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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Hagen, by Upton Sinclair
+#7 in our series by Upton Sinclair
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+Title: Prince Hagen
+
+Author: Upton Sinclair
+
+Release Date: July, 2002  [Etext #3303]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Hagen, by Upton Sinclair
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+
+
+PRINCE HAGEN
+
+UPTON SINCLAIR
+
+
+
+
+CHARACTERS (In order of appearance)
+Gerald Isman : a poet.
+Mimi: a Nibelung.
+Alberich: King of the Nibelungs.
+Prince Hagen: his grandson.
+Mrs. Isman.
+Hicks: a butler.
+Mrs. Bagley-Willis: mistress of Society.
+John Isman: a railroad magnate.
+Estelle Isman : his daughter.
+Plimpton: the coal baron.
+Rutherford: lord of steel.
+De Wiggleston Riggs: cotillon leader.
+Lord Alderdyce: seeing America.
+Calkins: Prince Hagen's secretary.
+Nibelungs; members of Society.
+
+
+
+
+                               ACT I
+SCENE I. Gerald Isman's tent in Quebec.
+
+SCENE 2. The Hall of State in Nibelheim.
+
+
+                              ACT II
+Library in the Isman home on Fifth Avenue: two years later.
+
+
+                              ACT III
+Conservatory of Prince Hagen's palace on Fifth Avenue. The wind-up
+of the opening ball: four months later.
+
+
+                              ACT IV
+Living room in the Isman camp in Quebec: three months later.
+
+
+
+
+ACT I
+
+
+SCENE I
+
+
+[Shows a primeval forest, with great trees, thickets in background,
+and moss and ferns underfoot. A set in the foreground. To the left is
+a tent, about ten feet square, with a fly. The front and sides are
+rolled up, showing a rubber blanket spread, with bedding upon it; a
+rough stand, with books and some canned goods, a rifle, a fishing-rod,
+etc. Toward centre is a trench with the remains of a fire smoldering
+in it, and a frying pan and some soiled dishes beside it. There is a
+log, used as a seat, and near it are several books, a bound volume of
+music lying open, and a violin case with violin. To the right is a
+rocky wall, with a cleft suggesting a grotto.]
+
+[At rise: GERALD pottering about his fire, which is burning badly,
+mainly because he is giving most of his attention to a bound volume of
+music which he has open. He is a young man of twenty-two, with wavy
+auburn hair; wears old corduroy trousers and a grey flannel shirt,
+open at the throat. He stirs the fire, then takes violin and plays the
+Nibelung theme with gusto.]
+
+GERALD. A plague on that fire! I think I'll make my supper on prunes
+and crackers to-night!
+
+[Plays again.]
+
+MIMI. [Enters left, disguised as a pack-peddler; a little wizened up
+man, with long, unkempt grey hair and beard, and a heavy bundle on his
+back.] Good evening, sir!
+
+GERALD. [Starts.] Hello!
+
+MIMI. Good evening!
+
+GERALD. Why . . . who are you?
+
+MIMI. Can you tell me how I find the road, sir?
+
+GERALD. Where do you want to go?
+
+MIMI. To the railroad.
+
+GERALD. Oh, I see! You got lost?
+
+MIMI. Yes, sir.
+
+GERALD. [Points.] You should have turned to the right down where the
+roads cross.
+
+MIMI. Oh. That's it!
+
+[Puts down burden and sighs.]
+
+GERALD. Are you expecting to get to the railroad to-night?
+
+MIMI. Yes, sir.
+
+GERALD. Humph! You'll find it hard going. Better rest. [Looks him
+over, curiously.] What are you--a peddler?
+
+MIMI. I sell things. Nice things, sir. You buy?
+
+[Starts to open pack.]
+
+GERALD. No. I don't want anything.
+
+MIMI. [Gazing about.] You live here all alone?
+
+GERALD. Yes . . . all alone.
+
+MIMI. [Looking of left.] Who lives in the big house?
+
+GERALD. That's my father's camp.
+
+MIMI. Humph! Nobody in there?
+
+GERALD. The family hasn't come up yet.
+
+MIMI. Why don't you live there?
+
+GERALD. I'm camping out--I prefer the tent.
+
+MIMI. Humph! Who's your father?
+
+GERALD. John Isman's his name.
+
+MIMI. Rich man, hey?
+
+GERALD. Why . . . yes. Fairly so.
+
+MIMI. I see people here last year.
+
+GERALD. Oh! You've been here before?
+
+MIMI. Yes. I been here. I see young lady. Very beautiful!
+
+GERALD. That's my sister, I guess.
+
+MIMI. Your sister. What you call her?
+
+GERALD. Her name's Estelle.
+
+MIMI. Estelle! And what's your name?
+
+GERALD. I'm Gerald Isman.
+
+MIMI. Humph! [Looking about, sees violin.] You play music, hey?
+
+GERALD. Yes.
+
+MIMI. You play so very bad?
+
+GERALD. [Laughs.] Why . . . what makes you think that?
+
+MIMI. You come 'way off by yourself!
+
+GERALD. Oh! I see! No . . . I like to be alone.
+
+MIMI. I hear you playing . . . nice tune.
+
+GERALD. Yes. You like music?
+
+MIMI. Sometimes. You play little quick tune . . . so?
+
+[Hums.]
+
+GERALD. [Plays Nibelung theme.] This?
+
+MIMI. [Eagerly.] Yes. Where you learn that?
+
+GERALD. That's the Nibelung music.
+
+MIMI. Nibelung music! Where you hear it?
+
+GERALD. Why . . . it's in an opera.
+
+MIMI. An opera?
+
+GERALD. It's by a composer named Wagner.
+
+MIMI. Where he hear it?
+
+GERALD. [Laughs.] Why . . . I guess he made it up.
+
+MIMI. What's it about? Hey?
+
+GERALD. It's about the Nibelungs.
+
+MIMI. Nibelungs?
+
+GERALD. Queer little people who live down inside the earth, and spend
+all their time digging for gold.
+
+MIMI. Ha! You believe in such people?
+
+GERALD. [Amused.] Why . . . I don't know . . .
+
+MIMI. You ever see them?
+
+GERALD. No . . . but the poets tell us they exist.
+
+MIMI. The poets, hey? What they tell you about them?
+
+GERALD. Well, they have great rocky caverns, down in the depths of the
+earth. And they have treasures of gold . . . whole caves of it. And
+they're very cunning smiths . . . they make all sorts of beautiful
+golden vessels and trinkets.
+
+MIMI. Trinkets, hey! [Reaches into bundle.] Like this, hey?
+
+[Holds up a gold cup.]
+
+GERALD. [Surprised.] Oh!
+
+MIMI. Or this, hey?
+
+GERALD. Why . . . where did you get such things?
+
+MIMI. Ha, ha! You don't know what I got!
+
+GERALD. Let me see them.
+
+MIMI. You think the Nibelungs can beat that, hey? [Reaches into bag.]
+Maybe I sell you this cap! [Takes out a little cap of woven gold
+chains.] A magic cap, hey?
+
+GERALD. [Astounded.] Why . . . what is it?
+
+MIMI. [Puts it on his head.] You wear it . . . so. And you play
+Nibelung music, and you vanish from sight . . . nobody finds you. Or I
+sell you the magic ring . . . you wear that . . . [Hands it to
+GERALD.] Put it on your finger . . . so. Now you play, and the
+Nibelungs come . . . they dance about in the woods . . . they bring
+you gold treasures . . . ha, ha, ha! [Amused at GERALD's perplexity.]
+What you think they look like, hey? . . . those Nibelungs!
+
+GERALD. Why . . . I don't know . . .
+
+MIMI. What do your poets tell you? ha?
+
+GERALD. Why . . . they're little men . . . with long hair and funny
+clothes . . . and humpbacked.
+
+MIMI. Look like me, hey?
+
+GERALD. [Embarrassed.] Why . . . yes . . . in a way.
+
+MIMI. What are their names?
+
+GERALD. Their names?
+
+MIMI. Yes . . . what ones do you know about?
+
+GERALD. Well, there was Alberich, the king.
+
+MIMI. Alberich!
+
+GERALD. He was the one who found the Rheingold. And then there was
+Hagen, his son.
+
+MIMI. Hagen!
+
+GERALD. He killed the hero, Siegfried.
+
+MIMI. Yes, yes!
+
+GERALD. And then there was Mimi.
+
+MIMI. Ah! Mimi!
+
+GERALD. He was a very famous smith.
+
+MIMI. [Eagerly.] You know all about them! Somebody has been there!
+
+GERALD. What do you mean?
+
+MIMI. Would you like to see those Nibelungs?
+
+GERALD. [Laughing.] Why . . . I wouldn't mind.
+
+MIMI. You would like to see them dancing in the moonlight, and hear
+the clatter of their trinkets and shields? You would like to meet old
+King Alberich, and Mimi the smith? You would like to see that cavern
+yawn open . . . [points to right] and fire and steam break forth, and
+all the Nibelungs come running out? Would you like that? ha?
+
+GERALD. Indeed I would!
+
+MIMI. You wouldn't be afraid?
+
+GERALD. No, I don't think so.
+
+MIMI. But are you sure?
+
+GERALD. Yes . . . sure!
+
+MIMI. All right! You wear my magic ring! You wait till night comes!
+Then you play! [Puts away trinkets.] I must go now.
+
+GERALD. [Perplexed.] What do you want for your ring?
+
+MIMI. It is not for sale. I give it.
+
+GERALD. What!
+
+MIMI. Money could not buy it. [Takes up pack.] I came to you because
+you play that music.
+
+GERALD. But I can't . . . it . . .
+
+MIMI. It is yours . . . you are a poet! [Starts left.] Is this the
+way?
+
+GERALD. Yes. But I don't like to . . .
+
+MIMI. Keep it! You will see! Good-bye!
+
+GERALD. But wait!
+
+MIMI. It is late. I must go. Good-night.
+
+[Exit left.]
+
+GERALD. Good-night. [Stands staring.] Well, I'll be switched! If that
+wasn't a queer old customer! [Looks at ring.] It feels like real gold!
+[Peers after MIMI.] What in the world did he mean, anyhow? The magic
+ring! I hope he doesn't get lost in those woods to-night. [Turns to
+fire.] Confound that fire! It's out for good now! Let it go. [Sits,
+and takes music score.] Nibelungs! They are realer than anybody
+guesses. People who spend their lives in digging for gold, and know
+and care about nothing else. How many of them I've met at mother's
+dinner parties! Well, I must get to my work now. [Makes a few notes;
+then looks up and stretches.] Ah, me! I don't know what makes me so
+lazy this evening. This strange heaviness! There seems to be a spell
+on me. [Gazes about.] How beautiful these woods are at sunset! If I
+were a Nibelung, I'd come here for certain! [Settles himself,
+reclining; shadows begin to fall; music from orchestra.] I'm good for
+nothing but dreaming . . . I wish Estelle were here to sing to me! How
+magical the twilight is! Estelle! Estelle!
+
+[He lies motionless; music dies away, and there is a long silence. The
+forest is dark, with gleams of moonlight. Suddenly there is a faint
+note of music . . . the Nibelung theme. After a silence it is
+repeated; then again. Several instruments take it up. It swells
+louder. Vague forms are seen flitting here and there. Shadows move.]
+
+GERALD. [Starting up suddenly.] What's that? [Silence; then the note
+is heard again, very faint. He starts. It is heard again, and he
+springs to his feet.] What's that? [Again and again. He runs to his
+violin, picks it up, and stares at it. Still the notes are heard, and
+he puts down the violin, and runs down stage, listening.] Why, what
+can it mean? [As the music grows louder his perplexity and alarm
+increase. Suddenly he sees a figure stealing through the shadows, and
+he springs back, aghast.] Why, it's a Nibelung! [Another figure
+passes.] Oh! I must be dreaming! [Several more appear.] Nibelungs!
+Why, it's absurd! Wake up, man! You're going crazy! [Music swells
+louder; figures appear, carrying gold shields, chains, etc., with
+clatter.] My God!
+
+[He stands with hands clasped to his forehead, while the uproar swells
+louder and louder, and the forms become more numerous. He rushes down
+stage, and the Nibelungs surround him, dancing about him in wild
+career, laughing, screaming, jeering. They begin to pinch his legs
+behind his back, and he leaps here and there, crying out. Gradually
+they drive him toward the grotto, which opens before them, revealing a
+black chasm, emitting clouds of steam. They rush in and are enveloped
+in the mist. Sounds of falling and crashing are heard. The steam
+spreads, gradually veiling the front of the stage.]
+
+[Nets rise with the steam, giving the effect of a descent. During this
+change the orchestra plays the music between Scenes II and III in Das
+Rheingold.]
