Chapter 9

And you faded clear out of sight. Otherwise I'd have routed you out long ago.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Oh, I just dived below the surface like a seal. Made deep-sea investigations. In about a year and a half I hope to emerge once more. A man must be financially independent--do you know that?--In order to achieve anything useful.

LOTH

So you, too, are making money here?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Naturally and as much as possible. What else is there to do here?

LOTH

You might have let some one hear from you!

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I beg your pardon. But if I had been heard from, I would have heard from you fellows--and I absolutely didn't want to hear. Nothingnothing. That would simply have kept me from exploiting my diggings here.

_The two men walk slowly up and down the room._

LOTH

I see. But then you mustn't be surprised to hear that ... well, they all, without an exception, really gave you up as hopeless.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

That's like them--the scamps! They'll be made to take notice.

LOTH

Schimmel--otherwise the "rough husk"!

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I wish you had had to live here among the farmers for six years. Hellhounds--every one of them.

LOTH

I can imagine that.--But how in the world did you get to Witzdorf?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

The way such things do happen! You remember I had to skin out from Jena that time.

LOTH

Was that before my crash?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Yes, a short time after we'd given up living together. So I took up medicine at Zuerich, first simply so as to have something against a time of need. But then the thing began to interest me, and now I'm a doctor, heart and soul.

LOTH

And about this place. How did you get here?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Very simply. When I got through I said to myself: first of all you've got to have a sufficient pile. I thought of America, South and North America, of Africa, Australia and the isles of the sea ... In the end it occurred to me, however, that my escapade had become outlawed; and so I made up my mind to creep back into the old trap.

LOTH

And how about your Swiss examinations?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Why, I simply had to go through the whole rigmarole once more.

LOTH

Man! You passed the state medical examination twice over?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Yes, luckily I then discovered this fat pasture here.

LOTH

Your toughness is certainly enviable.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

All very well, unless one collapses suddenly.--Well, it wouldn't matter so greatly after all.

LOTH

Have you a very large practice?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Oh, yes. Occasionally I don't get to bed till five o'clock in the morning. And at seven my consultation hour begins again.

_EDWARD comes in, bringing coffee._

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

[_Sitting down at the table, to EDWARD._] Thank you, Edward.--[_To LOTH._]--The way I swill coffee is--uncanny.

LOTH

You'd better give that up.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

What is one to do? [_He takes small swallows._] As I told you awhile ago--another year; then--all this stops. At least, I hope so.

LOTH

Don't you intend to practice after that at all?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Don't think so. No--no more. [_He pushes back the tray with the dishes and wipes his mouth._] By the way, let's see your hand. [_LOTH holds up both his hands for inspection._] I see. You've taken no wife to your bosom yet. Haven't found one, I suppose. I remember you always wanted primaeval vigour in the woman of your choice on account of the soundness of the strain. And you're quite right, too. If one takes a risk, it ought to be a good one. Or maybe you've become less stringent in that respect.

LOTH

Not a bit! You may take your oath.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I wish the farmers around here had such notions. But they're in a wretched condition--degeneration along the whole line ... [_He has half taken his cigar case from his inner pocket but lets it slip back and arises as a sound penetrates through the door which is only ajar._] Wait a moment! [_He goes on tiptoe to the door leading to the hall and listens. A door is heard to open and close, and for several moments the moans of the woman in labour are audible. The DOCTOR, turning to LOTH, says softly._] Excuse me!

[_And goes out._

_For several seconds, while the slamming of doors is heard and the sound of people running up and down the stairs, LOTH paces the room. Then he sits down in the arm-chair in the foreground, right. HELEN slips in and throws her arms about LOTH, who has not observed her coming from, behind._

LOTH

[_Looking around and embracing her in turn._] Nellie! [_He drams her down upon his knee in spite of her gentle resistance. HELEN weeps under his kisses._] Don't cry, Nellie! Why are you crying so?

HELEN

Why? Oh, if I knew!... I keep thinking that I won't find you here. Just now I had such a fright ...

LOTH

But why?

