_Hedwig:_
Not when my sister's happiness is at stake. If you come back, she will
have to live with you the rest of her life.
_Hoffman:_
That isn't the question now. We are going away--the best of us--to be
shot, most likely. Don't you suppose we want to send some part of
ourselves into the future, since we can't live ourselves? There, that's
straight; and right, too.
_Hedwig:_ [_Nodding slowly._]
What I said--to breed a soldier for the empire; to restock the land.
[_Fiercely._] And for what? For food for the next generation's cannon.
Oh, it is an insult to our womanhood! You violate all that makes
marriage sacred! [_Agitated, she walks about the room._] Are we women
never to get up out of the dust? You never asked us if we wanted this
war, yet you ask us to gather in the crops, cut the wood, keep the world
going, drudge and slave, and wait, and agonize, lose our all, and go on
bearing more men--and more--to be shot down! If we breed the men for
you, why don't you let us say what is to become of them? Do we want them
shot--the very breath of our life?
_Hoffman:_
It is for the fatherland.
_Hedwig:_
You use us, and use us--dolls, beasts of burden, and you expect us to
bear it forever dumbly; but I won't! I shall cry out till I die. And now
you say it almost out loud, "Go and breed for the empire." War brides!
Pah! [_Minna gasps, beginning to be terrified. Hoffman rages. Mother
gazes with anxious concern. Amelia turns pale._]
_Hoffman:_
I never would dream of speaking of Amelia like that. She is the sweetest
girl I have seen for many a day.
_Hedwig:_
What will happen to Amelia? Have you thought of that? No; I warrant you
haven't. Well, look. A few kisses and sweet words, the excitement of
the ceremony, the cheers of the crowd, some days of living together,--I
won't call it marriage, for Franz and I are the ones who know what real
marriage is, and how sacred it is,--then what? Before you know it, an
order to march. Amelia left to wait for her child. No husband to wait
with her, to watch over her. Think of her anxiety, if she learns to love
you! What kind of child will it be? Look at me. What kind of child would
_I_ have, do you think? I can hardly breathe for thinking of my Franz,
waiting, never knowing from minute to minute. From the way I feel, I
should think my child would be born mad, I'm that wild with worrying.
And then for Amelia to go through the agony alone! No husband to help
her through the terrible hour. What solace can the state give then? And
after that, if you don't come back, who is going to earn the bread for
her child? Struggle and struggle to feed herself and her child; and the
fine-sounding name you trick us with--war bride! Humph! that will all be
forgotten then. Only one thing can make it worth while, and do you know
what that is? Love. We'll struggle through fire and water for that; but
without it--[_Gesture._]
_Hoffman:_ [_Drawing Amelia to him._]
Don't listen to her, Amelia.
_Amelia:_ [_Pushing Hoffman violently from her, runs from the room._]
No, no, I can't marry you! I won't! I won't!
[_She shuts the door in his face._]
_Hedwig:_ [_Triumphantly._]
She will never be your war bride, Hans Hoffman!
_Hoffman:_ [_Suddenly, angrily._]
By thunder! I've made a discovery. You're the woman! You're the woman!
_Hedwig:_
What woman?
_Hoffman:_
Yesterday there were twenty war brides. The day before there were nearly
thirty. To-day there were only ten. There are rumors--[_Excitedly._]
I'll report you. They'll find you guilty. I myself can prove it.
_Hedwig:_
Well?
_Hoffman:_
I heard them say at the barracks that some one was talking the women out
of marrying. They 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:_