Publisher's Synopsis
Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1919. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... ACT I On the right (from spectator's point of view) the front of the Burgomaster's two-storey house. Four or five steps lead up to front door. Two windows on each side of door, and five windows in upper storey. Towards the front, under the foremost window, two or three steps lead down to a low cellar door (arched) with a large external wooden lock. Along the back runs a wall 8 or 10 feet high, pierced in the middle by a large gate, of two wings. In the right wing is a small gate or door, with a cross-barred peep-hole, some 4 inches square, at a height of about 5 feet, through which anyone outside can be inspected before the gate is opened. To the right of the gate hangs a bell attached to the wall. Over the wall can be seen the houses on the other side of a not very wide street. Two or three open windows. A church tower on the extreme left in the background. Pear trees trained along the wall, growing out of narrow flower-beds. Along the left, opposite the house, runs an arbour or pergola, covered with climbing roses and other flowers. In the shade of the arbour an oblong table and several rustic chairs. Trees behind the arbour, indicating the continuance of the garden in that direction. The greater part of the space between the house and the arbour is paved with irregular stones, but there are small oval flowerbeds in front of the arbour, which is approached by the passage between them. The general effect is that of a courtyard merging into a garden. A calm sunny morning: August 5th, 1914. [The bell beside the gate rings, and a MilkMan's cry is heard. Josephine, a buxom peasant woman, about thirty-five, comes singing down the steps from the house, with a pitcher for milk; crosses to the gate, and opens the small inner gate. Outside is seen a milk-cart drawn by a dog...