HELEN

Because I heard you go out of your room--Oh, and my sister--we poor, poor women!--oh, she's suffering too much!

LOTH

The pain is soon forgotten and there is no danger of death.

HELEN

Oh, but she is praying so to die. She wails and wails: Do let me die!... The doctor!

[_She jumps up and slips into the conservatory._

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

[_On entering._] I do really wish now that that little woman upstairs would hurry a bit! [_He sits down beside the table, takes out his cigar case again, extracts a cigar from it and lays the latter down on the table._] You'll come over to my house afterward, won't you? I have a necessary evil with two horses standing out there in which we can drive straight over. [_He taps his cigar against the edge of the table._] Oh, the holy state of matrimony! O Lord! [_Striking a match._] So you're still pure, free, pious and merry?

LOTH

You might better have waited a few more days with that question.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

[_His cigar is lit now._] Oho! I see!--[_laughing_]--so you've caught on to my tricks at last!

LOTH

Are you still so frightfully pessimistic in regard to women?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

_Fright_fully! [_Watching the drifting smoke of his cigar._] In other years I was a pessimist, so to speak, by presentiment....

LOTH

Have you had very special experiences in the meantime?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

That's just it. My shingle reads: Specialist for Diseases of Women.--The practice of medicine, I assure you, makes a man terribly wise ... terribly ... sane ...; it's a specific against all kinds of delusions.

LOTH

[_Laughing._] Well, then we can fall back into our old tone at once. I want you to know ... I haven't caught on to your tricks at all. Less than ever now ... But I am to understand, I suppose, that you've exchanged your old hobby?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Hobby?

LOTH

The question of woman was in those days in a certain way your pet subject.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I see! And why should I have exchanged it?

LOTH

If you think even worse of women than ...

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

[_Somewhat aroused. He gets up and walks to and fro while he is speaking._] I don't think evil of women.--Not a bit!--I think evil only of marrying ... of marriage ... of marriage and--at most, of men ... The woman question, you think, has ceased to interest me? What do you suppose I've worked here for, during six years, like a cart horse? Surely in order to devote at last all the power that is in me to the solution of that question. Didn't you know that from the beginning?

LOTH

How do you suppose I could have known it?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Well, as I said ... and I've already gathered a lot of very significant material that will be of some service to me! Sh! I've got the bad habit of raising my voice. [_He falls silent, listens, goes to the door and comes back._] But what took you among these gold farmers?

LOTH

I would like to study the local conditions.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

[_In a repressed tone._] What a notion! [_Still more softly._] I can give you plenty of material there too.

LOTH

To be sure. You must be thoroughly informed as to the conditions here. How do things look among the families around here?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Miserable! There's nothing but drunkenness, gluttony, inbreeding and, in consequence,--degeneration along the whole line.

LOTH

With exceptions, surely?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Hardly.

LOTH

[_Disquieted._] Didn't the temptation ever come to you to ... to marry a daughter of one of these Witzdorf gold farmers?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

The devil! Man, what do you take me for? You might as well ask whether I ...

LOTH

[_Very pale._] But why ... why?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Because ... Anything wrong with you?

[_He regards LOTH steadily for several moments._

LOTH

Certainly not. What should be wrong?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

[_Has suddenly become very thoughtful. He stops in his walking suddenly and whistles softly, glances at LOTH and then mutters to himself._] That's bad!

LOTH

You act very strangely all of a sudden.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Sh!

[_He listens carefully and then leaves, the room quickly by the middle door._

HELEN

[_Comes at the end of several seconds from the middle door. She cries out._] Alfred!--Alfred!... You're here. Oh, thank God!

LOTH

Well, dear, did you suppose I had run away?

[_They embrace each other._

HELEN

[_Bends back. With unmistakable terror in her face._] Alfred!

LOTH

What is it, dearest?

HELEN

Nothing, nothing ...

LOTH

But there must be something.

HELEN

You seemed so cold ... Oh, I have such foolish fancies....

LOTH

How are things going upstairs?

HELEN

The doctor is quarreling with the midwife.

LOTH

Isn't it going to end soon?

