DRAMATIS PERSONAE
The father.
The mother.
Laura, their daughter.
Axel, her husband.
Mathilde, her friend.
ACT I
(Scene.—A handsomely furnished, carpeted
room, with a door at the back leading to a lobby.
The father is sitting on a couch on the left-hand
side, in the foreground, reading a newspaper.
Other papers are lying on a small table in front of
him. Axel is on another couch drawn up in
a similar position on the right-hand side. A
newspaper, which he is not reading, is lying on his
knee. The mother is sitting, sewing, in
an easy-chair drawn up beside a table in the middle
of the room.)
[Laura enters.]
Laura. Good morning, mother! (Kisses her.)
Mother. Good morning, dear. Have you slept
well?
Laura. Very well, thanks. Good morning,
dad! (Kisses him.)
Father. Good morning, little one, good morning.
Happy and in good spirits?
Laura. Very. (Passes in front of Axel.)
Good morning, Axel! (Sits down at the table, opposite
her mother.)
Axel. Good morning.
Mother. I am very sorry to say, my child, that
I must give up going to the ball with you to-night.
It is such a long way to go, in this cold spring weather.
Father (without looking up from his paper). Your
mother is not well. She was coughing in the night.
Laura. Coughing again?
Father. Twice. (The mother coughs, and he
looks up.) There, do you hear that? Your mother
must not go out, on any account.
Laura. Then I won’t go, either.
Father. That will be just as well; it is such
raw weather. (To the mother.) But you have no
shawl on, my love; where is your shawl?
Laura. Axel, fetch mother’s shawl; it is
hanging in the lobby. (Axel goes out into
the lobby.)
Mother. We are not really into spring yet.
I am surprised the stove is not lit in here.
Laura (to Axel, who is arranging the shawl over
the mother’s shoulders). Axel, ring
the bell and let us have a fire. (He does so, and
gives the necessary instructions to the Servant.)
Mother. If none of us are going to the ball,
we ought to send them a note. Perhaps you would
see to that, Axel?
Axel. Certainly—but will it do for
us to stay away from this ball?
Laura. Surely you heard father say that mother
has been coughing in the night.
Axel. Yes, I heard; but the ball is being given
by the only friend I have in these parts, in your
honour and mine. We are the reason of the whole
entertainment—surely we cannot stay away
from it?
Laura. But it wouldn’t be any pleasure
to us to go without mother.
