ends? [Taking his hand.]

AXEL. I am not, at least.--Let go of my hand, or I will believe that you
wish to seduce me again. [Bertha goes toward door.]

AXEL [With a sigh of relief]. Pleasant comrades! Oh!

[The maid enters from the orchard.]

MAID [To Axel]. There is it lady waiting for you.

AXEL. I'll soon be free.

BERTHA. Is that the new comrade?

AXEL. No, not comrade, but sweetheart.

BERTHA. And your wife to be?

AXEL, Perhaps. Because I want to meet, my comrades at the cafe, but at
home I want a wife. [Starts as if to go.] Pardon me!

BERTHA. Farewell, then! Are we never to meet again?

AXEL. Yes, of course! But at the cafe. Good-bye!

CURTAIN.

*****

FACING DEATH

CHARACTERS

MONSIEUR DURAND, a pension proprietor, formerly connected with the
state railroad
ADELE, his daughter, twenty-seven
ANNETTE, his daughter, twenty-four
THERESE, his daughter, twenty-four
ANTONIO, a lieutenant in an Italian cavalry regiment in French
Switzerland in the eighties
PIERRE, an errand boy

[SCENE--A dining-room with a long table. Through the open door is seen,
over the tops of churchyard cypress trees, Lake Leman, with the Savoy
Alps and the French bathing-resort Evian. To left is a door to the
kitchen. To right a door to inner rooms. Monsieur Durand stands in
doorway looking over the lake with a pair of field glasses.]

ADELE [Comes in from kitchen wearing apron and turned-up sleeves.
She carries a tray with coffee things]. Haven't you been for the
coffee-bread, father?

DURAND. No, I sent Pierre. My chest has been bad for the last few drays,
and it affects me to walk the steep hill.

ADELE. Pierre again, eh? That costs three sous. Where are they to come
from, with only one tourist in the house for over two months?

DURAND. That's true enough, but it seems to me Annette might get the
bread.

ADELE. That would ruin the credit of the house entirely, but you have
never done anything else.

DURAND. Even you, Adele?

ADELE. Even I am tired, though I have held out longest!

DURAND. Yes, you have, and you were still human when Therese and Annette
cautioned me. You and I have pulled this house through since mother
died. You have had to sit in the kitchen like Cinderella; I have had
to take care of the service, the fires, sweep and clean, and do the
errands. You are tired; how should it be with me, then?

ADELE. But you mustn't be tired. You have th