HELEN

How do I know? But when it ends, when it ends--then....

LOTH

What then?... Tell me, please, what were you going to say?

HELEN

Then we ought soon to go away from here. At once! Oh, right away!

LOTH

If you think that would really be best, Nellie--

HELEN

It is! it is! We mustn't wait! It's the best thing--for you and for me. If you don't take me soon, you'll just leave me quite, and then, and then ... It would just be all over with me.

LOTH

How distrustful you are, Nellie.

HELEN

Don't say that, dearest. Anybody would trust you, would just have to trust you!... When I am your own, oh, then ... then, you surely wouldn't leave me. [_As if beside herself._] I beseech you! Don't go away! Only don't leave me! Don't--go, Alfred! If you go away without me, I would just have to die, just have to die!

LOTH

But you are strange!... And you say you're not distrustful! Or perhaps they're worrying you, torturing you terribly here--more than ever ... At all events we'll leave this very night. I am ready. And so, as soon as you are--we can go.

HELEN

[_Falling around his neck with a cry of joyous gratitude._] Dear--dearest!

[_She kisses him madly and hurries out._

_DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG comes in through the middle door and catches a glimpse of HELEN disappearing into the conservatory._

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Who was that?--Ah, yes! [_To himself._] Poor thing!

[_He sits down beside the table with a sigh, finds his old cigar, throws it aside, takes a new cigar from the case and starts to knock it gently against the edge of the table. Thoughtfully he looks away across it._

LOTH

[_Watching him._] That's just the way you used to loosen every cigar before smoking it eight years ago.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

It's possible--[_When he has lit and begun to smoke the cigar._] Listen to me!

LOTH

Yes; what is it?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I take it that, so soon as the affair is over, you'll come along with me.

LOTH

Can't be done. I'm sorry.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Once in a while, you know, one does feel like talking oneself out thoroughly.

LOTH

I feel that need quite as much, as you do. But you can see from just that how utterly out of my power it is to go ...

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

But suppose I give you my emphatic and, in a way, solemn assurance that there is a specific, an extremely important matter that I'd like--no, that I must discuss with you to-night, Loth!

LOTH

Queer! You don't expect me to take that in deadly earnest. Surely not!--You've waited to discuss that matter so many years and now it can't wait one more day? You know me--I'm not pretending.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

So I am right! Well, well ...

[_He gets up and walks about._

LOTH

What are you right about?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

[_Standing still before LOTH _and looking straight into his eyes._] So there is really something between you and Helen Krause?

LOTH

Who said--?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

How in the world did you fall in with this family?

LOTH

How do you know that, Schimmel?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

It wasn't _so_ hard to guess.

LOTH

Well then, for heaven's sake, don't say a word, because ...

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

So you're quite regularly betrothed?

LOTH

Call it that. At all events, we're agreed.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

But what I want to know is: how did you fall in with this particular family?

LOTH

Hoffmann's an old college friend of mine. Then, too, he was a member--though only a corresponding one--of my colonisation society.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I heard about that business at Zuerich.--So he was associated with you. That explains the wretched half-and-half creature that he is.

LOTH

That describes him, no doubt.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

He isn't even _that_, really.--But, look here, Loth! Is that your honest intention? I mean this thing with the Krause girl.

LOTH

Of course it is! Can you doubt it? You don't think me such a scoundrel--?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Very well! Don't exert yourself! You've probably changed in all this long time. And why not? It needn't be entirely a disadvantage. A little bit of humour couldn't harm you. I don't see why one must look at all things in that damnably serious way.

LOTH

I take things more seriously than ever. [_He gets up and walks up and down with SCHIMMELPFENNIG, always keeping slightly behind the latter._] You can't possibly know, and I can't possibly explain to you, what this thing means to me.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Hm!

LOTH

Man, you have no notion of the condition I'm in. One doesn't know it by simply longing for it. If one did, one would simply go mad with yearning.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Let the devil try to understand how you fellows come by this senseless yearning.

LOTH

You're not safe against an attack yourself yet.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I'd like to see that!

