Chapter 13

[_Busying himself about her._] What is it that's come over you? Suddenly you're so....

ROSE

I don't know.--If you'd asked me earlier, long ago, maybe ... to-day I can't tell you!--There wasn't nobody that loved me enough.

AUGUST

Who can tell which love is stronger--the happy or the unhappy love.

ROSE

Oh, I was strong, strong, so strong! Now I'm weak! Now it's all over with me.

_The CONSTABLE appears._

THE CONSTABLE

[_With a quiet voice._] They say your daughter is at home. Kleinert said she was here.

AUGUST

It's true. We didn't know it a while ago.

THE CONSTABLE

Then I might as well get through now. There's somethin' to be signed here.

[_Without noticing ROSE in the dim room, he lays several documents on the table._

AUGUST

Rose, here's somethin' you're to sign.

_ROSE laughs with horrible and hysterical irony._

THE CONSTABLE

If you're the one, Miss, it's no laughin' matter.--Please!

ROSE

You can stay a minute yet.

AUGUST

An' why?

ROSE

[_With flaming eyes, a malice against the whole world in her voice._] I've strangled my child.

AUGUST

What are you sayin'? For the love of God, what are you sayin'?

THE CONSTABLE

[_Draws himself up, looks at her searchingly, but continues as though he had not heard._] It'll be somethin' connected with the Streckmann 'affair.

ROSE

[As before, harshly, almost with a bark.] Streckmann? He strangled my child.

BERND

Girl, be still. You're out o' your mind.

THE CONSTABLE

Anyhow, you have no child at all--?

ROSE

What? I has none? Could I ha' strangled it with my hands?... I strangled my baby with these hands!!!

THE CONSTABLE

You're possessed! What's wrong with you?

ROSE

My mind's clear. I'm not possessed. I woke up clear in my mind, so clear.... [_Coldly, mildly, but with cruel firmness._] It _was_ not to live! I didn't want it to live! I didn't want it to suffer my agonies! It was to stay where it belonged.

AUGUST

Rose, think! Don't torment yourself! You don't know what you're sayin' here! You'll bring down misery on us all.

ROSE

You don't know nothin' ... that's it ... You don't see nothin'. You was all blind together with your eyes open. He can go an' look behind the great willow ... by the alder-trees ... behind the parson's field ... by the pool ... there he can see the wee thing....

BERND

You've done somethin' so awful?

AUGUST

You've been guilty o' somethin' so unspeakable?

_ROSE faints. The men look upon her confounded and helpless. AUGUST supports her._

THE CONSTABLE

'Twould be best if she came along with me to headquarters. There she can make a voluntary confession. If what she says isn't just fancies, it'll count a good deal in her favour.

AUGUST

[_From the depth of a great experience._] Those are no fancies, sergeant. That girl ... what she must have suffered!

THE CURTAIN FALLS

THE RATS

A BERLIN TRAGI-COMEDY

PERSONS

HARRO HASSENREUTER, _formerly a theatrical manager._

MRS. HARRO HASSENREUTER.

WALBURGA, _their daughter._

PASTOR SPITTA.

ERICH SPITTA, _postulant for Holy Orders, his son._

ALICE RUeTTERBUSCH, _actress._

NATHANAEL JETTEL, _court actor._

KAeFERSTEIN, DR. KEGEL, _Pupils of HASSENREUTER._

JOHN, _foreman mason._

MRS. JOHN.

BRUNO MECHELKE, _her brother._

PAULINE PIPERCARCKA, _a servant girl._

MRS. SIDONIE KNOBBE.

SELMA, _her daughter._

QUAQUARO, _house-steward._

MRS. KIELBACKE.

POLICEMAN SCHIERKE.

TWO INFANTS.