+
+
+
+
+SCENE II
+
+
+[Nibelheim: a vast rocky cavern. Right centre is a large gold throne,
+and to the right of that an entrance through a great tunnel. Entrances
+from the sides also. At the left is a large golden vase upon a stand,
+and near it lie piles of golden utensils, shields, etc. Left centre is
+a heavy iron door, opening into a vault. Throughout this scene there
+is a suggestion of music, rising into full orchestra at significant
+moments. The voices of the Nibelungs are accompanied by stopped
+trumpets and other weird sounds.]
+
+[At rise: The stage is dark. A faint light spreads. A company of
+Nibelungs crosses from right to left, carrying trinkets and treasures.
+Clatter of shields, crack of whips, music, etc. Another company of
+Nibelungs runs in left.]
+
+FIRST NIB. [Entering.] The earth-man has come!
+
+SECOND NIB. Where is he?
+
+FIRST NIB. He is with Mimi!
+
+SECOND NIB. What is he like?
+
+FIRST NIB. He is big! [With a gesture of fright.] Terrible!
+
+THIRD NIB. Ah!
+
+SECOND NIB. And the king? Does he know?
+
+FIRST NIB. He has been told.
+
+THIRD NIB. Where is the king?
+
+FIRST NIB. He comes! He comes!
+
+[The orchestra plays the Fasolt and Fafnir music, Rheingold, Scene II.
+[Enter a company of Nibelungs, armed with whips, and marching with a
+stately tread. They post themselves about the apartment. Enter another
+company supporting KING ALBERICH. He is grey-haired and very feeble,
+but ferocious-looking, and somewhat taller than the others. His robe
+is lined with ermine, and he carries a gold Nibelung whip--a short
+handle of gold, with leather thongs. He seats himself upon the throne,
+and all make obeisance. A solemn pause.]
+
+ALBERICH. The earth-man has come?
+
+FIRST NIB. Yes, your majesty!
+
+ALB. Where is Mimi?
+
+ALL. Mimi! Mimi!
+
+[The call is repeated off.]
+
+MIMI. [Enters left.] Your majesty.
+
+ALB. Where is the earth-man?
+
+MIMI. He is safe, your majesty.
+
+ALB. Did he resist?
+
+MIMI. I have brought him, your majesty.
+
+ALB. And Prince Hagen? Has he come?
+
+MIMI. He is without, your majesty.
+
+ALB. Let him be brought in.
+
+[All cry out in terror.]
+
+MIMI. Your majesty. He is wild! He fights with everyone! He . . .
+
+ALB. Let him be brought in.
+
+ALL. Prince Hagen! Prince Hagen!
+
+MIMI. [Calling.] Prince Hagen !
+
+[Some run out. The call is heard off All stand waiting in tense
+expectation. The music plays the Hagen motives, with suggestions of
+the Siegfried funeral march. Voices are heard in the distance, and at
+the climax of the music PRINCE HAGEN and his keepers enter. He is
+small for a man, but larger than any of the Nibelungs; a grim,
+sinister figure, with black hair, and a glowering look. His hands are
+chained in front of him, and eight Nibelungs march as a guard. He has
+bare arms and limbs, and a rough black bearskin flung over his
+shoulders. He enters right, and stands glaring from one to another.]
+
+ALB. Good evening, Hagen.
+
+HAGEN. [After a pause.] Well?
+
+ALB. [Hesitating.] Hagen, you are still angry and rebellious?
+
+HAGEN. I am!
+
+ALB. [Pleading.] Hagen, you are my grandson. You are my sole heir . .
+. the only representative of my line. You are all that I have in the
+world!
+
+HAGEN. Well?
+
+ALB. You place me in such a trying position! Have you no shame . . .
+no conscience? Why, some day you will be king . . . and one cannot
+keep a king in chains!
+
+HAGEN. I do not want to be in chains!
+
+ALB. But, Hagen, your conduct is such . . . what can I do? You have
+robbed . . . you have threatened murder! And you . . . my grandson and
+my heir . . .
+
+HAGEN. Have you sent for me to preach at me again?
+
+ALB. Hagen, this stranger . . . he has come to visit us from the world
+above. These earth-men know more than we . . . they have greater
+powers . . .
+
+[He hesitates.]
+
+HAGEN. What is all that to me?
+
+ALB. You know that you yourself are three-quarters an earth-man . . .
+
+HAGEN. I know it. [With a passionate gesture.] But I am in chains!
+
+ALB. There may be a way of your having another chance. Perhaps this
+stranger will teach you. If you will promise to obey him, he will stay
+with you . . . he will be your tutor, and show you the ways of the
+earth- men.
+
+HAGEN. No!
+
+ALB. What?
+
+HAGEN. I will not have it!
+
+ALB. Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. I will not have it, I say! Why did you not consult me?
+
+ALB. But what is your objection . . .
+
+HAGEN. I will not obey an earth-man! I will not obey anyone!
+
+ALB. But he will teach you . . .
+
+HAGEN. I do not want to be taught. I want to be let alone! Take off
+these chains!
+
+ALB. [Half rising.] Hagen! I insist . . .
+
+HAGEN. Take them off, I say! You cannot conquer me . . . you cannot
+trick me!
+
+ALB. [Angrily.] Take him away!
+
+[The Nibelungs seize hold of him to hustle him off.]
+
+HAGEN. I will not obey him! Mark what I say . . . I will kill him.
+Yes! I will kill him!
+
+[He is dragged off protesting.]
+
+ALB. [Sits, his head bowed with grief, until the uproar dies away;
+then, looking up.] Mimi!
+
+MIMI. Yes, your majesty.
+
+ALB. Let the earth-man be brought.
+
+MIMI. Yes, your majesty!
+
+ALL. The earth-man! The earth-man!
+
+[The call is heard as before. GERALD is brought on; the orchestra
+plays a beautiful melody, violins and horns. MIMI moves left to meet
+him.]
+
+GERALD. [Enters left with attendants; hesitating, gazing about in
+wonder. He sees MIMI, and stops; a pause.] The pack peddler!
+
+MIMI. The pack peddler!
+
+GER. And these are Nibelungs?
+
+MIMI. You call us that.
+
+GER. [Laughing nervously.] You . . . er . . . it's a little
+disconcerting, you know. I had no idea you existed. May I ask your
+name?
+
+MIMI. I am Mimi.
+
+GER. Mimi! Mimi, the smith? And may I ask . . . are you real, or is
+this a dream?
+
+MIMI. Is not life a dream?
+
+GER. Yes . . . but . . .
+
+MIMI. It is a story. You have to pretend that it is true.
+
+GER. I see!
+
+MIMI. You pretend that it is true . . . and then you see what happens!
+It is very interesting!
+
+GER. Yes . . . I have no doubt. [Peers at him.] And just to help me
+straighten things out . . . would you mind telling me . . . are you
+old or young?
+
+MIMI. I am young.
+
+GER. How young?
+
+MIMI. Nine hundred years young.
+
+GER. Oh! And why did you come for me?
+
+MIMI. The king commanded it.
+
+GER. The king? And who may this king be?
+
+MIMI. King Alberich.
+
+GER. Alberich. [Stares at the king.] And is this he?
+
+MIMI. It is he.
+
+GER. And may I speak to him?
+
+MIMI. You may.
+
+ALB. Let the earth-man advance. Hail!
+
+GER. Good evening, Alberich.
+
+MIMI. [At his elbow.] Your majesty!
+
+GER. Good evening, your majesty.
+
+ALB. [After along gaze.] You play our music. Where did you learn it?
+
+GER. Why . . . it's in Wagner's operas. He composed it.
+
+ALB. Humph . . . composed it!
+
+GER. [Aghast.] You mean he came and copied it!
+
+ALB. Of course!
+
+GER. Why . . . why . . . we all thought it was original!
+
+ALB. Original! It is indeed wonderful originality! To listen in the
+Rhine-depths to the song of the maidens, to dwell in the forest and
+steal its murmurs, to catch the crackling of the fire and the flowing
+of the water, the galloping of the wind and the death march of the
+thunder . . . and then write it all down for your own! To take our
+story and tell it just as it happened . . . to take the very words
+from our lips, and sign your name to them! Originality!
+
+GER. But, your majesty, one thing at least. Even his enemies granted
+him that! He invented the invisible orchestra!
+
+ALB. [Laughing.] Have you seen any orchestra here?
+
+[Siegfried motive sounds.]
+
+GER. I hadn't realized it! Do you mean that everything here happens to
+music?
+
+ALB. If you only had the ears to hear, you would know that the whole
+world happens to music.
+
+GER. [Stands entranced.] Listen! Listen!
+
+ALB. It is very monotonous, when one is digging out the gold. It keeps
+up such a wheezing, and pounding.
+
+[Stopped trumpets from orchestra.]
+
+GER. Ah, don't speak of such things! [Gazes about; sees cup.] What is
+this?
+
+ALB. That is the coronation cup.
+
+GER. The coronation cup?
+
+ALB. One of the greatest of our treasures. It is worth over four
+hundred thousand dollars. It is the work of the elder Mimi, a most
+wonderful smith.
+
+GER. [Advancing.] May I look at it?
+
+ALB. You will observe the design of the Rhine maidens.
+
+GER. I can't see it here. It's too dark. Let me have a candle.
+
+MIMI. A candle?
+
+ALL. A candle!
+
+ALB. My dear sir! Candles are so expensive! And why do you want to see
+it? We never look at our art treasures.
+
+GER. Never look at them!
+
+ALB. No. We know what they are worth, and everyone else knows; and
+what difference does it make how they look?
+
+GER. Oh, I see!
+
+ALB. Perhaps you would like to see our vaults of gold? [Great
+excitement among the Nibelungs. The music makes a furious uproar.
+ALBERICH gives a great key to MIMI, who opens the iron doors.]
+Approach, sir.
+
+MIMI. Hear the echoes. [Shouts.]
+
+GER. It must be a vast place!
+
+ALB. This particular cavern runs for seventeen miles under the earth.
+
+GER. What! And you mean it is all full of gold?
+
+ALB. From floor to roof with solid masses of it.
+
+GER. Incredible! Is it all of the Nibelung treasure?
+
+ALB. All? Mercy, no! This is simply my own, and I am by no means a
+rich man. The extent of some of our modern fortunes would simply
+exceed your belief. We live in an age of enormous productivity. [After
+a pause.] Will you see more of the vault?
+
+GER. No, I thank you. [They close it.] It must be getting late; and,
+by the way, your majesty, you know that no one has told me yet why you
+had me brought here.
+
+ALB. Ah, yes, sure enough. We have business to talk about. Let us get
+to it! [To MIMI.] Let the hall be cleared. [MIMI drives out the
+Nibelungs and retires.] Sit on this rock here beside me.
+[Confidentially.] Now we can talk things over. I trust you are willing
+to listen to me.
+
+GER. Most certainly. I am very much interested.
+
+ALB. Thank you. You know, my dear sir, that I had a son, Hagen, who
+was the slayer of the great hero, Siegfried?
+
+GER. Yes, your majesty.
+
+ALB. A most lamentable affair. You did not know, I presume, that
+Hagen, too, had a son, by one of the daughters of earth?
+
+GER. No. He is not mentioned in history.
+
+ALB. That son, Prince Hagen, is now living; and, in the course of
+events, he will fall heir to the throne I occupy.
+
+GER. I see.
+
+ALB. The boy is seven or eight hundred years old, which, in your
+measure, would make him about eighteen. Now, I speak frankly. The boy
+is wild and unruly. He needs guidance and occupation. And I have sent
+for you because I understand that you earth-people think more and see
+farther than we do.
+
+GER. Yes?
+
+ALB. I wish to ask you to help me . . . to use your strength of mind
+and body to direct this boy.
+
+GER. But what can I do?
+
+ALB. I wish you to stay here and be Prince Hagen's tutor.
+
+GER. What?
+
+ALB. [Anxiously.] If you will do it, sir, you will carry hence a
+treasure such as the world has never seen before. And it is a noble
+work . . . a great work, sir. He is the grandson of a king! Tell me .
+. . will you help me?
+
+[Gazes imploringly.]
+
+GER. Let me think. [A pause.] Your majesty, I have things of
+importance to do, and I have no time to stay here . . .
+
+ALB. But think of the treasures!
+
+GER. My father is a rich man, and I have no need of treasures. And
+besides, I am a poet. I have work of my own...
+
+ALB. Oh! don't refuse me, sir!
+
+GER. Listen! There is, perhaps, something else we can do. How would it
+do to take Prince Hagen up to the world?
+
+ALB. [Starting.] Oh!
+
+GER. This world is a small one. There he might have a wide field for
+his energies. He might be sent to a good school, and taught the ideals
+of our Christian civilization.
+
+ALB. [Pondering anxiously.] You mean that you yourself would see to it
+that proper care was given to him?
+
+GER. If I took him with me it would mean that I was interested in his
+future.
+
+ALB. It is a startling proposition. What opportunity can you offer
+him?