LOTH

You talk as a blind man would of colour.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I wouldn't give a farthing for that bit of intoxication. Ridiculous! And to build a life-long union on such a foundation. I'd rather trust a heap of shifting sand.

LOTH

Intoxication! Pshaw! To call it that is simply to show your utter blindness to it. Intoxication is fleeting. I've had such spells, I admit. This happens to be something different.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Hm!

LOTH

I'm perfectly sober all through it. Do you imagine that I surround my darling with a kind of a--well, how shall I put it--a kind of an aureole? Not In the least. She lias her faults; she isn't remarkably beautiful, at least--well, she's certainly not exactly homely either. Judging her quite objectively--of course it's entirely a matter of taste--I haven't seen such a sweet girl before in my life. So when you talk of mere intoxication--nonsense! I am as sober as possible. But, my friend, this is the remarkable thing: I simply can't imagine myself without her any longer. It seems to me like an amalgam, as when two metals are so intimately welded together that you can't say any longer, here's the one, there's the other. And it all seems so utterly inevitable. In short--maybe I'm talking rot--or what I say may seem rot to you, but so much is certain: a man who doesn't know _that_ is a kind of cool-blooded fishy creature. That's the kind of creature I was up till now, and that's the kind of wretched thing you are still.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

That's a very complete set of symptoms. Queer how you fellows always slide up to the very ears into the particular things that you've long ago rejected theoretically--like yourself into marriage. As long as I've known you, you've struggled with this unhappy mania for marriage.

LOTH

It's instinct with me, sheer instinct. God knows, I can wriggle all I please--there it is.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

When all's said and done one can fight down even an instinct.

LOTH

Certainly, if there's a good reason, why not?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Is there any good reason for marrying?

LOTH

I should say there is. It has a purpose; it has for me! You don't know how I've succeeded in struggling along hitherto. I don't want to grow sentimental. Perhaps I didn't feel it quite so keenly either; perhaps I wasn't so clearly conscious of it as I am now, that in all my endeavour I had taken on something desolate, something machine-like. No spirit, no fire, no life! Heaven knows whether I had any faith left! And all that has come back to me to-day--with such strange fullness, such primal energy, such joy ... Pshaw, what's the use ... You don't understand.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

The various things you fellows need to keep you going--faith, love, hope. I consider all that trash. The thing is simply this: humanity lies in its death throes and we're merely trying to make the agony as bearable as we can by administering narcotics.

LOTH

Is that your latest point of view?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

It's five or six years old by this time and I see no reason to change it.

LOTH

I congratulate you on it.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Thank you.

_A long pause ensues._

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

[_After several disquieted and unsuccessful beginnings._] The trouble is just this. I feel that I'm responsible ... I absolutely owe you an elucidation. I don't believe that you will be able to marry Helen Krause.

LOTH

[_Frigidly._] Oh, is that what you think?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Yes, that's my opinion. There are obstacles present which just you would ...

LOTH

Look here! Don't for heaven's sake have any scruples on that account. The conditions, as a matter of fact, aren't so complicated as all that. At bottom they're really terribly simple.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Simply terrible, you'd better say.

LOTH

I was referring simply to the obstacles.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

So was I, very largely. But take it all in all, I can't imagine that you really know the conditions as they are.

LOTH

Please, Schimmel, express yourself more clearly.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

You must absolutely have dropped the chief demand which you used to make in regard to marriage, although you did give me to understand that you laid as much weight as ever on the propagation of a race sound in mind and body.

LOTH

Dropped my demand...? Dropped it? But why should I?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I see. Then there's nothing else left me but to ... Then you don't know the conditions here. You do not know, for instance, that Hoffmann had a son who perished through alcoholism at the age of three.

LOTH

Wha ... what d'you say?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I'm sorry, Loth, but I've got to tell you. You can do afterward as you please. But the thing was no joke. They were visiting here just as they are now. They sent for me--half an hour too late. The little fellow had bled to death long before I arrived.

_LOTH drinks in the DOCTOR'S _words with every evidence of profound and terrible emotion._

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

The silly little chap grabbed for the vinegar bottle, thinking his beloved rum was in it. The bottle fell and the child tumbled on the broken glass. Down here, you see, the _vena saphena_, was completely severed.