THE FIRST ACT

_The attic of a former cavalry barracks in Berlin, A windowless room that receives all its light from a lamp which burns suspended over a round table. From the back wall opens a straight passage which connects the room with the outer door--a door with iron hasps and a primitive signal bell which any one desiring to enter rings by means of a bell rope. A door in the right wall leads to an adjoining room, one in the left wall leads to the stairs into the loft immediately under the roof. Into this store room, as well as into the space visible to the spectator, the former theatrical manager, HARRO HASSENREUTER has gathered his collection of properties. In the prevalent gloom it is difficult to decide whether the place is the armour room of an old castle, a museum of antiquities or the shop of a costumer. Stands with helmets and breast-plates are put up on either side of the passage; a row of similar stands almost covers the two sides of the front room. The stairs wind upward between two mailed figures. At the head of the stairs is a wooden trap-door. In the left foreground, against the wall, is a high desk. Ink, pens, old ledgers, a tall stool, as well as several chairs with tall backs and the round table make it clear that the room serves the purposes of an office. On the table is a decanter for water and several glasses; above the desk hang a number of photographs. These photographs represent HASSENREUTER in the part of Karl Moor (in Schiller's "Robbers"), as well as in a number of other parts. One of the mailed dummies wean a huge laurel wreath about its neck. The laurel wreath is tied with a riband which bears, in gilt letters, the following inscription: "To our gifted manager Hassenreuter, from his grateful colleagues." A series of enormous red bows shows the inscriptions: "To the inspired presenter of Karl Moor ... To the incomparable, unforgettable Karl Moor" ... etc., etc. The room is utilised as far as its space will permit for the storing of costumes. Wherever possible, German, Spanish and English garments of every age hang on hooks. Swedish riding boots, Spanish rapiers and German broadswords are scattered about. The door to the left bears the legend: Library. The whole room displays picturesque disorder, Trumpery of all kinds--weapons, goblets, cups--is scattered about. It is Sunday toward the end of May._

_At the table in the middle of the room are sitting, MRS. JOHN (between thirty-five and forty) and a very young servant girl, PAULINE PIPERCARCKA. PAULINE, vulgarly overdressed--jacket, hat, sunshade--sits straight upright. Her pretty, round little face shows signs of long weeping. Her figure betrays the fact that she is approaching motherhood. She draws letters on the floor with the end of her sunshade._

MRS. JOHN

Well, sure now! That's right! That's what I says, Pauline.

PAULINE

All right. So I'm goin' to Schlachtensee or to Halensee. I gotta go and see if I c'n meet him!

[_She dries her tears and is about to rise._

MRS. JOHN

[_Prevents PAULINE from getting up._] Pauline! For God's sake, don't you be doin' that! Not that there, for nothin' in the world! That don't do nothin' but raise a row an' cost money an' don't bring you in nothin'. Look at the condition you're in! An' that way you want to go an' run after that there low lived feller?

PAULINE

Then my landlady c'n wait an' wait for me to-day. I'll jump into the Landwehr canal an' drownd myself.

MRS. JOHN

Pauline! An' what for? What for, I'd like to know? Now you just listen to me for a speck of a minute, just for God's sake, for the teeniest speck of one an' pay attention to what I'm goin' to propose to you! You know yourself how I says to you, out on Alexander square, right by the chronomoneter--says I to you right out, as I was comin' out o' the market an' sees your condition with half an eye. He don't want to acknowledge nothin', eh? That's what I axed you right out!--That happens to many gals here, to all of 'em--to millions! An' then I says to you ... what did I say? Come along, I says, an' I'll help you!

PAULINE

O' course, I don't never dare to show myself at home lookin' this way. Mother, she'd cry it out at the first look. An' father, he'd knock my head against the wall an' throw me out in the street. An' I ain't got no more money left neither--nothin' but just two pieces o' gold that I got sewed up in the linin' o' my jacket. That feller didn't leave me no crown an' he didn't leave me no penny.

