he confessed? And you, Elis--are you sane when you can't see that
Christine loves you, when you believe that she hates you?

ELIS. How can I be in the wrong? Didn't she go out with my false friend
last night?

MRS. HEYST. She did, but you knew about it. Why did she go? Well, you
should be able to divine the reason.

ELIS. No. I cannot.

MRS. HEYST. You will not. Very well, then you must take the
consequences.

[The kitchen door opens a little and Lina's hand is seen with evening
paper. Mrs. Heyst takes paper and gives it to Elis.]

ELIS. That was the last misfortune. With Christine. I could carry the
other burdens, but now the last support has been pulled away and I am
falling.

MRS. HEYST. Well, fall then--but land right side up, and then you can
start again. Any news worth reading in the paper?

ELIS. I don't know. I am afraid to look at it today.

MRS. HEYST. Give it to me, then. I am not--

ELIS. No, wait a moment--

MRS. HEYST. What are you afraid of?

ELIS. The worst of all.

MRS. HEYST. The worst has happened so many times that it doesn't matter.
Oh, my boy, if you knew my life--if you could have seen your father go
down to destruction, as I did, and I couldn't warn all those to whom he
brought misfortune! I felt like his accomplice when he went down--for,
in a way, I knew of the crime, and if the judge hadn't been a man of
great feeling, who realized my position as a wife and mother, I too
would have been punished.

ELIS. What was really the cause of father's fall? I have never been able
to understand.

MRS. HEYST. Pride--pride. Which brings us all down.

ELIS. But why should the innocent suffer for _his_ wrong-doing?

MRS. HEYST. Hush. No more. [She takes paper and reads. Elis walks up and
down, worried and nervous.] Ah, what's this? Didn't I say that there was
a yellow tulip among the things stolen at the florist's?

ELIS. Yes, I remember.

MRS. HEYST. But here it says that it was an Easter lily.

ELIS [With fear]. An Easter lily? Does it say that?

[They look at each other. A long pause.]

MRS. HEYST [Sinking into a chair]. It's Eleonora. Oh, God keep us!

ELIS. It wasn't the end then.

MRS. HEYST. Prison or the asylum--

ELIS. But it's impossible. She couldn't have done this. Impossible!

MRS. HEYST. And now the family name must be dragged in disgrace again.

ELIS. Do they suspect her?

MRS. HEYST. They say that suspicion leads in a certain direction--it's
pretty plain w