Chapter 7

Well, you see, beautiful souls find each other on sea and shore. You'll pardon me, won't you, if I begin? We were just about to sit down to breakfast. Do take a seat yourself. You haven't had breakfast anywhere else, have you?

LOTH

No.

HOFFMANN

Very well. Then sit down. [_Remaining seated himself he draws out a chair for LOTH hereupon addressing EDWARD, who enters with tea and coffee._] Ah, by the way, is Mrs. Krause coming down?

EDWARD

The madame and Mrs. Spiller are taking their breakfast upstairs.

HOFFMANN

Why, that has never before ...

HELEN

[_Pushing the dishes to rights._] Never mind. There's a reason.

HOFFMANN

Is that so?... Loth, help yourself!... Egg? Tea?

LOTH

I wonder if I could have a glass of milk?

HOFFMANN

With all the pleasure in the world.

HELEN

Edward, tell Miele to get some fresh milk.

HOFFMANN

[_Peeling an egg._] Milk--brrr! Horrible! [_Helping himself to salt and pepper._] By the way, Loth, what brings you into these parts? Up to now I've forgotten to ask you.

LOTH

[_Spreading butter on a roll._] I would like to study the local conditions.

HOFFMANN

[_Looking up sharply._] That so?... What kind of conditions?

LOTH

To be precise: I want to study the condition of your miners.

HOFFMANN

Ah! In general that condition is a very excellent one, surely.

LOTH

Do you think so?--That would be a very pleasant fact ... Before I forget, however. You can be of some service to me in the matter. You will deserve very well of political economy, if you ...

HOFFMANN

I? How exactly?

LOTH

Well, you have the sole agency for the local mines?

HOFFMANN

Yes; and what of it?

LOTH

It will be very easy for you, in that case, to obtain permission for me to inspect the mines. That is to say: I would like to go down into them daily for at least a month, in order that I may gain a fairly accurate notion of the management.

HOFFMANN

[_Carelessly._] And then, I suppose, you will describe what you've seen down there?

LOTH

Yes, my work is to be primarily descriptive.

HOFFMANN

I'm awfully sorry, but I've nothing to do with that side of things. So you just want to write about the miners, eh?

LOTH

That question shows how little of an economist you are.

HOFFMANN

[_Whose vanity is stung._] I beg your pardon! I hope you don't think ... Why? I don't see why that isn't a legitimate question?... And, anyhow: it wouldn't be surprising. One can't know everything.

LOTH

Oh, calm yourself. The matter stands simply thus: if I am to study the situation of the miners in this district, it is of course unavoidably necessary that I touch upon all the factors that condition their situation.

HOFFMANN

Writings of that kind are sometimes full of frightful exaggerations.

LOTH

That is a fault which I hope to guard against.

HOFFMANN

That will be very praiseworthy. [_He has several times already cast brief and searching glances at HELEN, who hangs with naive devoutness upon LOTH'S lips. He does so again now and continues._] I say ... it's just simply too queer for anything--how things will suddenly pop into a man's mind. I wonder how things like that are brought about in the brain?

LOTH

What is it that has occurred to you so suddenly?

HOFFMANN

It's about you.--I thought of your be--... No, maybe it's tactless to speak of your heart's secrets in the presence of a young lady.

HELEN

Perhaps it would be better for me to....

LOTH

Please stay. Miss Krause! By all means stay, at least as far as I'm concerned. I've seen for some time what he's aiming at. There's nothing in the least dangerous about it. [_To HOFFMANN._] You're thinking of my betrothal, eh?

HOFFMANN

Since you mention it yourself, yes. I was, as a matter of fact, thinking of your betrothal to Anna Faber.

LOTH

That was broken off, naturally, when I was sent to prison.

HOFFMANN

That wasn't very nice of your....

LOTH

It was, at least, honest in her! The letter in which she broke with me showed her true face. Had she shown that before she would have spared herself and me, too, a great deal.

HOFFMANN

And since that time your affections haven't taken root anywhere?

LOTH

No.

HOFFMANN

_Of_ course! I suppose you've capitulated along the whole line--forsworn marriage as well as drink, eh? Ah, well, _a chacun son gout_.

LOTH

It's not my taste that decides in this matter, but perhaps my fate. I told you once before, I believe, that I have made no renunciation in regard to marriage. What I fear is this, that I won't find a woman who is suitable for me,

HOFFMAN

That's a big order, Loth!