MRS. JOHN

Miss, my husband, he's a foreman mason. I just wants you to pay attention ... just for heaven's sake, pay attention to the propositions that I'm goin' to make to you. They'll help us both. You'll be helped out an' the same way I'll be. An' what's more, Paul, that's my husband, he'll be helped, because he'd like, for all the world, to have a child, an' our only one, little Adelbert, he went an' died o' the croup. Your child'll be as well taken care of as an own child. Then you c'n go an' you c'n look up your sweetheart an' you c'n go back into service an' home to your people, an' the child is well off, an' nobody in the world don't need to know nothin'.

PAULINE

I'll do it just outa spite--that's what! An' drownd myself! [_She rises._] An' a note, a note, I'll leave in my jacket, like this: You drove your Pauline to her death with your cursed meanness! An' then I'll put down his name in full: Alois Theophil Brunner, instrument-maker. Then he c'n see how he'll get along in the world with the murder o' me on his conscience.

MRS. JOHN

Wait a minute, Miss! I gotta unlock the door first.

_MRS. JOHN acts, as though she were about to conduct PAULINE to the door._

_Before the two women reach the passage, BRUNO MECHELKE enters with slow and suspicious demeanour by the door at the left and remains standing in the room. BRUNO is short rather than tall, but with a powerful bull's neck and athletic shoulders. His forehead is low and receding, his close-clipped hair like a brush, his skull round and small. His face is brutal and his left nostril has been ripped open sometime and imperfectly healed. The fellow is about nineteen years old. He bends forward, and his great, lumpish hands are joined to muscular arms. The pupils of his eyes are small, black and piercing. He is trying to repair a rat trap._

_BRUNO whistles to his sister as he would to a dog._

MRS. JOHN

I'm comin' now, Bruno! What d'you want?

BRUNO

[_Apparently absorbed by the trap._] Thought I was goin' to put up traps here.

MRS. JOHN

Did you put the bacon in? [_To PAULINE._] It's only my brother. Don't be scared, Miss.

BRUNO

[_As before._] I seen the Emperor William to-day. I marched along wi' the guard,

MRS. JOHN

[_To PAULINE, who stands fearful and moveless in BRUNO'S presence._] 'Tain't nothin' but my brother. You c'n stay.--[_To BRUNO._] Boy, what're you lookin' that way for again? The young lady is fair scared o' you.

BRUNO

[_As before, without looking up._] Brrr-rr-rr! I'm a ghost.

MRS. JOHN

Hurry an' go up in the loft an' set your traps.

BRUNO

[_Slowly approaching the table._] Aw, that business ain't no good 'cept to starve on! When I goes to sell matches, I gets more outa it.

PAULINE

Good-bye, Mrs. John.

MRS. JOHN

[_Raging at her brother._] Are you goin' to leave me alone?

BRUNO

[_Knuckling under._] Aw, don' go on so. I'm leavin'.

_Obediently he withdraws into the adjoining room. MRS. JOHN locks the door behind him with a determined gesture._

PAULINE

That's a feller I wouldn't like to meet in the _Tiergarten_. Not by night an' not by day neither.

MRS. JOHN

If I sets Bruno on anyone an' he gets at him, God help him!

PAULINE

Good-bye. I don't like this here place. If you wants to see me again, Mrs. John, I'd rather meet you at a bench on the _Kreuzberg_.

MRS. JOHN

Pauline, I brought up Bruno with sorrow and trouble by day an' by night. An' I'll be twenty times better to your child. So when it's born, Pauline, I'll take it, an' I swears to you by my father an' mother what died in the Lord an' what I goes to visit the graves of out in Ruedersdorf one Sunday a year an' puts candles on 'em an' don' let nobody keep me back--I swears to you that little crittur'll live on the fat o' the land just like a born prince nor a born princess couldn't be treated no better.

PAULINE

I'm goin' and with my last penny I'm goin' to buy vitriol--I don' care who it hits! An' I'll throw it in the face o' the wench that he goes with ... I don' care who it hits ... right in the middle o' the mug. I don' care! It c'n burn up his fine-lookin' phiz! I don' care! It c'n burn off his beard an' burn out his eyes if he goes with other women! What did he do? Cheated me! Ruined me! Took my money! Robbed me o' my honour! That's what the damn' dog did--seduced me an' lied to me an' left me an' kicked me out into the world! I don' care who it hits! I wants him to be blind! I wants the stuff to burn his nose offa his face! I wants it to burn him offa the earth!

