ust follow me.

LISA. Not yet. But I will follow thee at a distance, and when thou
dost meet with sorrow and need and the sun of happiness is for thee
o'erclouded, then I will be near thee with my weak support. Go thou out
into life, see what wrongs are done there; but when 'midst filth and
mire thou hast seen how even the flower of beauty thrives, then think on
this: Life is made up of both good and bad.

CURTAIN

ACT THREE

SCENE: A public square. To right, Courthouse arcade, above which there
is a speakers' cage with places for Burgomaster and Councilmen; to left
shoemaker's house, with shop window and sign; outside a bench and table,
close to them a hen-coop and water-tub. In the centre of the square
stands a pillory, with two neck-irons on chains, above it a bronze
figure with a switch in its hand; to right centre, statue o f
Burgomaster Hans Schulze, which leans toward a marble female statue
crowned with a laurel wreath. Background: view of city.

[Pillory and Statue.]

PILLORY. [Bows low to statue.] Good morning, Statue. Did you sleep well
last night?

STATUE. [Nods.] Good morning, Pillory. Did you sleep well yourself?

PILLORY. To be sure I did--and dreamed also! Can you guess what I
dreamed?

STATUE. [Crustily.] How should that be possible?

PILLORY. Well, I dreamt--can you imagine it?--that a reformer came to
the city.

STATUE. What--a reformer? [Stamps.] Hell! how cold your feet get
standing here; but what does one not do for glory's sake! A reformer?
Then he, too, is to have a statue?

PILLORY. A statue--well, hardly! No, he had to play statue himself, at
my feet, while I clasped him around the neck with both arms. [Neck-irons
clash.] You see, he was a real reformer, and not a charlatan, such as
you were in life!

STATUE. Oh, bosh! You should be put to shame!

PILLORY. I should--but I always have justice on my side. [Swings
switch.]

STATUE. What, then, was his specialty?

PILLORY. He was a reformer in street paving.

STATUE. In street paving? Pestilence and cowardice! He dabbles, then, in
my profession. [Bumps into female statue.]

PILLORY. No; he does intelligently what you dabbled in, and you
wouldn't be standing where you are had you not been the burgomaster's
father-in-law!

STATUE. Was not I the one who carried out the new idea of stone-paved
streets?

PILLORY. Yes, that you did; but the idea was not new. And what did you
do? In place of the soft sand in which one for