LOTH

I'm quite serious, though. It may be that one grows too critical as the years go on and possesses too little healthy instinct. And I consider instinct the best guarantee of a suitable choice.

HOFFMANN

[_Frivolously._] Oh, it'll be found again some day--[_laughing_]--the necessary instinct, I mean.

LOTH

And, after all, what have I to offer a woman? I doubt more and more whether I ought to expect any woman to content herself with that small part of my personality which does not belong to my life's work. Then, too, I'm afraid of the cares which a family brings.

HOFFMANN

Wh-at? The cares of a married man? Haven't you a head, and arms, eh?

LOTH

Obviously. But, as I've tried to tell you, my productive power belongs, for the greater part, to my life's work and will always belong to it. Hence it is no longer mine. Then, too, there would be peculiar difficulties ...

HOFFMANN

Listen! Hasn't some one been sounding a gong?

LOTH

You consider all I've said mere phrase-making?

HOFFMANN

Honestly, it does sound a little hollow. After all, other people are not necessarily savages, even if they are married. But some men act as though they had a monopoly of all the good deeds that are to be done in the world.

LOTH

[_With some heat._] Not at all! I'm not thinking of such a thing. If you hadn't abandoned your life's work, your happy material situation would be of the greatest assistance ...

HOFFMANN

[_Ironically._] So that would be one of your demands, too?

LOTH

Demands? How? What?

HOFFMANN

I mean that, in marrying, you would have an eye on money.

LOTH

Unquestionably.

HOFFMANN

And then--if I know you at all--there's quite a list of demands still to come.

LOTH

So there is. The woman, for instance, must have physical and mental health. That's a _conditio sine qua non_.

HOFFMANN

[_Laughing._] Better and better! I suppose then that a previous medical examination of the lady would be necessary.

LOTH

[_Quite seriously_.] You must remember that I make demands upon myself too.

HOFFMANN

[_More and more amused._] I know, I know! I remember your going through all the literature of love once in order to determine quite conscientiously whether that which you felt at that time for a certain lady was really the tender passion. So, let's hear a few more of your demands.

LOTH

My wife, for instance, would have to practice renunciation.

HELEN

If ... if ... Ah, I don't know whether it's right to ... but I merely wanted to say that women, as a rule, are accustomed to renounce.

LOTH

For heaven's sake! You understand me quite wrongly. I did not mean renunciation in the vulgar sense. I would demand renunciation only in so far, or, rather, I would simply ask my wife to resign voluntarily and gladly that part of myself which belongs to my chosen work. No, no, in regard to every thing else, it is my wife who is to make demands--to demand all that her sex has forfeited in the course of thousands of years.

HOFFMANN

Oho, oho! Emancipation of woman! Really, that sudden turn was admirable--now you are in the right channel. Fred Loth, or the agitator in a vest-pocket edition. How would you formulate your demands in this respect, or rather: to what degree would yam wife have to be emancipated?--It really amuses me to hear you talk! Would she have to smoke cigars? Wear breeches?

LOTH

Hardly that. I would want her, to be sure, to have risen above certain social conventions. I should not want her, for instance, to hesitate, if she felt genuine love for me, to be the first to make the avowal.

HOFFMANN

[_Has finished his breakfast. He jumps up in half-humorous, half-serious indignation._] Do you know? That ... that is a really _shameless_ demand. And I prophesy, too, that you'll go about with it unfulfilled to your very end--unless you prefer to drop it first.

HELEN

[_Mastering her deep emotion with difficulty._] If you gentlemen will excuse me now--the household ... You know [_to HOFFMANN_] that mama is upstairs and so ...

HOFFMANN

Don't let us keep you.

_HELEN bows and withdraws._

HOFFMANN

[_Holding a match case in his hand and walking over to the cigar-box which stands on the table._] There's no doubt ... you do get a man excited ... it's almost uncanny. [_He takes a cigar from the box and sits down on the sofa in the foreground, left. He cuts off the end of his cigar, and, during what follows, he holds the cigar in his left, the severed end between the fingers of his right hand._] In spite of all that ... it does amuse me. And then, you don't know how good it feels to pass a few days in the country this way, away from all business matters. If only to-day this confounded ... how late is it anyhow? Unfortunately I have to go into town to a dinner to-day. It couldn't be helped: I had to give this banquet. What are you going to do as a business man? Tit for tat. The mine officials are used to that sort of thing.--Well, I've got time enough to smoke another cigar--quite in peace, too.