+
+GER. I am only a student myself. But my father is a man of importance
+in the world.
+
+ALB. What does he do?
+
+GER. He is John Isman. They call him the railroad king.
+
+ALB. You have kings in your world, also!
+
+GER. [Smiling.] After a fashion . . . yes.
+
+ALB. I had not thought of this. I hardly know what to reply. [He
+starts.] What is that?
+
+[An uproar is heard of left. Shouts and cries; music rises to
+deafening climax. Nibelungs flee on in terror.]
+
+HAGEN. [Rushes on, struggling wildly, and dragging several Nibelungs.]
+Let me go, I say! Take off these chains!
+
+ALB. [Rising in seat.] Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. I will not stand it, I tell you!
+
+ALB. Hagen! Listen to me!
+
+HAGEN. No!
+
+ALB. I have something new to tell you. The earth-man has suggested
+taking you up with him to the world.
+
+HAGEN. [A sudden wild expression flashes across his features.] No! [He
+gazes from one to the other, half beside himself.] You can't mean it!
+
+ALB. It is true, Hagen.
+
+HAGEN. What . . . why . . .
+
+ALB. You would be sent to school and taught the ways of the earth-men.
+Do you think that you would like to go?
+
+HAGEN. [Wildly.] By the gods! I would!
+
+ALB. [Nervously.] You will promise to obey . . .
+
+HAGEN. I'll promise anything! I'll do anything!
+
+ALB. Hagen, this is a very grave decision for me. It is such an
+unusual step! You would have to submit yourself to this gentleman, who
+is kind enough to take charge of you . . .
+
+HAGEN. I Will! I will! Quick! [Holding out his chains.] Take them off!
+
+ALB. [Doubtfully.] We can trust you?
+
+HAGEN. You can trust me! You'll have no trouble. Take them off!
+
+ALB. Off with them!
+
+MIMI. [Advances and proceeds to work at chains with a file.] Yes, your
+majesty.
+
+HAGEN. [TO GERALD.] Tell me! What am I to do?
+
+GER. You are to have an education . . .
+
+HAGEN. Yes? What's it like? Tell me more about the earth-people.
+
+GER. It's too much to try to tell. You will be there soon.
+
+HAGEN. Ah! Be quick there! [Tears one hand free and waves it.] By the
+gods!
+
+ALB. [To GERALD.] You had best spend the night with us and consult
+with me . . .
+
+HAGEN. No, no! No delay! What's there to consult about?
+
+ALB. We have so much to settle . . . your clothes . . . your money . . .
+
+HAGEN. Give me some gold . . . that will be all. Let us be off!
+
+GER. I will attend to everything. There is no need of delay.
+
+HAGEN. Come on! [Tears other hand free.] Aha! [Roams about the stage,
+clenching his hands and gesticulating, while the music rises to a
+tremendous climax.] Free! Free forever! Aha ! Aha ! [Turning to
+GERALD.] Let us be off.
+
+GER. All right. [To ALBERICH.] Good-bye, your majesty.
+
+ALB. [Anxiously.] Good-bye.
+
+HAGEN. Come on!
+
+ALB. [As Nibelungs gather about, waving farewell.] Take care of
+yourself! Come back to me!
+
+HAGEN. Free! Free! Ha, ha, ha!
+
+MIMI. [With Nibelungs.] Good-bye!
+
+ALB. Good-bye!
+
+GER. Good-bye!
+
+HAGEN. Free!
+
+[Exit, with GERALD, amid chorus of farewells, and wild uproar of
+music.]
+
+[CURTAIN]
+
+
+
+
+ACT II
+
+
+[Scene shows the library in a Fifth Avenue mansion; spacious and
+magnificent. There are folding doors right centre. There is a centre
+table with a reading lamp and books, and soft leather chairs. The
+walls are covered with bookcases. An entrance right to drawing-room.
+Also an entrance left.]
+
+[At rise: GERALD, in evening clothes, reading in front of fire.]
+
+GER. [Stretching, and sighing.] Ah, me! I wish I'd stayed at the club.
+Bother their dinner parties!
+
+MRS. IS. [Enters right, a nervous, fussy little woman, in evening
+costume.] Well, Gerald . . .
+
+GER. Yes, mother?
+
+MRS. IS. You're not coming to dinner?
+
+GER. You don't need me, mother. You've men enough, you said.
+
+MRS. IS. I like to see something of my son now and then.
+
+GER. I had my lunch very late, and I'm honestly not hungry. I'd rather
+sit and read.
+
+MRS. IS. I declare, Gerald, you run this reading business into the
+ground. You cut yourself off from everyone.
+
+GER. They don't miss me, mother.
+
+MRS. IS. To-night Renaud is going to give us some crabflake a la
+Dewey! I told Mrs. Bagley-Willis I'd show her what crabflake could be.
+She is simply green with envy of our chef.
+
+GER. I fancy that's the reason you invite her, isn't it?
+
+MRS. IS. [Laughs.] Perhaps.
+
+[Exit right. He settles himself to read.]
+
+HICKS. [Enters centre.] Mr. Gerald.
+
+GER. Well?
+
+HICKS. There was a man here to see you some time ago, Sir.
+
+GER. A man to see me? Why didn't you let me know?
+
+HICKS. I started to, Sir. But he disappeared, and I can't find him,
+Sir.
+
+GER. Disappeared? What do you mean?
+
+HICKS. He came to the side entrance, Sir; and one of the maids
+answered the bell. He was such a queer-looking chap that she was
+frightened, and called me. And then I went to ask if you were in, and
+he disappeared. I wasn't sure if he went out, Sir, or if he was still
+in the house.
+
+GER. What did he look like?
+
+HICKS. He was a little chap . . . so high . . . with a long beard and
+a humped back . . .
+
+GER. [Startled.] Mimi!
+
+HICKS. He said you knew him, sir.
+
+GER. Yes! I would have seen him.
+
+HICKS. I didn't know, sir . . .
+
+GER. Watch out for him. He'll surely come back.
+
+HICKS. Yes, Sir. I'm very sorry, sir.
+
+[Exit centre.]
+
+GER. [To himself.] Mimi! What can that mean?
+
+Mimi. [Opens door, left, and peeps in.] Ha!
+
+GER. [Starts.] Mimi!
+
+MIMI. Ssh!
+
+GER. What is it?
+
+MIMI. Where is Prince Hagen?
+
+GER. I don't know.
+
+MIMI. You don't know?
+
+GER. No.
+
+MIMI. But I must see him!
+
+GER. I've no idea where he is.
+
+MIMI. But . . . you promised to take care of him!
+
+GER. Yes . . . and I tried to. But he ran away . . .
+
+MIMI. What?
+
+GER. I've not heard of him for two years now.
+
+MIMI. [Coming closer.] Tell me about it.
+
+GER. I took him to a boarding school . . . a place where he'd be taken
+care of and taught. And he rebelled . . . he would not obey anyone . .
+. [Takes some faded telegrams from pocket book.] See! This is what I
+got.
+
+MIMI. What are they?
+
+GER. Telegrams they sent me. [Reads.] Hagen under physical restraint.
+Whole school disorganized. Come immediately and take him away.
+
+MIMI. Ha!
+
+GER. That's one. And here's the other: Hagen has escaped, threatening
+teachers with revolver. Took train for New York. What shall we do?
+[Puts away papers.] And that's all.
+
+MIMI. All?
+
+GER. That was over two years ago. And I've not heard of him since.
+
+MIMI. But he must be found!
+
+GER. I have tried. I can't.
+
+MIMI. [Vehemently.] But we cannot do without him!
+
+GER. What's the matter?
+
+MIMI. I cannot tell you. But we must have him! The people need him!
+
+GER. He has lost himself in this great city. What can I do?
+
+MIMI. He must be found. [Voices heard centre.] What is that?
+
+GER. It is some company.
+
+MIMI. [Darts left.] We must find Prince Hagen! He must come back to
+Nibelheim!
+
+[Exit left.]
+
+MRS. BAGLEY-WILLIS. [Off centre.] It was crabflake a la Dewey she
+promised me!
+
+[Enters with ISMAN.]
+
+GER. How do you do, Mrs. Bagley-Willis?
+
+MRS. B.-W. How do you do, Gerald?
+
+GER. Hello, father!
+
+ISMAN. Hello, Gerald!
+
+MRS. B.-W. Am I the first to arrive?
+
+GER. I think so.
+
+MRS. B.-W. And how is Estelle after her slumming adventure?
+
+GER. She's all right.
+
+ISMAN. That was a fine place for you to take my daughter!
+
+MRS. B.-W. It wasn't my fault. She would go. And her mother consented.
+
+GER. I wish I'd been there with you.
+
+MRS. B.-W. Indeed, I wished for someone. I was never more frightened
+in my life.
+
+ISMAN. Did you see this morning's Record?
+
+MRS. B.-W. No. What?
+
+ISMAN. About that fellow, Steve O'Hagen?
+
+MRS. B.-W. Good heavens!
+
+GER. Nothing about Estelle, I hope!
+
+ISMAN. No . . . apparently nobody noticed that incident. But about his
+political speech, and the uproar he's making on the Bowery. They say
+the streets were blocked for an hour . . . the police couldn't clear
+them.
+
+GER. He must be an extraordinary talker.
+
+MRS. B.-W. You can't imagine it. The man is a perfect demon!
+
+GER. Where does he come from?
+
+ISMAN. Apparently nobody knows. The papers say he turned up a couple
+of years ago . . . he won't talk about his past. He joined Tammany
+Hall, and he's sweeping everything before him.
+
+GER. What do you suppose will come of it?
+
+ISMAN. Oh, he'll get elected . . . what is it he's to be . . . an
+alderman? . . . and then he'll sell out, like all the rest. I was
+talking about it this afternoon, with Plimpton and Rutherford.
+
+MRS. B.-W. They're to be here to-night, I understand.
+
+ISMAN. Yes. . . so they mentioned. Ah! Here's Estelle!
+
+ESTELLE. [Enters, centre, with an armful of roses.] Ah! Mrs. Bagley-
+Willis! Good evening!
+
+MRS. B.-W. Good evening, Estelle.
+
+EST. Good evening, father. Hello, Gerald.
+
+GER. My, aren't we gorgeous to-night!
+
+EST. Just aren't we!
+
+MRS. B.-W. The adventure doesn't seem to have hurt you. Where is your
+mother?
+
+GER. She went into the drawing-room. [MRS. B.-W. and ISMAN go off,
+right; ESTELLE is about to follow.] Estelle!
+
+EST. What is it?
+
+GER. What's this I hear about your adventure last night?
+
+EST. [With sudden seriousness.] Oh, Gerald! [Comes closer.] It was a
+frightful thing! I've hardly dared to think about it!
+
+GER. Tell me.
+
+EST. Gerald, that man was talking straight at me . . . he meant every
+bit of it for me!
+
+GER. Tell me the story.
+
+EST. Why, you know, Lord Alderdyce had heard about this wild fellow,
+Steve O'Hagen, who's made such a sensation this campaign. And he's
+interested in our election and wanted to hear O'Hagen speak. He said
+he had a friend who'd arrange for us to be introduced to him; and so
+we went down there. And there was a most frightful crowd . . . it was
+an outdoor meeting, you know. We pushed our way into a saloon, where
+the mob was shouting around this O'Hagen. And then he caught sight of
+us . . . and Gerald, from the moment he saw me he never took his eyes
+off me! Never once!
+
+GER. [Smiling.] Well, Estelle . . . you've been looked at before.
+
+EST. Ah, but never like that!
+
+GER. What sort of a man is he?
+
+EST. He's small and dark and ugly . . . he wore a rough reefer and cap
+. . . but Gerald, he's no common man! There's something strange and
+terrible about him . . . there's a fire blazing in him. The detective
+who was with us introduced us to him . . . and he stood there and
+stared at me! I tried to say something or other . . . "I've been so
+interested in your speech, Mr. O'Hagen." And he laughed at me . . .
+"Yes, I've no doubt." And then suddenly . . . it was as if he leaped
+at me! He pointed his finger straight into my face, and his eyes
+fairly shone. "Wait for me! I'll be with you! I'm coming to the top!"
+
+GER. Good God!
+
+EST. Imagine it! I was simply paralyzed! "Mark what I tell you," he
+went on . . . "it'll be of interest to you some day to remember it.
+You may wait for me! I'm coming! You will not escape me!"
+
+GER. Why . . . he's mad!
+
+EST. He was like a wild beast. Everybody in the place was staring at
+us as he rushed on. "You have joy and power and freedom . . . all the
+privileges of life . . . all things that are excellent and beautiful.
+You are born to them . . . you claim them! And you come down here to
+stare at us as you might at some strange animals in a cage. You
+chatter and laugh and go your way . . . but remember what I told you .
+. . I shall be with you! You cannot keep ME down! I shall be master of
+you all!"