MRS. JOHN

Pauline, as I hopes to be happy hereafter, I tells you, from the minute where that there little one is born ... it's goin' to be treated like ... well, I don' know what!... as if it was born to be put in silks an' in satins. All you gotta do is to have some confidence--that's what! You just say: Yes. I got it all figgered out. It c'n be done, it c'n be done--that's what I tells you! An' no doctor an' no police an' no landlady don't has to know nothin'. An' then, first of all, you gets paid a hundred an' twenty crowns what I saved scrubbin' an' charrin' here for manager Hassenreuter.

PAULINE

I might strangle it when it's born, rather 'n sell it!

MRS. JOHN

Who's talkin' about sellin'?

PAULINE

Look at the frights an' the misery I've stood from October las' to this very day. My intended gives me the go; my landlady puts me out! They gives me notice at a lodgin's. What does I do that I has to be despised an' cursed an' kicked aroun'?

MRS. JOHN

That's what I says. That's cause the devil is still gettin' the better of our Lord Jesus.

_Unnoticed and busy with the trap as before BRUNO has quietly re-entered by the door._

BRUNO

[_With a strange intonation, sharply and yet carelessly._] Lamps!

PAULINE

That feller scares me. Lemme go!

MRS. JOHN

[_Makes violently for BRUNO._] Is you goin' to go where you belongs? I told you I'd call you!

BRUNO

[_In the same tone as before._] Well, Jette, I jus' said: Lamps!

MRS. JOHN

Are you crazy? What's the meanin' o' that--lamps?

BRUNO

Ain't that a ringin' o' the front bell?

MRS. JOHN

[_Is frightened, listens and restrains PAULINE, who makes a motion to go._] Sh, Miss, wait! Just wait one little minute!

[_BRUNO continues whittling as the two women stop to listen._

MRS. JOHN

[_Softly and in a frightened tone to BRUNO._] I don't hear nothin'!

BRUNO

You ol' dried up piece! You better go an' get another pair o' ears!

MRS. JOHN

That'd be the first time in all the three months that the manager'd be comin' in when it's Sunday.

BRUNO

If that there theayter feller comes, he c'n engage me right on the spot.

MRS. JOHN

[_Violently._] Don' talk rot!

BRUNO

[_Grinning at PAULINE._] Maybe you don' believe it, Miss, but I went an' took the clown's hoss at Schumann's circus aroun' the ring three times. Them's the kind o' things I does. An' is I goin' to be scared?

PAULINE

[_Seeming to notice for the first time the fantastic strangeness of the place in which she finds herself. Frightened and genuinely perturbed._] Mother o' God, what kind o' place is this?

MRS. JOHN

Whoever c'n that be?

BRUNO

'Tain't the manager, Jette! More like it's a spout what's drippin'!

MRS. JOHN

Miss, you be so kind an' go for two minutes, if you don' mind, up into this here loft. Maybe somebody's comin' that just wants some information.

_In her growing terror PAULINE does as she is asked to do. She clambers up the stairs to the loft, the trap door being open. MRS. JOHN has taken up a position in which she can, at need, hide PAULINE from anyone entering the room. PAULINE disappears: MRS. JOHN and BRUNO remain alone._

BRUNO

What business has you with that pious mug?

MRS. JOHN

That ain't none o' your business, y'understan'?

BRUNO

I was just axin' 'cause you was so careful that nobody should see her. Otherwise I don't know's I gives a damn.

MRS. JOHN

An' you ain't supposed to!

BRUNO

Much obliged. Maybe I better toddle along, then.

MRS. JOHN

D'you know what you owes me, you scamp?

