, as far as I know, but John, or Johan as you used to call him.