+
+GER. Incredible!
+
+EST. And then in a moment it was all over. He made a mocking bow to
+the party . . . "It has given me the greatest pleasure in the world to
+meet you!" And with a wild laugh he went out of the door . . . and the
+crowd in the street burst into a roar that was like a clap of thunder.
+[A pause.] Gerald, what do you think he meant?
+
+GER. My dear, you've been up against the class-war. It's rather the
+fashion now, you know.
+
+EST. Oh, but it was horrible! I can't get it out of my mind. We heard
+some of his speech afterwards . . . and it seemed as if every word of
+it was meant for me! He lashed the crowd to a perfect fury . . . I
+think they'd have set fire to the city if he'd told them to. What do
+you suppose he expects to do?
+
+GER. I can't imagine, I'm sure.
+
+EST. I should like to know more about him. He was never raised in the
+slums, I feel certain.
+
+GER. Steve O'Hagen. The name sounds Irish.
+
+EST. I don't think he's Irish. He's dark and strange- looking . . .
+almost uncanny.
+
+GER. I shall go down there and hear him the first chance I get. And
+now, I guess I'd best get out, if I want to dodge old Plimpton.
+
+EST. Yes . . . and Rutherford, too. Isn't it a bore! I think they are
+perfectly odious people.
+
+GER. Why do you suppose mother invited them?
+
+EST. Oh, it's a business affair . . . they have forced their way into
+some deal of father's, and so we have to cultivate them.
+
+GER. Plimpton, the coal baron! And Rutherford, the steel king! I
+wonder how many hundred millions of dollars we shall have to have
+before we can choose our guests for something more interesting than
+their Wall Street connections!
+
+EST. I think I hear them. [Listens.] Yes . . . the voice. [Mocking
+PLIMPTON'S manner and tone.] Good evening, Miss Isman. I guess I'll
+skip it!
+
+[Exit right.]
+
+GER. And I, too!
+
+[Exit left.]
+
+RUTHERFORD. [A stout and rather coarse-looking man, enters, right,
+with PLIMPTON.] It's certainly an outrageous state of affairs,
+Plimpton!
+
+PLIMPTON. [A thin, clerical-looking person, with square-cut beard.]
+Disgraceful! Disgraceful!
+
+RUTH. The public seems to be quite hysterical!
+
+PLIMP. We have got to a state where simply to be entrusted with great
+financial responsibility is enough to constitute a man a criminal; to
+warrant a newspaper in prying into the intimate details of his life,
+and in presenting him in hideous caricatures.
+
+RUTH. I can sympathize with you, Plimpton . . . these government
+investigations are certainly a trial. [Laughing.] I've had my turn at
+them . . . I used to lie awake nights trying to remember what my
+lawyers had told me to forget!
+
+PLIMP. Ahem! Ahem! Yes . . . a rather cynical jest! I can't say
+exactly . . .
+
+MRS. IS. [In doorway, right.] Ah, Mr. Plimpton! How do you do? And Mr.
+Rutherford?
+
+PLIMP. Good evening, Mrs. Isman.
+
+RUTH. Good evening, Mrs. Isman.
+
+MRS. IS. You managed to tear yourself away from business cares, after
+all!
+
+PLIMP. It was not easy, I assure you.
+
+MRS. IS. Won't you come in?
+
+RUTH. With pleasure.
+
+[Exit, right, with MRS. ISMAN, followed by PLIMPTON.]
+
+GER. [Enters, left.] That pious old fraud! [Sits in chair.] Well, I'm
+safe for a while!
+
+[Sprawls at ease and reads.]
+
+HICKS. [Enters, centre.] A gentleman to see you, Mr. Gerald.
+
+GER. Hey? [Takes card, looks, then gives violent start.] Prince Hagen!
+[Stands aghast, staring; whispers, half dazed.] Prince Hagen!
+
+HICKS. [After waiting.] What shall I tell him, sir?
+
+GER. What . . . what does he look like?
+
+HICKS. Why . . . he seems to be a gentleman, sir.
+
+GER. How is he dressed?
+
+HICKS. For dinner, sir.
+
+GER. [Hesitates, gazes about nervously.] Bring him here . . . quickly!
+
+HICKS. Yes, sir.
+
+GER. And shut the door afterwards.
+
+HICKS. Yes, sir.
+
+[Exit.]
+
+GER. [Stands staring.] Prince Hagen! He's come at last!
+
+[Takes the faded telegrams from his pocket; looks at them; then goes
+to door, right, and closes it.]
+
+HICKS. [Enters, centre.] Prince Hagen.
+
+HAGEN. [Enters; serene and smiling, immaculately clad.] Ah, Gerald!
+
+GER. [Gazing.] Prince Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. You are surprised to see me!
+
+GER. I confess that I am.
+
+HAGEN. Did you think I was never coming back?
+
+GER. I had given you up.
+
+HAGEN. Well, here I am . . . to report progress.
+
+GER. [After a pause.] Where have you been these two years?
+
+HAGEN. Oh, I've been seeing life . . .
+
+GER. You didn't like the boarding school?
+
+HAGEN. [With sudden vehemence.] Did you think I would like it? Did you
+think I'd come to this world to have my head stuffed with Latin
+conjugations and sawdust?
+
+GER. I had hoped that in a good Christian home . . .
+
+HAGEN. [Laughing.] No, no, Gerald! I let you talk that sort of thing
+to me in the beginning. It sounded fishy even then, but I didn't say
+anything . . . I wanted to get my bearings. But I hadn't been twenty-
+four hours in that good Christian home before I found out what a
+kettleful of jealousies and hatreds it was. The head master was an old
+sap-head; and the boys! . . . I was strange and ugly, and they thought
+they could torment and bully me; but I fought 'em . . . by the Lord, I
+fought 'em day and night, I fought 'em all around the place! And when
+I'd mastered 'em, you should have seen how they cringed and toadied!
+They hated the slavery they lived under, but not one of them dared
+raise his hand against it.
+
+GER. Well, you've seen the world in your own way. Now are you ready to
+go back to Nibelheim?
+
+HAGEN. Good God, no!
+
+GER. You know it's my duty to send you back.
+
+HAGEN. Oh, say! My dear fellow!
+
+GER. You know the solemn promise I made to King Alberich.
+
+HAGEN. Yes . . . but you can't carry it out.
+
+GER. But I can!
+
+HAGEN. How?
+
+GER. I could invoke the law, if need be. You know you are a minor . . .
+
+HAGEN. My dear boy, I'm over seven hundred years old!
+
+GER. Ah, but that is a quibble. You know that in our world that is
+only equal to about eighteen . . .
+
+HAGEN. I have read up the law, but I haven't found any provision for
+reducing Nibelung ages to your scale.
+
+GER. But you can't deny . . .
+
+HAGEN. I wouldn't need to deny. The story's absurd on the face of it.
+You know perfectly well that there are no such things as Nibelungs!
+[GERALD gasps.] And besides, you're a poet, and everybody knows you're
+crazy. Fancy what the newspaper reporters would do with such a yarn!
+[Cheerfully.] Come, old man, forget about it, and let's be friends.
+You'll have a lot more fun watching my career. And besides, what do
+you want? I've come back, and I'm ready to follow your advice.
+
+GER. How do you mean?
+
+HAGEN. You told me to stay in school until I'd got my bearings in the
+world. And then I was to have a career. Well, I've got my education
+for myself . . . and now I'm ready for the career. [After a pause.]
+Listen, Gerald. I said I'd be a self-made man. I said I'd conquer the
+world for myself. But of late I've come to realize how far it is to
+the top, and I can't spare the time.
+
+GER. I see.
+
+HAGEN. And then . . . besides that . . . I've met a woman.
+
+GER. [Startled.] Good heavens!
+
+HAGEN. Yes. I'm in love.
+
+GER. But surely . . . you don't expect to marry!
+
+HAGEN. Why not? My mother was an earth-woman, and her mother, also.
+
+GER. To be sure. I'd not realized it. [A pause.] Who is the woman?
+
+HAGEN. I don't know. I only know she belongs in this world of yours.
+And I've come to seek her out. I shall get her, never fear!
+
+GER. What are your plans?
+
+HAGEN. I've looked this Christian civilization of yours over . . . and
+I'm prepared to play the game. You can take me up and put me into
+Society . . . as you offered to do before. You'll find that I'll do
+you credit.
+
+GER. But such a career requires money.
+
+HAGEN. Of course. Alberich will furnish it, if you tell him it's
+needed. You must call Mimi.
+
+GER. Mimi is here now.
+
+HAGEN. [Starting.] What!
+
+GER. He is in the house.
+
+HAGEN. For what?
+
+GER. He came to look for you.
+
+HAGEN. What is the matter?
+
+GER. I don't know. He wants you to return to Nibelheim.
+
+HAGEN. Find him. Let me see him!
+
+GER. All right. Wait here.
+
+[Exit left.]
+
+HAGEN. What can that mean?
+
+EST. [Enters, right, sees PRINCE HAGEN, starts wildly and screams.]
+Ah! [She stands transfixed; a long pause.] Steve O'Hagen! [A pause.]
+Steve O'Hagen! What does it mean?
+
+HAGEN. Who are you?
+
+EST. I live here.
+
+HAGEN. Your name?
+
+EST. Estelle Isman.
+
+HAGEN. [In a transport of amazement.] Estelle Isman! You are Gerald's
+sister!
+
+EST. Yes.
+
+HAGEN. By the gods!
+
+EST. [Terrified.] You know my brother!
+
+HAGEN. Yes.
+
+EST. You . . . Steve O'Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. [Gravely.] I am Prince Hagen
+
+EST. Prince Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. A foreign nobleman.
+
+EST. What . . . what do you mean? You were on the Bowery!
+
+HAGEN. I came to this country to study its institutions. I wished to
+know them for myself . . . therefore I went into politics. Don't you
+see?
+
+EST! [Dazed.] I see!
+
+HAGEN. Now I am on the point of giving up the game and telling the
+story of my experiences.
+
+EST. What are you doing here . . . in this house?
+
+HAGEN. I came for you.
+
+EST. [Stares at him.] How dare you?
+
+HAGEN. I would dare anything for you! [They gaze at each other.] Don't
+you understand?
+
+EST. [Vehemently.] No! No! I am afraid of you! You have no business to
+be here!
+
+HAGEN. [Taking a step towards her.] Listen . . .
+
+EST. No! I will not hear you! You cannot come here!
+
+[Stares at him, then abruptly exit, centre.]
+
+HAGEN. [Laughs.] Humph! [Hearing voices.] Who is this?
+
+RUTH. [Off right.] I don't agree with you.
+
+IS. Nor I, either, Plimpton. [Enters with PLIMPTON and RUTHERFORD;
+sees HAGEN.] Oh . . . I beg your pardon.
+
+HAGEN. I am waiting for your son, Sir.
+
+IS. I see. Won't you be seated?
+
+HAGEN. I thank you. [Sits at ease in chair.]
+
+PLIM. My point is, it's as Lord Alderdyce says . . . we have no
+hereditary aristocracy in this country, no traditions of authority . .
+. nothing to hold the mob in check.
+
+IS. There is the constitution.
+
+PLIM. They may over-ride it.
+
+IS. There are the courts.
+
+PLIM. They may defy the courts.
+
+RUTH. Oh, Plimpton, that's absurd!
+
+PLIM. Nothing of the kind, Rutherford! Suppose they were to elect to
+office some wild and reckless demagog . . . take, for instance, that
+ruffian you were telling us about . . . down there on the Bowery . . .
+[HAGEN starts, and listens] and he were to defy the law and the
+courts? He is preaching just that to the mob . . . striving to rouse
+the elemental wild beast in them! And some day they will pour out into
+this avenue . . .
+
+RUTH. [Vehemently.] Very well, Plimpton! Let them come! Have we not
+the militia and the regulars? We could sweep the avenue with one
+machine gun . . .
+
+PLIM. But suppose the troops would not fire?
+
+RUTH. But that is impossible!
+
+PLIM. Nothing of the kind, Rutherford! No, no . . . we must go back of
+all that! It is in the hearts of the people that we must erect our
+defenses. It is the spirit of this godless and skeptical age that is
+undermining order. We must teach the people the truths of religion. We
+must inculcate lessons of sobriety and thrift, of reverence for
+constituted authority. We must set our faces against these new
+preachers of license and infidelity . . . we must go back to the old-
+time faith . . . to love, and charity, and self-sacrifice . . .
+
+HAGEN. [Interrupting.] That's it! You've got it there!
+
+IS. [Amazed.] Why . . .
+
+PLIM. Sir?
+
+HAGEN. You've said it! Set the parsons after them! Teach them heaven!