BRUNO

[_Carelessly._] What are you gettin' excited for? What is I doin' to you? What d'you want? I gotta go to my gal now. I'm sleepy. Las' night I slept under a lot o' bushes in the park. An' anyhow, I'm cleaned out--[_He turns his trowsers pockets inside out._] An' in consequence o' that I gotta go an' earn somethin'.

MRS. JOHN

Here you stays! Don't you dare move! If you do you c'n whine like a whipped purp an' you'll never be gettin' so much as a penny outa me no more--that's what you won't! Bruno, you're goin' ways you hadn't ought to.

BRUNO

Aw, what d'you think? Is I goin' to be a dam' fool? D'you think I ain' goin' when I gets a good livin' offa Hulda? [_He pulls out a dirty card-case._] Not so much as a measly pawn ticket has I got. Tell me what you want an' then lemme go!

MRS. JOHN

What I wants? Of you? What're you good for anyhow? You ain't good for nothin' excep' for your sister who ain't right in her head to feel sorry for you, you loafer an' scamp!

BRUNO

Maybe you _ain'_ right in your head sometimes!

MRS. JOHN

Our father, he used to say when you was no more'n five an' six years old an' used to do rowdy things, that we couldn't never be proud o' you an' that I might as well let you go hang. An' my husband what's a reel honest decent man ... why, you can't be seen alongside of a good man like him.

BRUNO

Sure, I knows all that there, Jette. But things ain' that easy to straighten out. I knows all right I was born with a kind o' a twist in my back, even if nobody don't see it. No, I wasn't born in no castle. Well, I gotta do what I c'n do with my twist. All right. What d'you want? 'Tain't for the rats you're keepin' me. You wanta hush up somethin' wi' that whore!

MRS. JOHN

[_Shaking her hand under BRUNO'S nose._] You give away one word o' this an' I'll kill you, I'll make a corpse o' you!

BRUNO

Well now, looka here! I'm goin', y'understan'? [_He mounts the stairs._] Maybe someday I'll be droppin' into good luck without knowin' it.

_He disappears through the trap-door, MRS. JOHN hurriedly blows out the lamp and taps her way to the door of the library. She enters it but does--not wholly close the door behind her.--The noise that BRUNO actually heard was that of a key being turned in a rusty keyhole. A light step is now heard approaching the door. For a moment the street noises of Berlin as well as the yelling of children in the outer halls had been audible. Strains of a hurdy-gurdy from the yard.--WALBURGA HASSENREUTER enters with hesitating and embarrassed steps. The girl is not yet sixteen and is pretty and innocent of appearance. Sunshade, light-coloured summer dress, not coming below the ankle._

WALBURGA

[_Halts, listens, then says nervously:_] Papa!--Isn't any one up here yet? Papa! Papa! [_She listens long and intently and then says:_] Why, what an odour of coal oil there is here! [_She finds matches, lights one, is about to light the lamp and burns her fingers against the hot chimney._] Ouch! Why, dear me! Who is here?

[_She has cried out and is about to run away._

_MRS. JOHN reappears._

MRS. JOHN

Well, Miss Walburga, who's goin' to go an' kick up a row like that! You c'n be reel quiet. 'Tain't nobody but me!

WALBURGA

Dear me, but I've had an awful fright, Mrs. John.

MRS. JOHN

Well, then I advise you to be gettin' out o' here to-day--on Sunday?

WALBURGA

[_Laying her hand over her heart._] Why, my heart is almost standing still yet, Mrs. John.

MRS. JOHN

What's the matter, Miss Walburga? What's frightenin' you? You oughta know that from your pa that Sunday an' week day I gotta be workin' aroun' here with them boxes an' cases, dustin' an' tryin' to get rid o' the moths! An' then, after two or three weeks, when I've gone over the twelve or eighteen hundred theayter rags that're lyin' here--then I gotta start all over again.

WALBURGA

I was frightened because the chimney of the lamp was still quite hot to the touch.