[_He carries the cigar end to a cuspidor, sits down on the sofa again and lights his cigar._]

LOTH

[_Stands at the table and turns the leaves of a deluxe volume._] "The Adventures of Count Sandor."

HOFFMANN

You'll find that trash among all the farmers in the neighbourhood.

LOTH

[_Still turning the leaves._] How old is your sister-in-law?

HOFFMANN

She was twenty-one last August.

LOTH

Is she in delicate health?

HOFFMANN

Don't know. I hardly think so, though. Does she make that impression on you?

LOTH

She really looks rather worried than ill.

HOFFMANN

Well, if you consider all the miseries with her step-mother ...

LOTH

She seems to be rather excitable, too.

HOFFMANN

In such an environment ... I should like to see any one who wouldn't become excitable.

LOTH

She seems to possess a good deal of energy.

HOFFMANN

Stubbornness.

LOTH

Deep feeling, too?

HOFFMANN

Too much at times ...

LOTH

But if the conditions here are so unfortunate for her, why doesn't your sister-in-law live with _your_ family?

HOFFMANN

You'd better ask her that! I've often enough made her the offer. Women have these fancies, that's all. [_Holding the cigar in his mouth, HOFFMANN takes out a note-book and adds a fete items._] You'll forgive me, won't you, if I have to leave you alone after a while?

LOTH

Assuredly.

HOFFMANN

How long do you think of stay--

LOTH

I mean to look for a lodging very soon. Where does Schimmelpfennig live? The best thing would be to go to see him. He would _probably_ be able to secure one for me. I hope that I'll soon find a suitable place, otherwise I'll spend the night at the inn next door.

HOFFMANN

Why should you? Of course you'll stay with us till morning, at least. To be sure, I'm only a guest in this house myself, otherwise I'd naturally ask you to ... you understand?

LOTH

Perfectly.

HOFFMANN

But do tell me, were you really quite serious when you said ...

LOTH

That I would spend the night at an inn...?

HOFFMANN

Nonsense ... Of course not!... I mean what you mentioned a while ago--that business about your ridiculous descriptive essay?

LOTH

Why not?

HOFFMANN

I must confess that I thought you were jesting. [_He gets up and speaks confidentially and half-humorously._] Now, you don't mean to say you're really capable of undermining the ground here where a friend of yours has been fortunate enough to get a firm foothold?

LOTH

You may take my word for it, Hoffmann; I had no idea that you were here. If I had known that ...

HOFFMANN

[_Jumps up, delighted._] Very well, then; very well. If that's the way things are. And I assure you I'm more than glad that I was not mistaken in you. So now you do know that I am here. It goes without saying that I'll make up to you all your travelling expenses and all extras. No, you needn't be so excessively delicate. It's simply my duty as a friend ... Now I recognise my excellent old friend again. But I tell you: for a time I had very serious suspicions of you ... Now you ought to know this, however. Frankly, I'm not as bad as I sometimes pretend to be, not by any means. I have always honoured you, you and your sincere, single-minded efforts. And I'm the last man to fail to attach weight to certain demands of the exploited, oppressed masses, demands which are, most unfortunately, only too well justified.--Oh, you may smile. I'll go further and confess that there is just one party in parliament that has any true ideals, and that's the party to which you belong! Only--as I said before--we must go slowly, slowly!--not try to rush things through. Everything is coming, surely coming about exactly as it ought to. Only patience! Patience ...

LOTH

One must have patience. That is certain. But one isn't justified on that account in folding one's hands in idleness.

HOFFMANN

Exactly my opinion.--As a matter of fact my thoughts have oftener been in accord with you than my words. It's a bad habit of mine, I admit, I fell into it in intercourse with people to whom I didn't always want to show my hand.... Take the question, of woman, for instance ... You expressed a good many things quite strikingly. [_He has, in the meantime, approached the telephone, taken up the receiver and now speaks alternately into the telephone and to LOTH._] My little sister-in-law, by the way, was all ear ... [_Into the telephone._] Frank! I want the carriage in ten minutes ... [_To LOTH._] You made an impression on her ... [_Into the telephone._] What--oh, nonsense!--well, that beats everything ... Then hitch up the black horses at once ... [_To LOTH._] And why shouldn't you?... [_Into the telephone._] Well, upon my...! To the milliner, you say? The madame? The ma--! Well, very well, then. But at once! Oh, very well! Yes! What's the--! [_He presses the button of the servants' bell. To LOTH._] You just wait. Give me a chance to heap up the necessary mountain of shekels, and maybe you'll see something happen ... [_EDWARD has entered._] Edward, my leggings, my walking-coat! [_EDWARD withdraws_.] Maybe something will happen then that you fellows wouldn't believe of me now ... If, at the end of two or three days--you must stay with us so long by all means--I'd consider it a real insult if you didn't--[_he slips out of his dressing-gown_]--if, at the end of two or three days, you're ready to go. I'll drive you over to the train.