+Set them to singing about harps and golden crowns, and milk and honey
+flowing! Then you can shut them up in slums and starve them, and they
+won't know the difference. Teach them non-resistance and self-
+renunciation! You've got the phrases all pat . . . handed out from
+heaven direct! Take no thought saying what ye shall eat! Lay not up
+for yourselves treasures on earth! Render unto Caesar the things that
+are Caesar's!
+
+IS. Why . . . this is preposterous!
+
+PLIM. This is blasphemy!
+
+HAGEN. You're Plimpton . . . Plimpton, the coal baron, I take it. I
+know you by your pictures. You shut up little children by tens of
+thousands to toil for you in the bowels of the earth. You crush your
+rivals, and form a trust, and screw up prices to freeze the poor in
+winter! And you . . . [to RUTHERFORD] you're Rutherford, the steel
+king, I take it. You have slaves working twelve hours a day and seven
+days a week in your mills. And you mangle them in hideous accidents,
+and then cheat their widows of their rights . . . and then you build
+churches, and set your parsons to preach to them about love and self-
+sacrifice! To teach them charity, while you crucify justice! To trick
+them with visions of an imaginary paradise, while you pick their
+pockets upon earth! To put arms in their hands, and send them to shoot
+their brothers, in the name of the Prince of Peace!
+
+RUTH. This is outrageous!
+
+PLIM. [Clenching his fists.] Infamous scoundrel!
+
+RUTH. [Advancing Upon HAGEN.] How dare you!
+
+HAGEN. It stings, does it? Ha! Ha!
+
+PLIM. [Sputtering.] You wretch!
+
+IS. This has gone too far. Stop, Rutherford! Calm yourself, Plimpton.
+Let us not forget ourselves! [To PRINCE HAGEN, haughtily.] I do not
+know who you are, sir, or by what right you are in my house. You say
+that you are a friend of my son's . . .
+
+HAGEN. I claim that honor, sir.
+
+IS. The fact that you claim it prevents my ordering you into the
+street. But I will see my son, sir, and find out by what right you are
+here to insult my guests. [Turning.] Come, Plimpton. Come, Rutherford
+. . . we will bandy no words with him!
+
+[They go off, centre.]
+
+HAGEN. [Alone.] By God! I touched them! Ha, ha, ha! [Grimly.] He will
+order me into the street! [With concentrated fury.] That is it! They
+shut you out! They build a wall about themselves! Aristocracy!
+[Clenching his fast.] Very well! So be it! You sit within your
+fortress of privilege! You are haughty and contemptuous, flaunting
+your power! But I'll breach your battlements, I'll lay them in the
+dust! I'll bring you to your knees before me!
+
+[A silence. Suddenly there is heard, very faintly, the Nibelung theme.
+It is repeated; HAGEN starts.]
+
+MIMI. [Enters, left.] Prince Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. Mimi!
+
+MIMI. At last!
+
+HAGEN. [Approaching.] What is it?
+
+MIMI. [Beckons.] Come here.
+
+HAGEN. [In excitement.] What do you want?
+
+MIMI. You must come back!
+
+HAGEN. What do you mean?
+
+MIMI. The people want you.
+
+HAGEN. What for?
+
+MIMI. They need you. You must be king.
+
+HAGEN. [Wildly.] Ha?
+
+MIMI. Alberich . . .
+
+HAGEN. Alberich?
+
+MIMI. He is dead!
+
+HAGEN. [With wild start.] Dead!
+
+MIMI. Yes . . . he died last night!
+
+HAGEN. [Turns pale and staggers; then leaps at Mimi, clutching him by
+the arm.] No! NO!
+
+MIMI. It is true.
+
+HAGEN. My God! [A look of wild, drunken rapture crosses his face; he
+clenches his hands and raises his arms.] Ha, ha, ha!
+
+MIMI. [Shrinks in horror.] Prince Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. He is dead! He is dead! [Leaps at mimi.] The gold?
+
+MIMI. The gold is yours.
+
+HAGEN. Ha, ha, ha! It is mine! It is mine! [Begins pacing the floor
+wildly.] Victory! Victory! VICTORY! Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha! [Spreads
+out his arms, with a triumphant shout.] I have them! By God! Isman!
+Plimpton and Rutherford! Estelle! I have them all! It is triumph! It
+is glory! It is the world! I am King! I am King! King! KING! [Seizes
+MIMI and starts centre; the music rises to climax.] To Nibelheim! To
+Nibelheim! [Stands stretching out his arms in exultation; a wild burst
+of music.] Make way for Hagen! Make way for Hagen!
+
+[CURTAIN]
+
+
+
+
+ACT III
+
+
+[The conservatory is a study in green and gold, with strange tropical
+plants having golden flowers. There are entrances right and left. In
+the centre, up-stage, is a niche with a gold table and a couple of
+gold chairs, and behind these a stand with the "coronation cup"; to
+the right the golden throne from Nibelheim, and to the left a gold
+fountain splashing gently.] [At rise: The stage is empty. The strains
+of an orchestra heard from ball-room, left.]
+
+MRS. BAGLEY-WILLIS. [Enters, right, with DE WIGGLESTON RIGGS; she
+wears a very low-cut gown, a stomacher and tiara of diamonds, and
+numerous ropes of pearls.] Well, Wiggie, he has made a success of it!
+
+DE WIGGLESTON RIGGS. [Petit and exquisite.] He was certain to make a
+success when Mrs. Bagley-Willis took him up!
+
+MRS. B.-W. But he wouldn't do a single thing I told him. I never had
+such a protege in my life!
+
+DE W. R. Extraordinary!
+
+MRS. B.-W. I told him it would be frightfully crude, and it is. And
+yet, Wiggie, it's impressive, in its way . . . nobody can miss the
+feeling. Such barbaric splendor!
+
+DE W. R. The very words! Barbaric splendor!
+
+MRS. B.-W. I never heard of anything like it . . . the man simply
+poured out money. It's quite in a different class from other affairs.
+
+DE W. R. [Holding up his hands.] Stupefying!
+
+MRS. B.-W. And did you ever know the public to take such interest in a
+social event? People haven't even stopped to think about the panic in
+Wall Street.
+
+DE W. R. I assure you, Mrs. Bagley-Willis, it begins a new epoch in
+our social history. [To LORD ALDERDYCE, who enters, left, with
+GERALD.] How do you do, Lord Alderdyce?
+
+MRS. B.-W. Good evening, Lord Alderdyce. Good evening, Gerald.
+
+LORD A. Good evening, Mrs. Bagley-Willis. Good evening, Mr. Riggs.
+
+GERALD. Good evening, Wiggie! [DE W. R. and MRS. B.-W. move toward
+left.] I suppose that old lady's taken to herself all the credit for
+this evening's success!
+
+LORD A. Well, really, you know, wasn't it . . . ah . . . quite a feat
+to make society swallow this adventurer?
+
+GERALD. How can anybody stay away? When a man spends several millions
+on a single entertainment people have to come out of pure curiosity.
+
+LORD A. To be sure! I did, anyway!
+
+GER. [Gazing about.] Think of buying all the old Vandergrift palaces
+at one swoop!
+
+LORD A. Oh, really!
+
+GER. This palace was one of the landmarks of the city; all its
+decorations had been taken from old palaces in Italy. And he tore
+everything off and gave it away to a museum, and he made it over in
+three months!
+
+LORD A. Amazing. [Music and applause heard left.]
+
+MRS. B.-W. Mazzanini must be going to sing again.
+
+DE W. R. Let us go!
+
+MRS. B.-W. Fancy opera stars to dance to! A waltz song at a thousand
+dollars a minute!
+
+DE W. R. Ah, but SUCH a song!
+
+[They go off, left; half a dozen guests enter, right, and cross in
+groups.]
+
+RUTH. [Enters, right, with PLIMPTON; looking about.] An extraordinary
+get-up!
+
+PLIMP. Appalling extravagance, Rutherford! Appalling!
+
+RUTH. Practically everybody's here.
+
+PLIMP. Everybody I ever heard of.
+
+RUTH. One doesn't meet you at balls very often, Plimpton.
+
+PLIM. No. To tell the truth, I came from motives of prudence.
+
+RUTH. Humph! To tell the truth, so did I !
+
+PLIM. The man is mad, you know . . . and one can't tell what might
+offend him!
+
+RUTH. And with the market in such a state!
+
+PLIM. It's terrible ! Terrible! . . . ah, Lord Alderdyce!
+
+LORD A. Good evening, Mr. Plimpton. How d'ye do, Mr. Rutherford?
+
+RUTH. As well as could be expected, Lord Alderdyce. It's a trying time
+for men of affairs. [They pass on, and go of, left.]
+
+GER. They must be under quite a strain just now.
+
+LORD A. Don't mention it. Don't mention it! I've invested all my funds
+in this country, and I tremble to pick up the last edition of the
+paper!
+
+MRS. IS. [Enters, right, costumed en grande dame, much excited.] Oh,
+Gerald, Lord Alderdyce, what do you think I've just heard?
+
+LORD A. What?
+
+MRS. IS. About Prince Hagen and Mrs. Bagley-Willis . . . how she came
+to take him up! Percy Pennington told me about it . . . he's her own
+first cousin, you know, Lord Alderdyce . . . and he vows he saw the
+letter in her desk!
+
+LORD A. Oh, tell us!
+
+MRS. IS. Well, it was just after Prince Hagen made his appearance,
+when the papers were printing pages about him. And the news came that
+he'd bought these palaces; and the next day Mrs. Bagley-Willis got a
+letter marked personal. Percy quoted the words . . . Dear Madam: I
+wish to enter Society. I have no time to go through with the usual
+formalities. I am a nobleman, with an extraordinary mind and unlimited
+money. I intend to entertain New York Society as it has never dreamed
+of being entertained before. I should be very pleased if you would co-
+operate with me in making my opening ball a success. If you are
+prepared to do this, I am prepared to pay you the sum of one million
+dollars cash as soon as I receive your acceptance. Needless to say, of
+course, this proposition is entirely confidential!
+
+LORD. A. By jove!
+
+MRS. IS. Think of it!
+
+GER. But can it be true?
+
+MRS. IS. What is more likely, my dear? You know that Mrs. Bagley-
+Willis has been spending millions every season to entertain at
+Newport; and their fortune will never stand that! Oh, I must give it
+to Van Tribber . . . he'll see that the papers have it!
+
+LORD A. But hadn't you better make sure that it's really . . .
+
+MRS. IS. It doesn't make the slightest difference! Everybody will know
+that it's true!
+
+GER. They are ready to believe anything about Prince Hagen.
+
+MRS. IS. Certainly, after a glimpse of this palace. Did you ever see
+such frantic money-spending in your life?
+
+LORD A. Never!
+
+MRS. IS. Gold! Gold! I am positively blinded with the sight of gold.
+I'd seen every kind of decoration and furniture, I thought . . . but
+solid gold is new to me!
+
+LORD A. Just look at this cup, for instance! [Points to coronation
+cup.] And those fountains . . . I believe that even the basins are of
+gold.
+
+MRS. IS. Perhaps we could stop the water and see.
+
+LORD A. I must go . . . I have a dance. I am sorry not to see your
+daughter.
+
+MRS. IS. Yes . . . it was too bad she couldn't come. Good-bye. [LORD
+ALDERDYCE exit.]
+
+MRS. IS. [Pointing to throne.] Look at that thing, Gerald!
+
+GER. Yes . . . no wonder the crowd came!
+
+MRS. IS. I imagine a good many came because they didn't dare stay
+away. They certainly can't be enjoying themselves after such a day
+down town.
+
+GER. It was too bad the panic should come just on the eve of the ball.
+
+MRS. IS. My dear Gerald! That's his sense of humor! He wanted to bring
+them here and set them to dancing and grinning, while in their hearts
+they are frightened to death.
+
+GER. How did he do it, anyway?
+
+MRS. IS. Why, he seems to have money without limit . . . and he's been
+buying and buying . . . everything in sight! You know how prices have
+been soaring the past two months. And of course the public went wild,
+and took to speculating. Then Prince Hagen sold; and the bottom has
+simply dropped out of everything.
+
+GER. I see. And do you suppose the slump has hit father ?
+
+MRS. IS. I don't know. He won't talk to me about it. But it's easy to
+see how distressed he is. And then, to cap the climax, Estelle refuses
+to come here! Prince Hagen is certain to be furious.
+
+GER. For my part, I admire her courage.
+
+MRS. IS. But, Gerald . . . we can't afford to defy this man.
+
+GER. Estelle can afford it, I hope.
+
+MRS. IS. Here comes your father now. Look at him! Gerald, won't you
+go, please . . . I want to have a talk with him.
+
+GER. All right. [Exit, right.]
+
+MRS. IS. John!
+
+ISMAN. [Enters, left, pale and depressed.] What is it?
+
+MRS. IS. You look so haggard and worried!
+
+IS. I AM worried!
+
+MRS. IS. You ought to be home in bed.
+
+IS. I couldn't sleep. What good would it do?