MRS. JOHN

That's right. That there lamp was burnin' 'an' I put it out jus' a minute ago. [_She lifts up the chimney._] It don't burn me; my hands is hard. [_She lights the wick._] Well, now we has light. Now I lit it again. What's the danger here? I don' see nothin'.

WALBURGA

But you do look like a ghost, Mrs. John.

MRS. JOHN

How do you say I looks?

WALBURGA

Oh, it just seems so when one comes out of the vivid sunlight into the darkness, into these musty holes. It seems as though one were surrounded by ghosts.

MRS. JOHN

Well, you little ghost, why did you come up here? Is you alone or has you got somebody with you? Maybe papa'll be comin' in yet?

WALBURGA

No, papa has been granted an important audience out in Potsdam to-day.

MRS. JOHN

All right! What're you lookin' for here then?

WALBURGA

I? Oh, I just came out for a walk!

MRS. JOHN

Well, then I advise you to be gettin out o' here again. No sun don't shine into your papa's lumber-room.

WALBURGA

You look so grey! You had better go out into the sunlight yourself!

MRS. JOHN

Oh, the sunlight's just for fine folks! All I needs is a couple o' pounds o' dust an' dirt on my lungs.--You just go along, missie! I gotta get to work. I don' need nothin' else. I jus' lives on mildew an' insec'-powder.

[_She coughs._

WALBURGA

[_Nervously._] You needn't tell papa that I was up here.

MRS. JOHN

Me? Ain't I got somethin' better to do'n that?

WALBURGA

[_With assumed carelessness._] And if Mr. Spitta were to ask after me....

MRS. JOHN

Who?

WALBURGA

The young gentleman who gives us private lessons at home....

MRS. JOHN

Well, s'posin'?

WALBURGA

Then be so kind as to tell him that I've been here but left again at once.

MRS. JOHN

So I'm to tell Mr. Spitta but not papa?

WALBURGA

[_Involuntarily._] Oh, for heaven's sake, no!

MRS. JOHN

Well, you jus' wait an' see! You jus' look out! There's many a one has looked like you an' has come from your part o' the city an'--has gone to the dogs in the ditch in Dragoner street or, even, behind Swedish hangin's in Barnim street.

WALBURGA

Surely you don't mean to insinuate, Mrs. John, and surely you don't believe that there's anything unpermitted or improper in my relations with Mr. Spitta?

MRS. JOHN

[_In extreme fright._] Shut up!--Somebody's put the key into the keyhole.

WALBURGA

Blow out the lamp!

[_MRS. JOHN blows out the lamp quickly._

WALBURGA

Papa!

MRS. JOHN

Miss! Up into the loft with you!

_MRS. JOHN and WALBURGA both disappear through the trap-door, which closes behind them._

_Two gentlemen, the manager HARRO HASSENREUTER and the court actor NATHANAEL JETTEL, appear in the frame of the outer door. The manager is of middle height, clean shaven, fifty years old. He takes long steps and shows a lively temperament in his whole demeanour. The cut of his face is noble, his eyes have a vivid, adventurous expression. His behaviour is somewhat noisy, which accords with his thoroughly fiery nature. He wears a light overcoat, a top-hat thrust back on his head, full dress suit and patent leather boots. The overcoat, which is unbuttoned, reveals the decorations which almost cover his chest--JETTEL wears a suit of flannels under a very light spring overcoat. In his left hand he holds a straw hat and an elegant cane; he wears tan shoes. He also is clean shaven and over fifty years old.

HASSENREUTER

[_Calls:_] John! Mrs. John!--Well, now you see my catacombs, my dear fellow! _Sic transit gloria mundi!_ Here I've stored everything--_mutatis mutandis_--that was left of my whole theatrical glory--trash, trash! Old rags! Old tatters!--John! John! She's been here, for the lamp chimney is still quite hot! [_He strikes a match and lights the lamp._] _Fiat lux, pereat mundus!_ Now you can get a good view of my paradise of moths and rats and fleas!

JETTEL

You received my card, didn't you, my dear manager?