Mrs.Rummel: Yes, goodness knows how they could think her pretty.
Well, Dorf came home late one evening--Mrs.Holt: Quite unexpectedly.
Mrs.Rummel: And found his-- No, really it isn't a thing one can talk about.
Mrs.Holt: After all, Mrs. Rummel, he didn't find anything, because the door was locked on the inside.
Mrs.Rummel: Yes, that is just what I was going to say--he found the door locked. And--just think of it--the man that was in the house had to jump out of the window.
Mrs.Holt: Right down from an attic window.
Mrs.Lynge: And that was Mrs. Bernick's brother?
Mrs.Rummel: Yes, it was he.
Mrs.Lynge: And that was why he ran away to America?
Mrs.Holt: Yes, he had to run away, you may be sure.
Mrs.Rummel: Because something was discovered afterwards that was nearly as bad; just think--he had been making free with the cash- box...
Mrs.Holt: But, you know, no one was certain of that, Mrs.
Rummel; perhaps there was no truth in the rumour.
Mrs.Rummel: Well, I must say--! Wasn't it known all over the town? Did not old Mrs. Bernick nearly go bankrupt as the result of it? However, God forbid I should be the one to spread such reports.
Mrs.Holt: Well, anyway, Mrs. Dorf didn't get the money, because she--Mrs.Lynge: Yes, what happened to Dina's parents afterwards?
Mrs.Rummel: Well, Dorf deserted both his wife and his child. But madam was impudent enough to stay here a whole year. Of course she had not the face to appear at the theatre any more, but she kept herself by taking in washing and sewing--Mrs.Holt: And then she tried to set up a dancing school.
Mrs.Rummel: Naturally that was no good. What parents would trust their children to such a woman? But it did not last very long.
The fine madam was not accustomed to work; she got something wrong with her lungs and died of it.
Mrs.Lynge: What a horrible scandal!
Mrs.Rummel: Yes, you can imagine how hard it was upon the Bernicks. It is the dark spot among the sunshine of their good fortune, as Rummel once put it. So never speak about it in this house, Mrs. Lynge.
Mrs.Holt: And for heaven's sake never mention the stepsister, either!
Mrs.Lynge: Oh, so Mrs. Bernick has a step-sister, too?
Mrs.Rummel: Had, luckily-- for the relationship between them is all over now. She was an extraordinary person too! Would you believe it, she cut her hair short, and used to go about in men's boots in bad weather!
Mrs.Holt: And when her step-brother,the black sheep, had gone away, and the whole town naturally was talking about him--what do you think she did? She went out to America to him!
Mr.Rummel: Yes, but remember the scandal she caused before she went, Mrs. Holt.
Mrs.Holt: Hush, don't speak of it.
Mrs.Lynge: My goodness, did she create a scandal too?
Mrs.Rummel: I think you ought to hear it, Mrs. Lynge. Mr.
Bernick had just got engaged to Betty Tonnesen, and the two of them went arm in arm into her aunt's room to tell her the news--Mrs.Holt: The Tonnesens' parents were dead, you know--Mrs.Rummel: When, suddenly, up got Lona Hessel from her chair and gave our refined and well-bred Karsten Bernick such a box on the ear that his head swam.
Mrs.Lynge: Well, I am sure I never--Mrs.Holt: It is absolutely true.
Mrs.Rummel: And then she packed her box and went away to America.
Mrs.Lynge: I suppose she had had her eye on him for herself.
Mrs.Rummel: Of course she had. She imagined that he and she would make a match of it when he came back from Paris.
Mrs.Holt: The idea of her thinking such a thing! Karsten Bernick--a man of the world and the pink of courtesy, a perfect gentleman, the darling of all the ladies...
Mrs.Rummel: And, with it all, such an excellent young man, Mrs.
Holt--so moral.
Mrs.Lynge: But what has this Miss Hessel made of herself in America?
Mrs.Rummel: Well, you see, over that (as my husband once put it) has been drawn a veil which one should hesitate to lift.
Mrs.Lynge: What do you mean?
Mrs.Rummel: She no longer has any connection with the family, as you may suppose; but this much the whole town knows, that she has sung for money in drinking saloons over there--Mrs.Holt: And has given lectures in public--Mrs.Rummel: And has published some mad kind of book.
Mrs.Lynge: You don't say so!
Mrs.Rummel: Yes, it is true enough that Lona Hessel is one of the spots on the sun of the Bernick family's good fortune. Well, now you know the whole story, Mrs. Lynge. I am sure I would never have spoken about it except to put you on your guard.
Mrs.Lynge: Oh, you may be sure I shall be most careful. But that poor child Dina Dorf! I am truly sorry for her.
Mrs.Rummel: Well, really it was a stroke of good luck for her.
Think what it would have meant if she had been brought up by such parents! Of course we did our best for her, every one of us, and gave her all the good advice we could. Eventually Miss Bernick got her taken into this house.
Mrs.Holt: But she has always been a difficult child to deal with. It is only natural--with all the bad examples she had had before her. A girl of that sort is not like one of our own; one must be lenient with her.
Mrs.Rummel: Hush--here she comes. (In a louder voice.) Yes, Dina is really a clever girl. Oh, is that you, Dina? We are just putting away the things.
Mrs.Holt: How delicious your coffee smells, my dear Dina. A nice cup of coffee like that--Mrs.Bernick (calling in from the verandah): Will you come out here? (Meanwhile MARTHA and DINA have helped the Maid to bring out the coffee. All the ladies seat themselves on the verandah, and talk with a great show of kindness to DINA. In a few moments DINA comes back into the room and looks for her sewing.)
Mrs. Bernick(from the coffee table): Dina, won't you--?
Dina: No, thank you. (Sits down to her sewing. MRS. BERNICK and RORLUND exchange a few words; a moment afterwards he comes back into the room, makes a pretext for going up to the table, and begins speaking to DINA in low tones.)
Rorlund: Dina.
Dina: Yes?
Rorlund: Why don't you want to sit with the others?
Dina: When I came in with the coffee, I could see from the strange lady's face that they had been talking about me.
