for a pillow, Margret? It is so hard, and so cold, so cold. Come
and sit near me. There. May I put my head on your knee? So!--This
is warm! Bend over me so that I can feel your breast! Oh, it is
sweet to sleep against a woman's breast, a mother's, or a
mistress's, but the mother's is sweetest.

LAURA. Would you like to see your child, Adolf?

CAPTAIN. My child? A man has no children, it is only woman who has
children, and therefore the future is hers when we die childless.
Oh, God, who holds his children dear!

NURSE. Listen, he is praying to God.

CAPTAIN. No, to you to put me to sleep, for I am tired, so tired.
Good night, Margret, and blessed be you among women.

[He raises himself, but falls with a cry on the nurses's lap. Laura
goes to left and calls the Doctor who comes in with the Pastor.]

LAURA. Help us, Doctor, if it isn't too late. Look, he has stopped
breathing.

DOCTOR [Feels the Captain's pulse.] It is a stroke.

PASTOR. Is he dead?

DOCTOR. No, he may yet cone back to life, but to what an awakening
we cannot tell.