+
+MRS. IS. Aren't you going to get any rest at all?
+
+IS. It's time for reports from the London markets pretty soon. They
+open at five o'clock, by our time. And I'm hoping there may be some
+support for Intercontinental . . . it's my last hope
+
+MRS. IS. Oh, dear me! Dear me!
+
+IS. If that fails, there is nothing left for us. We are ruined!
+Utterly ruined!
+
+MRS. IS. John!
+
+IS. We shall be paupers!
+
+MRS. IS. John Isman, that's absurd! A man who's worth a hundred
+million dollars, like you . . .
+
+IS. It'll be gone . . . all of it!
+
+MRS. IS. Gone?
+
+Is. Do you realize that to-day I had to sell every dollar of my
+Transatlantic stock?
+
+MRS. IS. [Horrified.] Good God!
+
+IS. There has never been a day like it in all history ! There are no
+words to tell about it!
+
+MRS. IS. Oh, that monster!
+
+IS. And the worst of it is, the man seems to be after me particularly!
+Everything I rely upon seems to collapse . . . everywhere I turn I
+find that I'm blocked.
+
+MRS. IS. Oh, it must have been because of that affair in our house . .
+. and in the saloon that dreadful night. We ought never to have gone
+to that place! I knew as soon as I laid eyes on the man that he'd do
+us harm.
+
+IS. We must keep out of his power. We must save what we can from the
+wreck and learn to do with it. You'll have to give up your Newport
+plans this year.
+
+MRS. IS. [Aghast.] What!
+
+IS. We won't be able to open the house.
+
+MRS. IS. You're mad!
+
+IS. My dear . . .
+
+MRS. IS. Now, John Isman, you listen to me! I was quite sure you had
+some such idea in your mind! And I tell you right now, I simply will
+not hear of it! I . . .
+
+IS. But what can we do, my dear?
+
+MRS. IS. I don't know what we can do! But you'll have to raise money
+somehow. I will not surrender my social position to Mrs. Bagley-Willis
+. . . not for all the Wall Street panics in the world. Oh, that man is
+a fiend! I tell you, John Isman . . .
+
+IS. Control yourself!
+
+HAGEN. [Off right.] Very well! I shall be charmed, I'm sure. [Enters.]
+Oh! How do you do, Mrs. Isman?
+
+MRS. IS. Oh, Prince Hagen, a most beautiful evening you've given us.
+
+HAGEN. Ah ! I'm glad if you've enjoyed it.
+
+MRS. IS. Yes, indeed . . .
+
+IS. Prince Hagen, may I have a few words with you?
+
+HAGEN. Why, surely . . . if you wish . . .
+
+IS. I do.
+
+MRS. IS. Prince Hagen will excuse me. [Exit, left.]
+
+HAGEN. [Goes to table, centre, and sits opposite ISMAN.] Well?
+
+IS. Prince Hagen, what do you want with me?
+
+HAGEN. [Surprised.] Why . . . the pleasure of your company.
+
+IS. I mean in the Street.
+
+HAGEN. Oh! Have you been hit?
+
+IS. Don't mock me. You have used your resources deliberately to ruin
+me. You have followed me . . . you have taken every railroad in which
+I am interested, and driven it to the wall. And I ask you, man to man,
+what do you want?
+
+HAGEN. [After some thought.] Isman, listen to me. You remember four
+months ago I offered you a business alliance ?
+
+IS. I had no idea of your resources then. Had I known, I should not
+have rejected your offer. Am I being punished for that?
+
+HAGEN. No, Isman . . . it isn't punishment. Had you gone into the
+alliance with me it would have been just the same. It was my purpose
+to get you into my power.
+
+IS. Oh!
+
+HAGEN. To bring you here . . . to make you sit down before me, and
+ask, What do you want? . . . And so I will tell you what I want, man
+to man! [A pause.] I want your daughter.
+
+IS. [Starts.] What!
+
+HAGEN. I want your daughter.
+
+IS. Good God!
+
+HAGEN. Do you understand now?
+
+IS. [Whispering.] I understand!
+
+HAGEN. Isman, you are a man of the world, and we can talk together. I
+love your daughter, and I wish to make her my wife.
+
+IS. And so you ruined me!
+
+HAGEN. Four months ago I was an interloper and an adventurer. In a
+month or two I shall be the master of your financial and political
+world. Then I had nothing to offer your daughter. Now I can make her
+the first lady of the land.
+
+IS. But, man, we don't sell our children . . . not in America.
+
+HAGEN. Don't talk to me like a fool, Isman. I never have anything to
+do with your shams.
+
+IS. But the girl! She must consent!
+
+HAGEN. I'll attend to that. Meantime, I want you to know what I mean.
+On the day that your daughter marries me I will put you at the head of
+my interests, and make you the second richest man in America. You
+understand?
+
+IS. [Weakly.] I understand.
+
+HAGEN. Very well. And don't forget to tell your wife about it. [He
+rises.]
+
+IS. Is that all?
+
+HAGEN. No; one thing more. Your daughter is not here to-night.
+
+IS. No.
+
+HAGEN. I wish her to come.
+
+IS. But . . . she is indisposed!
+
+HAGEN. That is a pretext. She did not want to come.
+
+IS. Possibly . . .
+
+HAGEN. Tell her to come.
+
+IS. [Startled.] What? Now? It is too late!
+
+HAGEN. Nonsense. Your home is only a block away. Telephone to her.
+
+IS. [Dismayed.] But . . . she will not be ready.
+
+HAGEN. Tell her to come! Whatever she is wearing, she will outshine
+them all. [ISMAN hesitates a moment, as if to speak, then goes off,
+right, half dazed; the other watches him, laughing silently to
+himself.] That's all right! [Sees Calkins.] Ah, Calkins!
+
+CALKINS. [Enters with an armful of papers.] Here are the morning
+papers, Prince.
+
+HAGEN. Ah! [Takes them.] Still moist! Did you think I wanted them that
+badly?
+
+CAL. Promptness never harms.
+
+HAGEN. [Opening papers.] That's true. Ah, they hardly knew which was
+more important . . . the ball or the panic! We filled them up pretty
+full. Did you see if they followed the proofs?
+
+CAL. There are no material changes.
+
+HAGEN. Ha! Ha! Cartoons! Prince Hagen invites the Four Hundred with
+one hand and knocks them down with the other! Pretty good! Pretty
+good! What's this? Three millions to decorate his palaces . . . half a
+million for a single ball?
+
+CAL. I suppose they couldn't credit the figures.
+
+HAGEN. Humph! We'll educate them! [Sweeps papers out of the way.] So
+much for that! Were all the orders for the London opening gone over?
+
+CAL. All correct, Prince.
+
+HAGEN. Very good! That's all. [CAL. exit.] They're all anxious about
+London . . . I can see it! Ah, Gerald!
+
+GER. [Enters, right.] Hello!
+
+HAGEN. [Smiling.] You see, they came to my party!
+
+GER. Yes.
+
+HAGEN. They smile and chatter . . . they bow and cringe to me . . .
+and I have not preached any of your Christian virtues, either!
+
+GER. No. I grant it. It's a very painful sight. [After a pause.] That
+was a pleasant fancy . . . to have a panic on the eve of your ball!
+
+HAGEN. It wasn't nearly as bad as I meant it to be. Wait and see
+today's!
+
+GER. What's the end of it all?
+
+HAGEN. The end? Why have an end? I didn't make this game . . . I play
+it according to other men's rules. I buy and sell stocks, and make
+what money I can. The end may take care of itself.
+
+GER. It's rather hard on the helpless people, isn't it?
+
+HAGEN. Humph ! The people! [After a pause.] Gerald, this world of
+yours has always seemed to me like a barrel full of rats. There's only
+room for a certain number on top, and the rest must sweat for it till
+they die.
+
+GER. It's not a very pleasant image to think of.
+
+HAGEN. I don't think of it. I simply happen to find myself on top, and
+I stay there and enjoy the view. [Seats himself at table.] As a matter
+of fact, Gerald, one of the things I intend to do with this world is
+to clean it up. Don't imagine that I will tolerate such stupid waste
+as we have at present . . . everybody trying to cheat everybody else,
+and nobody to keep the streets clean. It's as if a dozen mere should
+go out into a field to catch a horse, and spend all their time in
+trying to keep each other from catching it. When I take charge they'll
+catch the horse.
+
+GER. [Drily.] And you'll ride him.
+
+HAGEN. And I'll ride him. [Laughs.]
+
+GER. [After a pause.] At first I couldn't make out why you bothered
+with this Society game. Now I begin to understand. You wanted to see
+them!
+
+HAGEN. I wanted to watch them wriggle! I wanted to take them, one by
+one, and strip off their shams! Take that fellow Rutherford, the steel
+man! Or Plimpton, the coal baron, casting his eyes up to heaven, and
+singing psalms through his nose! The instant I laid eyes on that
+whining old hypocrite, I hated him; and I vowed I'd never rest again
+till I'd shown him as he is . . . a coward and a knave! And I tell
+you, Gerald, before I get through with him . . . Ah, there he is!
+
+PLIM. [Off.] Hello, Isman!
+
+HAGEN. Come. [Draws back with GERALD.]
+
+IS. [Entering, right, with PLIMPTON and RUTHERFORD.] Any word yet?
+
+PLIM. Nothing yet!
+
+RUTH. Such a night as this has been!
+
+IS. If the thing keeps up today the Exchange will have to close . . .
+there will be no help for it.
+
+PLIM. We are in the hands of a madman!
+
+RUTH. We must have a conference with him . . . we must find out what
+he wants.
+
+IS. Did you speak to him, Plimpton?
+
+PLIM. I tried to. I might as well have butted my head against a stone
+wall. "I have money," he said, "and I wish to buy and sell stocks.
+Isn't that my right?"
+
+RUTH. He's a fiend! A fiend!
+
+PLIM. He smiled as he shook my hand . . . and he knows that if coal
+stocks go down another ten points I'll be utterly ruined!
+
+IS. Terrible! Terrible!
+
+PLIM. [To RUTHERFORD.] Rutherford, have you learned any more about
+where his money comes from?
+
+RUTH. I meant to tell you . . . I've had another report. The mystery
+deepens every hour. It's always the same thing . . . the man takes a
+train and goes out into the country; he gathers all the wagons for
+miles around, and goes to some place in the woods . . . and there is a
+pile of gold, fifty tons of it, maybe, covered over with brush. Nobody
+knows how it got there, nobody has time to ask. He loads it into the
+wagons, takes it aboard the train, and brings it to the Sub-treasury.
+
+IS. The man's an alchemist! He's been manufacturing it and getting
+ready.
+
+RUTH. Perhaps. Who can tell? All I know is the Sub-treasury has bought
+over two billion dollars' worth of gold bullion in the last four
+months . . . and what can we do in the face of that?
+
+PLIM. No wonder that prices went up to the skies!
+
+RUTH. I had the White House on the 'phone this afternoon. We can
+demonetize gold . . . the government can refuse to buy any more.
+
+IS. But then what would become of credit?
+
+PLIM. [Vehemently.] No, no . . . that will not help! [Gazes about
+nervously.] There's only one thing. [Whispers.] That man must be
+killed!
+
+RUTH. [Horrified.] Ah!
+
+IS. No.
+
+PLIM. Just that! Nothing else will help! And instantly . . . or it
+will be too late.
+
+IS. Plimpton!
+
+PLIM. He must not be alive when the Exchange opens this morning!
+
+RUTH. But how?
+
+PLIM. I don't know . . . but we must find a way! We owe it as a public
+duty . . . the man is a menace to society. Rutherford, you are with me?
+
+RUTH. By God! I am!
+
+IS. You're mad!
+
+PLIM. You don't agree with me?
+
+IS. It's not to be thought of! You're forgetting yourself, Plimpton .
+. . ,
+
+PLIM. [Gazing about.] This is no place to discuss it. But I tell you
+that if there is no support from London . . .
+
+RUTH. [Starting.] Come . . . perhaps there may be word! [They start
+left.] We may beat them yet . . . who can tell?
+
+[PLIMPTON, RUTHERFORD and ISMAN go off.]
+
+HAGEN. [Emerges with GERALD from shadows, shaking with laughter.] Hat
+ha! ha! Love and self-sacrifice! You see, Gerald!
+
+GER. Yes . . . I see! [Looks right . . . then starts violently.] My
+sister!
+
+HAGEN. Ah !
+
+GER. What does this mean?
+
+HAGEN. [To ESTELLE, who enters, right, evidently agitated.] Miss Isman!
+
+EST. My father said . . .
+
+HAGEN. Yes. Won't you sit down?
+
+EST. [Hesitatingly.] Why . . . I suppose so . . .
+
+HAGEN. [To GERALD.] Will you excuse us, please, Gerald?
+
+GER. [Amazed.] Why, yes . . . but Estelle . . .
