ACT II.
[Good Friday evening. The music before and thro' the act, Haydn's Sieben Worte. Largo No. 1. "Pater dimitte illis." Same scene. Curtains are drawn, lighted up by electric light in the street. The hanging lamp is lighted. On dining table a small lamp, also lighted. There is a glimmer from the lighted stove. Elis and Christine are sitting at the sewing table. Benjamin and Eleonora are seated at dining table reading, opposite each other, with the small lamp between them—Eleonora has a shawl over her shoulders.]
[They are all dressed in black. The papers that Elis brought in the First Act are on the writing table in a disorderly condition, the Easter lily stands on sewing table. An old clock stands on the dining table. Now and then one sees shadows of people passing by in the street.]
[The cathedral organ is heard faintly.—The following scene must be played softly.]
ELIS [Softly to Christine]. Yes—it's Good Friday—Long Friday they call it in some countries. Ah—yes—it is long. And the snow has softened the noises in the street like straw spread before the house of the dying. Not a sound to be heard—[Music louder] only the cathedral organ—[A long pause.]
CHRISTINE. Mother must have gone to vespers.
ELIS. Yes.—She never goes to high mass any more. The cold glances people give her hurt her too much.
CHRISTINE. It's queer about these people they sort of demand that we should keep out of the way, and they even see fit to—
ELIS. Yes—and perhaps they are right.—
CHRISTINE. On account of the wrong-doing of one, the whole family is excommunicated—