_EDWARD enters carrying gaiters and walking-coat._

HOFFMANN

[_Permitting himself to be helped on with the coat._] So-o! [_Sitting down on a chair._] Now the boots. [_After he has pulled on one of them._] There's number one!

LOTH

Perhaps you didn't quite understand me after all.

HOFFMANN

Surely, that's quite possible. A fellow gets out of touch with things. Nothing but musty business affairs. Edward, hasn't the mail come yet? Wait a minute!--Do go up into my room. You'll find a document in a blue cover on the left side of my desk. Get that and put it into the carriage.

_EDWARD goes through the door at the right, reappears through the middle-door and then withdraws._

LOTH

I simply meant that you hadn't understood me in one particular respect.

HOFFMANN

[_Worrying his foot into the other shoe._] Ouch! There! [_He rises and stamps his feet._] There we are. Nothing is more disagreeable than tight shoes ... What were you saying just now?

LOTH

You were speaking of my departure ...

HOFFMANN

Well?

LOTH

But I thought I had explained that I must stay here for a specific purpose.

HOFFMANN

[_In extreme consternation and thoroughly indignant at once._] Look here!... That comes near being caddish!--Don't you know what you owe me as your friend?

LOTH

Not, I hope, the betrayal of my cause!

HOFFMANN

[_Beside himself._] Well then--in that case--I haven't the slightest motive for treating you as a friend. And so I tell you that I consider your appearance and demeanour here--to put it mildly--incredibly impudent.

LOTH

[_Quite calmly._] Perhaps you'll explain what gives you the right to use such epithets ...

HOFFMANN

Yon want an explanation of that? That is going to an extreme! Not to feel a thing like that it's necessary to have a rhinoceros-hide instead of skin on one's back! You come here, enjoy my hospitality, thresh out a few of your thread-bare phrases, turn my sister-in-law's head, go on about old friendship and other pleasant things, and then you tell me quite coolly: you're going to write a descriptive pamphlet about the local conditions. Why, what do you take me to be, anyhow? D'you suppose I don't know that these so-called essays are merely shameless libels?... You want to write a denunciation like that, and about our coal district, of all places! Are you so blind that you can't see whom such a rag would harm most keenly? Only me, of course! I tell you, the trade that you demagogues drive ought to be more firmly stamped out than has been done up to now! What is it you do? You make the miners discontented, presumptuous; you stir them up, embitter them, make them rebellious, disobedient, wretched! Then you delude them with promises of mountains of gold, and, in the meantime, grab out of their pockets the few pennies that keep them from starving!

LOTH

Do you consider yourself unmasked now?

HOFFMANN

[_Brutally._] Oh, pshaw! You ridiculous, pompous wind-bag! What do you suppose I care about being unmasked by you?--Go to work! Leave off this silly drivelling!--Do something! Get ahead! I don't need to sponge on any one for two-hundred marks!

[_He rushes out through the middle door._

_For several moments LOTH looks calmly after him. Then, no less calmly, he draws a card case out of his inner pocket, takes a slip of paper therefrom--HOFFMANN'S cheque--and tears it through several times. Then he drops the scraps slowly into the coal-bin. Hereupon he takes his hat and cane and turns to go. At this moment HELEN appears on the threshold of the conservatory._

HELEN

[_Softly._] Mr. Loth!

LOTH

[_Quivers and turns._] Ah, it is you.--Well, then I can at least say farewell to _you_.

HELEN

[_In spite of herself._] Did you feel the need of doing that?

LOTH

Yes! I did feel it, indeed. Probably, if you were in there, you heard what has taken place here, and--in that case....

HELEN

I heard everything.

LOTH

In that case it won't astonish you to see me this house with so little ceremony.

HELEN

No-o! I do understand--! But I should like you to feel less harshly toward my brother-in-law. He always repents very quickly. I have often....

LOTH

Quite possibly. But for that very reason what he has said just now probably expresses his true opinion of me.--In fact, it is undoubtedly his real opinion.

HELEN

Do you seriously believe that?