+
+EST. [In a faint voice.] Please go, Gerald.
+
+GER. Oh! very well. [Exit, left.]
+
+EST. You wished to see me.
+
+HAGEN. Yes. [Sitting opposite.] How do you like it all?
+
+EST. It is very beautiful.
+
+HAGEN. Do you really think so?
+
+EST. [Wondering.] Don't you?
+
+HAGEN. No.
+
+EST. Truly ?
+
+HAGEN. No.
+
+EST. Then why did you do it?
+
+HAGEN. To please you.
+
+EST. [Shrinks.] Oh!
+
+HAGEN. [Fixes his gaze on her, and slowly leans across table; with
+intensity.] Haven't you discovered yet that you are mine?
+
+EST. [Half rising.] Prince Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. How long will it be before you know it?
+
+EST. How dare you?
+
+HAGEN. Listen. I am a man accustomed to command. I have no time to
+play with conventions . . . I cannot dally and plead. But I love you.
+I cannot live without you! And I will shake the foundations of the
+world to get you!
+
+EST. [Staring, fascinated; whispers.] Prince Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. All this . . . [waving his hand] I did in the hope that it
+would bring you here . . . so that I might have a chance to tell you.
+Simply for that one purpose. I have broken the business world to my
+will . . . that also was to make you mine!
+
+EST. [Wildly.] You have ruined my father!
+
+HAGEN. Your father has played this game, and his path is strewn with
+the rivals he has ruined. He knows that, and you know it. Now I have
+played the game; and I have beaten him. It took me one day to bring
+him down . . . [Laughs.] It will take me less time to put him back
+again.
+
+EST. But why, why?
+
+HAGEN. Listen, Estelle. I came to this civilization of yours, and
+looked at it. It seemed to me that it was built upon knavery and fraud
+. . . that it was altogether a vile thing . . . rotten to the core of
+it! And I said I would smash it, as a child smashes a toy; I would
+toss it about . . . as your brother the poet tosses his metaphors. But
+then I saw you, and in a flash all that was changed. You were
+beautiful . . . you were interesting. You were something in the world
+worth winning . . . something I had not known about before. But you
+stood upon the pinnacle of Privilege . . . you gathered the clouds
+about your head. How should I climb to you?
+
+EST. [Frightened.] I see!
+
+HAGEN. I came to your home . . . I was turned from the door. So I set
+to work to break my way to you.
+
+EST. I see!
+
+HAGEN. And that is how I love you. You are all there is in the game to
+me. I bring the world and lay it at your feet. It is all yours. You do
+not like what I do with it, perhaps. Very well . . . take it and do
+better. The power is yours for the asking! Power without end! [He
+reaches out his arms to her; a pause.] You do not like my way of love-
+making, perhaps. You find me harsh and rude. But I love you. And
+where, among the men that you know, will you find one who can feel for
+you what I feel . . . who would dare for you what I have dared? [Gazes
+at her with intensity.] Take your time. I have no wish to hurry you.
+But you must know that, wherever you go, my hand is upon you. All that
+I do, I do for the love of you.
+
+EST. [Weakly.] I . . . you frighten me!
+
+HAGEN. All the world I lay at your feet! You shall see.
+
+PLIM. [Off left.] Prince Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. [Starting.] Ah!
+
+PLIM. [Enters, running, in great agitation, with a telegram.] Prince
+Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. Well?
+
+PLIM. I have a report from London. The market has gone all to pieces!
+
+HAGEN. Ah!
+
+PLIM. Pennsylvania coal is down twenty-five points in the first half
+hour. I'm lost . . . everything is lost!
+
+RUTH. [Running on.] Prince Hagen! Steel is down to four! And the Bank
+of England suspends payments! What...
+
+PLIM. What do you want with us? What are you trying to do?
+
+RUTH. [Wildly.] You've crushed us! We're helpless, utterly helpless !
+
+PLIM. Have you no mercy? Aren't you satisfied when you've got us down?
+
+RUTH. Are you going to ruin everybody? Are you a madman?
+
+PLIM. What are you trying to do? What do you want?
+
+HAGEN. [Has been listening in silence. Suddenly he leaps into action,
+an expression of furious rage coming upon his face. His eyes gleam,
+and he raises his hand as if to strike the two.] Get down on your
+knees!
+
+PLIM. Ha!
+
+RUTH. What?
+
+HAGEN. [Louder.] Get down on your knees! [PLIMPTON sinks in horror.
+PRINCE HAGEN turns Upon RUTHERFORD.] Down!
+
+RUTH. [Sinking.] Mercy!
+
+HAGEN. [As they kneel before him, his anger vanishes; he steps back.]
+There! [Waving his hand.] You asked me what I wanted? I wanted this .
+. . to see you there . . . upon your knees! [To spectators, who appear
+right and left.] Behold!
+
+RUTH. Oh! [Starts to rise.]
+
+HAGEN. [Savagely.] Stay where you are! . . . To see you on your knees!
+To hear you crying for mercy, which you will not get! You pious
+plunderers! Devourers of the people! Assassins of women and helpless
+children! Who made the rules of this game . . . you or I? Who cast the
+halo of righteousness about it . . . who sanctified it by the laws of
+God and man? Property! Property was holy! Property must rule! You
+carved it into your constitutions . . . you taught it in your
+newspapers, you preached it from your pulpits! You screwed down wages,
+you screwed up prices . . . it must be right, because it paid! Money
+was the test . . . money was the end! You were business men! Practical
+men! Don't you know the phrases? Money talks! Business is business!
+The gold standard . . . ha, ha, ha! The gold standard! Now someone has
+come who has more gold than you. You were masters . . . now I am the
+master! And what you have done to the people I will do to you! You
+shall drink the cup that you have poured out for them . . . you shall
+drink it to the dregs!
+
+PLIM. [Starting to rise.] Monster!
+
+HAGEN. Stay where you are! Cringe and grovel and whine! [Draws a
+Nibelung whip from under his coat.] I will put the lash upon your
+backs! I will strip your shams from you . . . I will see you as you
+are! I will take away your wealth, that you have wrung from others!
+Before I get through with you you shall sweat with the toilers in the
+trenches! For I am the master now! I have the gold! I own the
+property! The world is mine! You were lords and barons . . . you ruled
+in your little principalities! But I shall rule everywhere . . .
+every- thing . . . all civilization! I shall be king! King! [With
+exultant gesture.] Make way for the king! Make way for the king!
+
+CURTAIN
+
+
+
+
+ACT IV
+
+
+[The scene shows a spacious room, fitted with luxurious rusticity. To
+the right of centre are a couple of broad windows, leading to a
+veranda. In the corner, right is a table, with a telephone. In the
+centre of the room is a large table, with a lamp and books, and a
+leather arm-chair at each side. To the left of centre is a spacious
+stone fireplace, having within it a trap door opening downward. At the
+left a piano with a violin upon it. There are exposed oak beams;
+antlers, rifles, snowshoes, etc., upon the walls. Entrances right and
+left.]
+
+[At rise: CALKINS, standing by the desk, arranging some papers.]
+
+CALKINS. [As 'phone rings.] Hello! Yes, this is the Isman camp. Prince
+Hagen is staying here. This is his secretary speaking. No, Prince
+Hagen does not receive telephone calls. No, not under any
+circumstances whatever. It doesn't make any difference. If the
+President of the United States has anything to say to Prince Hagen,
+let him communicate with Mr. Isman at his New York office, and the
+message will reach him. I am sorry . . . those are my instructions.
+Good-bye. [To HICKS, who enters with telegram.] Hicks, for the future,
+Prince Hagen wishes all messages for him to be taken to my office.
+That applies to letters, telegrams . . . everything.
+
+HICKS. Very good, sir. [Exit.]
+
+CAL. [Opening a telegram.] More appeals for mercy.
+
+HAGEN. [Enters from veranda, wearing white flannels, cool and alert.]
+Well, Calkins?
+
+CAL. Nothing important, sir.
+
+HAGEN. The market continues to fall?
+
+CAL. Copper is off five points, sir.
+
+HAGEN. Ah !
+
+CAL. The President of the United States tried to get you on the 'phone
+just now.
+
+HAGEN. Humph! Anything else?
+
+CAL. There has been another mob on Fifth Avenue this morning. They
+seem to be threatening your palace.
+
+HAGEN. I see. You wrote to the mayor, as I told you?
+
+CAL. Yes, sir.
+
+HAGEN. Well, you'd best put in another hundred guards. And they're to
+be instructed to shoot.
+
+CAL. Yes, sir.
+
+HAGEN. Let them be men we can depend on . . . I don't want any mistake
+about it. I don't care about the building, but I mean to make a test
+of it.
+
+CAL. I'll see to it, sir.
+
+HAGEN. Anything else?
+
+CAL. A message from a delegation from the National Unemployment
+Conference. They are to call tomorrow morning.
+
+HAGEN. Ah, yes. Make a note, please . . . I sympathize with their
+purpose, and contribute half a million. [To GERALD, who enters, left.]
+Hello, Gerald . . . how are you? Make yourself at home. [To CALKINS.]
+I attribute the present desperate situation to the anarchical
+struggles of rival financial interests. I am assuming control, and
+straightening out the tangle as rapidly as I can. The worst of the
+crisis is over . . . the opposition is capitulating, and I expect soon
+to order a general resumption of industry. Prepare me an address of
+five hundred words . . . sharp and snappy. Then see the head of the
+delegation, and have it understood that the affair is not to occupy
+more than fifteen minutes.
+
+CAL. Very good, sir.
+
+HAGEN. And stir up our Press Bureau. We must have strong, conservative
+editorials this week . . . It's the crucial period. Our institutions
+are at stake . . . the national honor is imperilled . . . order must
+be preserved at any hazard . . . all that sort of thing.
+
+CAL. Yes, sir . . . I understand.
+
+HAGEN. Very good. That will be all.
+
+CAL. Yes, sir.
+
+[Exit, right.]
+
+GER. You're putting the screws on, are you?
+
+HAGEN. Humph! Yes. It's funny to hear these financial men . . . their
+one idea in life has been to dominate . . . and now they cry out
+against tyranny!
+
+GER. I can imagine it.
+
+HAGEN. Here's Plimpton, making speeches about American democracy!
+These fellows have got so used to making pretenses that they actually
+deceive themselves.
+
+GER. I've noticed that you make a few yourself now.
+
+HAGEN. Yes . . . don't I do it well? [Thoughtfully.] You know, Gerald,
+pretenses are the greatest device that your civilization had to teach
+me.
+
+GER. Indeed?
+
+HAGEN. We never made any pretenses in Nibelheim; and when I first met
+you, your talk about virtue and morality and self-sacrifice was simply
+incomprehensible to me. It seemed something quite apart from life. But
+now I've come to perceive that this is what makes possible the system
+under which you live.
+
+GER. Explain yourself.
+
+HAGEN. Here is this civilization . . . simply appalling in its
+vastness. The countless millions of your people, the wealth you have
+piled up . . . it seems like a huge bubble that may burst any minute.
+And the one device by which it is all kept together . . . is pretense!
+
+GER. Why do you think that?
+
+HAGEN. Life, Gerald, is the survival of the strong. I care not if it
+be in a jungle or in a city, it is the warfare of each against all.
+But in the former case it's brute force, and in the latter it's power
+of mind. And don't you see that the ingenious device which makes the
+animal of the slums the docile slave of the man who can outwit him . .
+. is this Morality . . . this absolutely sublimest invention, this
+most daring conception that ever flashed across the mind of man?
+
+GER. Oh, I see.
+
+HAGEN. I used to wonder at it down there on the Bowery. The poor are a
+thousand to your one, and the best that is might be theirs, if they
+chose to take it; but there is Morality! They call it their virtue.
+And so the rich man may have his vices in peace. By heaven, if that is
+not a wondrous achievement, I have not seen one!
+
+GER. You believe this morality was invented by the rich.
+
+HAGEN. I don't know. It seems to be a congenital disease.
+
+GER. Some people believe it was implanted in man by God.
+
+HAGEN. [Shrugging his shoulders.] Perhaps. Or by a devil. Men might
+have lived in holes, like woodchucks, and been fat and happy; but now
+they have Morality, and toil and die for some other man's delight.
+
+CAL. [Enters, right.] Are you at leisure, sir?
+
+HAGEN. Why?
+
+CAL. Mr. Isman wants you on the 'phone.
+
+HAGEN. Oh! All right . . . [Goes to 'phone.]
+
+GER. [Rises.] Perhaps I . . ,
+
+HAGEN. No, that's all right. [Sits at 'phone.] Hello! Is that Isman?
+How are you? [To CALKINS.] Calkins!
+
+CAL. Yes, sir.
+
+[Sits and takes notes.]