LOTH

Whose, _whose_ child was that?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

The child of Hoffmann and of the same woman who again, up there ... And she drinks too, drinks to the point of unconsciousness, drinks whatever she can get hold of!

LOTH

So it's not, it's not inherited from Hoffmann?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Not at all. That's the tragic aspect of the man! He suffers under it as much as he is capable of suffering. To be sure, he knew that he was marrying into a family of dipsomaniacs. The old farmer simply spends his life in the tavern.

LOTH

Then, to be sure--I understand many things--No, everything, rather ... everything! [_After a heavy silence._] Then her life here, Helen's life, is a ... how shall I express it? I have no words for it; it's ...

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Utterly horrible. I can judge of that. And I understood from the beginning how you should cling to her. But, as I said ...

LOTH

It's enough. I understand ... But doesn't...? Couldn't one perhaps persuade Hoffmann to do something? She ought to be removed from all this foulness.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Hoffmann?

LOTH

Yes, Hoffmann.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

You don't know him. I don't believe that he has ruined her already, but he has ruined her reputation even now.

LOTH

[_Flaring up._] If that's true, I'll murder...! D'you really believe that? Do you think Hoffmann capable...?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

Of anything! I think him capable of anything that might contribute to his own pleasure.

LOTH

Then she is--the purest creature that ever breathed ...

_LOTH slowly takes up his hat and cane and hangs his mallet over his shoulder._

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

What do you think of doing, Loth?

LOTH

... I mustn't meet her ...

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

So you're determined?

LOTH

Determined to what?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

To break the connection.

LOTH

How is it possible for me to be other than determined?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I may add, as a physician, that cases are known in which such inherited evils have been suppressed. And of course you would give your children a rational up-bringing.

LOTH

Such cases may be known.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

And the chances are not so small but that ...

LOTH

That kind of thing can't help me, Schimmel. There are just three possibilities in this affair: Either I marry her and then ... no, that way out simply doesn't exist. Or--the traditional bullet. Of course, that would mean rest, at least. But we haven't reached that point yet awhile; can't indulge in that luxury just yet. And so: live! fight!--Farther, farther! [_His glance falls on the table and he observes the writing-materials that have been placed there by EDWARD. He sits down, hesitates and says:_] And yet...?

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I promise you that I'll represent the situation to her as clearly as possible.

LOTH

Yes, yes! You see--I can't do differently. [_He writes, places his paper in an envelope and addresses it. Then he arises and shakes hands with SCHIMMELPFENNIG._] For the rest--I depend on you.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

You're coming over to my house, aren't, you? Let my coachman drive you right over.

LOTH

Look here! Oughtn't one to try, at least, to get her out of the power of this ... this person? ... As things are she is sure to become his victim.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

My dear, good fellow! I'm sorry for you. But shall I give you a bit of advice? Don't rob her of the--little that you still leave her.

LOTH

[_With a deep sigh._] Maybe you're right--perhaps certainly.

_Hasty steps are heard descending the stairs. In the next moment HOFFMANN rushes in._

HOFFMANN

Doctor, I beg you, for heaven's sake ... she is fainting ... the pains have stopped ... won't you at last ...

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

I'm coming up. [_To LOTH significantly._] We'll see each other later. Mr. Hoffmann, I must request you ... any interference or disturbance might prove fatal ... I would much prefer to have you stay here.

HOFFMANN

You ask a great deal, but ... well!

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

No more than is right.

[_He goes._

_HOFFMANN remains behind._

HOFFMANN

[_Observing LOTH._] I'm just trembling in every limb from the excitement. Tell me, are you leaving?

LOTH

Yes.

HOFFMANN

Now in the middle of the night?

LOTH

I'm only going as far as Schimmelpfennig's.

HOFFMANN

Ah, yes. Well ... as things have shaped themselves, it's of course no pleasure staying with us any longer ... So, good luck!

LOTH

I thank you for your hospitality.

HOFFMANN