LOTH

Oh, yes, quite seriously. And so.... [_He walks toward her and takes her hand._] I hope that life will be kind to you. [_He turns but at once stops again._] I don't know...! or rather:--[_he looks calmly and directly into HELEN'S face_]--I do know, I know--at this moment the knowledge becomes clear--that it is not so easy for me to go away from here ... and ... yes ... and ... well, yes...!

HELEN

But if I begged you--begged you truly--from my heart ... to stay a little longer--

LOTH

So you do not share Hoffmann's opinion?

HELEN

No!--and that--that is just what I wanted to be sure--quite sure to tell you, before ... before--you--went.

LOTH

[_Grasps her hand once more._] It helps me _much_ to hear you say that.

HELEN

[_Struggling with herself. Her excitement mounts rapidly and to the point of unconsciousness. She stammers out half-chokingly._] And more, oh, more I wanted to ... to tell you ... that I esteem and ... and ... honour you as ... I've done no ... man before ... that I trust ... you ... that I'm ready to ... to prove that ... that I feel toward you ...

[_She sinks, swooning into his arms._

LOTH

Helen!

THE CURTAIN DROPS QUICKLY

THE FOURTH ACT

_The farmyard, as in the second act. Time: a quarter of an hour after HELEN'S avowal._

_MARIE and GOLISCH the cowherd drag a wooden chest down the stairs that lead to the loft. LOTH comes from the house. He is dressed for travelling and goes slowly and thoughtfully diagonally across the yard. Before he turns into the path that leads to the inn, he comes upon HOFFMANN, who is hurrying toward him through the gateway._

HOFFMANN

[_In top hat and kid gloves._] Don't be angry with me. [_He obstructs LOTH'S way and grasps both of his hands._] I take it all back herewith ... Mention any reparation you demand ... I am ready to give you any!... I'm most truly, most sincerely sorry.

LOTH

That helps neither of us very much.

HOFFMANN

Oh, if you would just ... Look here, now...! A man can't well do more than that. I assure you that my conscience gave me no rest! I turned back just before reaching Jauer.... That should convince you of the seriousness of my feeling. Where were you going?

LOTH

To the inn--for the moment.

HOFFMANN

Oh, that's an affront you simply can't offer me ... no, you mustn't--simply, I believe that I did hurt you badly, of course. And probably it's not the kind of thing that can be wiped out with just a few words. Only don't rob me of any chance ... of every possibility to prove to you ... D'you hear? Now turn back and stay at least--at least until to-morrow. Or till ... till I come back. I want to talk it all over with you at leisure. You can't refuse me that favour.

LOTH

If you set so much store by it all....

HOFFMANN

A great deal!... on my honour!... I care immensely. So come, come! Don't run away!

[_He leads LOTH, who offers no further resistance, back into the house._

_The dismissed maid and the boy have, in the meantime, placed the chest on a wheelbarrow and GOLISCH has put on the shoulder strap._

MARIE

[_Slipping a coin into GOLISCH'S hand._] There's somethin' fer you.

GOLISCH

[_Refusing it._] Keep yer penny.

MARIE

Aw! Ye donkey!

GOLISCH

Well, I don't care.

[_He takes the coin and puts it into his leathern purse._

MRS. SPILLER

[_Appears at one of the windows of the house and calls out:_] Marie.

MARIE

What d'ye want now?

MRS. SPILLER

[_Appearing almost immediately at the door of the house._] The madame's willing to keep you, if you promise....

MARIE

A stinkin' lot I'll promise her. Go on, Golisch!

MRS. SPILLER

[_Approaching._] The madame is willing to increase your wages, if you.... [_Whispering suddenly._] What d'ye care, girl! She just gits kinder rough now an' then.

MARIE

[_Furiously._] She c'n keep her dirty money to herself!--[_Tearfully._] I'd rather starve! [_She follows GOLISCH, who has preceded her with the wheelbarrow._] Naw, just to think of it!--It's enough to make you....

[_She disappears, as does MRS. SPILLER._

_Through the great gate comes BAER called HOPPING BAER. He is a lank fellow with a vulture's neck and goitre. His feet and head are bare. His breeches, badly ravelled at the bottom, scarcely reach below the knee. The top of his head is bald. Such hair as he has, brown, dusty, and clotted, hangs down over his shoulders. His gait is ostrich-like. By a cord he draws behind him a child's toy waggon full of sand. His face is beardless. His whole appearance shows him to be a god-forsaken peasant lad in the twenties._

BAER

[_With a strangely bleating voice._] Sa--a--and! Sa--a--and!