rofessor of Modern German Literature, University of Nebraska

ACT I

Ancient hall of the manor. Broad and spacious. Low ceiling. In the rear
wall, toward the garden, the bare trees of which are visible, three
wide windows with white crossbars. Chair at both ends of each window. A
folding card table between the chairs of the middle window. An Empire
commode in each space between the windows. In the centre of the two
lateral walls, folding doors, the one at the left leading into another
room, the one at the right into the vestibule. On the left, in the
foreground, a sofa which is well preserved and gives evidence of former
elegance, and similar chairs with stiff backs and light variegated
covers, grouped around a large oval table. Opposite this in the
foreground at the right, an old-fashioned fireplace, before which three
similar chairs are placed. In the background at the right, near the
window, a spinet with a chair before it. In the corresponding place on
the left near the window a tall, gilt framed mirror resting on a
cabinet base. An old fashioned chandelier, ornate with gilt and glass,
is suspended in the centre of the hall. A number of pictures, men and
women in the fashions of the last one hundred years, cover the walls.
Painted board floor. Rugs only before sofa and spinet. Furniture in
light mahogany. Wall paper of gilt design. Solid, but faded finery of
the twenties and thirties of the nineteenth century with a few more
recent additions. The general character of the hall is bright and
inviting, nevertheless serious and somewhat shut in by the low ceiling,
giving the large room an air of emptiness, for the scant furniture
along the walls seems to be lost. A mixture of a dancing hall and an
ancestral portrait gallery. At present it looks gloomy, almost
spectral. It is an early morning near the end of December. As yet not a
ray of sunlight comes in through the heart-shaped apertures of the
shutters, which are hung on the outside and are fastened on the inside
by means of thumbscrews. A lamp stands at the extreme end of the room
on one of the commodes. Beyond its radius deep shadows gather on every
side. In the foreground logs are burning brightly in the fireplace. An
indistinct light falls past the chairs over the foreground. From the
other side, the light of a candle falls upon the sofa table which is
covered with a white cloth. It also illumines only the immediate
vicinity. Dusk predominates in the spac