ushing to the door and guarding it]. No, no, they must not
take you. I shall defend you, Eleonora.

ELEONORA. That's very beautiful, Benjamin, but you mustn't do that.

BENJAMIN [Looking thro' curtain]. There are two of them. [Eleonora tries
to push Benjamin aside. He protests mildly.] No, no, not you, then--I
don't want to live any longer.

ELEONORA. Benjamin, go and sit down in that chair, child, sit down.

[Benjamin obeys much against his will.]

ELEONORA [Peeps thro' curtain]. Oh! [Laughs.] It's only some boys. Oh,
we doubters! Do you think that God would be angry, when I didn't do any
harm, only acted thoughtlessly? It served me right--I shouldn't have
doubted.

BENJAMIN. But tomorrow that man will come and take the things.

ELEONORA. Let him come. Then we'll go out under the sky, away from
everything--away from all the old home things that father gathered for
us, that I have seen since I was a child. Yes, one should never own
anything that ties one down to earth. Out, out on the stony ways to
wander with bruised feet, for that road leads upward. That's why it's
the hard road.

BENJAMIN. Now you are so serious again!

ELEONORA. We must be today. But do you know what will be hardest to part
with? This dear old clock. We had it when I was born and it has measured
out all my hours and days. [She takes the clock from table.] Listen,
it's like a heart beating,--just like a heart.--They say it stopped
the very hour that grandfather died. We had it as long ago as that.
Good-bye, little timekeeper, perhaps you'll stop again soon. [Putting
clock on table again.] Do you know, it used to gain time when we had
misfortune in the house, as tho' it wished to hasten thro' the hours
of evil, for our sake of course. But when we were happy it used to slow
down so that we might enjoy longer. That's what this good clock did. But
we have another, a very bad one--and now it has to hang in the kitchen.
It couldn't bear music, and as soon as Elis would play on the piano it
would start to strike. Oh, you needn't smile; we all noticed it, not I
alone, and that's why it has to stay out in the kitchen now, because it
wouldn't behave. But Lina doesn't like it either, because it won't be
quiet at night, and she cannot time eggs by it. When she does, the
eggs are sure to be hard-boiled--so Lina says. But now you are laughing
again.

BENJAMIN. Yes, how can I help--

ELEONORA. You are a good boy, Benjamin, but you must be serious. Keep