+
+HAGEN. How about Intercontinental? [Imperiously.] But I can! I said
+the stock was to go to sixty-four, and I want it to go. I don't care
+what it costs, Isman . . . let it go in the morning . . . and don't
+ever let this happen again. I have sent word you are to have another
+hundred million by nine-thirty. Will that do? Don't take chances. Oh,
+Rutherford! Tell Rutherford my terms are that the directors of the
+Fidelity Life Insurance Company are to resign, and he is to go to
+China for six months. Yes. I mean that literally . . . Plimpton? What
+do I want with his banks . . . I've got my own money . . . And, oh, by
+the way, Isman . . . call up the White House again, and tell the
+President that the regulars will be needed in New York . . . . No, I
+understand you . . . I think I've fixed matters up at this end. I've
+got two hundred guards up here, and they're picked men . . . they'll
+shoot if there's need. I'm not talking about it, naturally . . . but
+I'm taking care of myself. You keep your nerve, Isman. It'll all be
+over in a month or two more . . . these fellows are used to having
+their own way, and they make a fuss. And, by the way, as to the
+newspapers . . . we'll turn out that paper trust crowd, and stop
+selling paper to the ones that are making trouble. That'll put an end
+to it, I fancy. You had best get after it yourself, and have it
+attended to promptly. You might think of little things like that
+yourself, Isman . . . no, you're all right; only you haven't got
+enough imagination. But just get onto this job, and let me hear that
+it's done before morn- ing. Good-bye. [Hangs up receiver.] Humph! [To
+GERALD.] They've about got your father's nerve.
+
+GER. I can't say that I blame him very much. [In somber thought.]
+Really, you know, Prince Hagen, this can't go on. What's to be the end
+of it?
+
+HAGEN. [Laughing.] Oh, come, come, Gerald . . . don't bother your head
+with things like that! You're a poet . . . you must keep your
+imagination free from such dismal matters . . . . See, I've got a job
+for you. [Pointing to books on table.] Do you notice the titles?
+
+GER. [Has been handling the books absent-mindedly; now looks at
+titles.] The Saints' Everlasting Rest. Pilgrim's Progress. The Life of
+St. Ignatius. . . . What does that mean?
+
+HAGEN. I'm studying up on religion. I want to know the language.
+
+GER. I See!
+
+HAGEN. But I don't seem to get hold of it very well. I think it's the
+job for you.
+
+GER. How do you mean?
+
+HAGEN. I'm getting ready to introduce Morality into Nibelheim.
+
+GER. What?
+
+HAGEN. [Playfully.] You remember you talked to me about it a long time
+ago. And now I've come to your way of thinking. Suppose I gave you a
+chance to civilize the place, to teach those wretched creatures to
+love beauty and virtue?
+
+GER. It would depend upon what your motive was in inviting me.
+
+HAGEN. My Motive? What has that to do with it? Virtue is virtue, is it
+not? . . . No matter what I think about it?
+
+GER. Yes.
+
+HAGEN. And virtue is its own reward?
+
+GER. Perhaps so.
+
+HAGEN. Let us grant that the consequences of educating and elevating
+the Nibelungs . . . of teaching them to love righteousness . . . would
+be that they were deprived of all their gold, and forced to labor at
+getting more for a wicked capitalist like me. Would it not still be
+right to teach them?
+
+GER. It might, perhaps.
+
+HAGEN. Then you will try it?
+
+GER. No . . . I'm afraid not.
+
+HAGEN. Why not?
+
+GER. [Gravely.] Well . . . for one thing . . . I have weighty reasons
+for doubting the perfectibility of the Nibelungs.
+
+HAGEN. [Gazes at him; then shakes with laughter.] Really, Gerald, that
+is the one clever thing I've heard you say !
+
+GER. [Laughing.] Thank you!
+
+HAGEN. [Rises and looks at watch.] Your mother was coming down. Ah !
+Mrs. Isman !
+
+MRS. IS. [Enters, left.] Good afternoon, Prince Hagen.
+
+HAGEN. And how go things?
+
+MRS. IS. I've just had a telegram from my brother. He says that the
+Archbishop of Canterbury never goes abroad, and was shocked at the
+suggestion; but he thinks two million might fetch him.
+
+HAGEN. Very well . . . offer it.
+
+MRS. IS. Do you really think it's worth that?
+
+HAGEN. My dear lady, it is worth anything if it will make you happy
+and add to the eclat of the wedding. There's nothing too good for
+Estelle.
+
+MRS. IS. Ah, what a wonderful man you are. [Eyeing him.] I was
+wondering how rose pink would go with your complexion.
+
+HAGEN. Dear me! Am I to wear rose pink?
+
+MRS. IS. No, but I'm planning the decoration for the wedding breakfast
+. . . . And I'm puzzled about the flowers. I'm weary of orchids and la
+France roses . . . Mrs. Bagley-Willis had her ball room swamped with
+them last week.
+
+HAGEN. We must certainly not imitate Mrs. Bagley-Willis.
+
+MRS. IS. [Complacently.] I fancy she's pretty nearly at the end of her
+rope. My maid tells me she couldn't pay her grocer's bill till she got
+that million from you!
+
+HAGEN. Ha, ha, ha!
+
+MRS. IS. I wish you'd come with me for a moment . . . I have some
+designs for the breakfast menu . . .
+
+HAGEN. Delighted, I'm sure. [They go off, left.]
+
+GER. Oh, my God!
+
+EST. [Enters in a beautiful afternoon gown, and carrying an armful of
+roses; she is nervous and preoccupied.] Ah! Gerald!
+
+GER. Estelle. [He watches her in silence; she arranges flowers.]
+
+EST. How goes the poem, Gerald?
+
+GER. The poem! Who could think of a poem at a time like this?
+[Advancing toward her.] Estelle! I can bear it no longer!
+
+EST. What?
+
+GER. This crime! I tell you it's a crime you're committing!
+
+EST. Oh, Gerald! Don't begin that again. You know it's too late. And
+it tears me to pieces!
+
+GER. I can't help it. I must say it!
+
+EST. [Hurrying toward him.] Brother ! You must not say another word to
+me! I tell you you must not . . . I can't bear it!
+
+GER. Estelle . . .
+
+EST. No, I say . . . no! I've given my word! My honor is pledged, and
+it's too late to turn back. I have permitted father to incur
+obligations before all the world
+
+GER. But, Estelle, you don't know. If you understood all ...all...
+
+EST. [With sudden intensity.] Gerald! I know what you mean! I have
+felt it! You know more about Prince Hagen than you have told me. There
+is some secret- something strange. [She stares at him wildly.] I don't
+want to know it! Gerald . . . don't you understand? We are in that
+man's hands! We are at his mercy! Don't you know that he would never
+give me up? He would follow me to the end of the earth! He would wreck
+the whole world to get me! I am in a cage with a wild beast!
+
+[They stare at each other.]
+
+GER. [In sudden excitement.] Estelle!
+
+EST. What?
+
+GER. Can it be that you love this man?
+
+EST. [Startled.] I don't know! How can I tell? He terrifies me. He
+fascinates me. I don't know what to make of him. And I don't dare to
+think. [Wildly.] And what difference does it make? I have promised to
+marry him!
+
+[MRS. ISMAN enters, left, and listens.]
+
+EST. And I must keep my word! You must not try to dissuade me . . .
+
+MRS. IS. Estelle!
+
+EST. Mother!
+
+MRS. IS. Has Gerald been tormenting you again? My child, my child . .
+. I implore you, don't let that madness take hold of you! Think of our
+position. [Attempts to embrace her.] I know how it is . . . I went
+through with it myself. We women all have to go through with it. I did
+not care for your father . . . it nearly broke my heart. I was madly
+in love at the time . . . truly I was! But think what will become of
+us . . .
+
+EST. [Vehemently, pushing her away.] Mother! I forbid you to speak
+another word to me! I will not bear it! I will keep my bargain. I will
+do what I have said I will do. But I will not have you talk to me
+about it . . . Do you understand me?
+
+MRS. IS. My dear!
+
+EST. Please go! Both of you! I wish to be alone!
+
+MRS. IS. [In great agitation.] Oh, dear me! dear me!
+
+[Exit, left.]
+
+GER. Good-bye!
+
+[Exit, right; ESTELLE recovers herself by an effort; stands by table
+in thought. Twilight has begun to gather.]
+
+HAGEN. [Enters by veranda.] Ah ! Estelle! [Comes toward her.] My
+beautiful! [Makes to embrace her.] Not yet?
+
+EST. [Faintly.] Prince Hagen, I told you . . .
+
+HAGEN. I know, I know! But how much longer? I love you! The sight of
+you is fire in my veins. Have I not been patient? The time is very
+short . . . when will you let me . . .
+
+[Advances.]
+
+EST. [Gasping.] Give me . . . give me till tomorrow!
+
+HAGEN. [Gripping his hands.] To-morrow! Very well! [Turns to table.]
+Ah, flowers! Do you like the new poppies?
+
+EST. They are exquisite!
+
+HAGEN. [Sits in chair.] Well, we've had a busy day today.
+
+EST. Yes. You must be tired.
+
+HAGEN. In your house? No!
+
+EST. Rest, even so. [Goes to piano.] I will play for you. [Sits, and
+takes Rheingold score.] One of Gerald's scores.
+
+[Plays a little, then sounds the Nibelung theme. PRINCE HAGEN starts.
+She repeats it.]
+
+HAGEN. No . . . no!
+
+EST. Why-what's the matter?
+
+HAGEN. That music! What is it?
+
+EST. It's some of the Nibelung music. Gerald had it here.
+
+HAGEN. Don't play it! [Hesitating.] Music jars on me now . . . I've
+too much on my mind.
+
+EST. [Rising.] Oh . . . very well. It is time for tea, anyway. Have
+you talked with father today?
+
+HAGEN. Three times. He is in the thick of the fight. He plays the game
+well.
+
+EST. He has played it a long time.
+
+HAGEN. Yes. ['Phone rings.] Ah! What is that? [Takes receiver.] Hello!
+Yes . . . oh, Isman ! I see' More trouble in Fifth Avenue, hey? Well,
+are the regulars there? Why don't they fire? Women and children in
+front! Do they expect to accomplish anything by that? No, don't call
+me up about matters like that, Isman. The orders have been given. No .
+. . not an inch! Let the orders be carried out. That is all. Good-bye.
+Hangs up receiver.
+
+EST. [Has been listening in terror.] Prince Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. Well?
+
+EST. What does that mean?
+
+HAGEN. It means that the slums are pouring into Fifth Avenue.
+
+EST. [A pause.] What do they want?
+
+HAGEN. Apparently they want to burn my palace.
+
+EST. And the orders . . . what are the orders?
+
+HAGEN. The orders are to shoot, and to shoot straight.
+
+EST. Is it for me that you are doing this?
+
+HAGEN. How do you mean?
+
+EST. You told me you brought all the world and laid it at my feet. Is
+this part of the process?
+
+HAGEN. Yes, this is part.
+
+EST. [Stares at him intently; whispers.] How do you do it?
+
+HAGEN. What?
+
+EST. What is the secret of your power? They are millions, and you are
+only one . . . yet you have them bound! Is it some spell that you have
+woven? [A pause; HAGEN stares at her. She goes on, with growing
+intensity and excitement.] They are afraid of your gold! Afraid of
+your gold! All the world is afraid of it! It is nothing -it is a dream
+. . . it is a nightmare! If they would defy you . . . if they would
+open their eyes . . . it would go as all nightmares go! But you have
+made them believe in it! They cower and cringe before it! They toil
+and slave for it! They take up arms and murder their brothers for it !
+They sell their minds and their souls for it! And all because no one
+dares to defy you! No one! No one! [In a sudden transport of passion.]
+I defy you! [PRINCE HAGEN starts; she gazes at him wildly.] I will not
+marry you! I will not sell myself to you! Not for any price that you
+can offer . . . not for any threat that you can make! Not in order
+that my mother may plan wedding breakfasts and triumph over Mrs.
+Bagley-Willis! Not in order that my father may rule in Wall Street and
+command the slaughter of women and children! Nor yet for the fear of
+anything that you can do!
+
+HAGEN. [In a low voice.] Have you any idea what I will do?
+
+EST. [Desperately.] I know what you mean . . . you have me at your
+mercy! You have your guards - I am in a trap! And you mean force . . .
+I have felt it in all your actions . . . behind all your words. Very
+well! There is a way of escape, even from that; and I will take it!
+You can compel me to kill myself; but you can never compel me to marry
+you! Not with all the power you can summon . . . not with all the
+wealth of the world! Do you understand me? [They stare at each other.]
+I have heard you talk with my brother, and I know what are your ideas.
+You came to our civilization, and tried it, and found it a lie. Virtue
+and honor . . . justice and mercy . . . all these things were
+pretenses . . . snares for the unwary. There was no one you could not
+frighten with your gold! That is your creed, and so far it has served
+you . . . but no farther! There is one thing in the world you cannot
+get . . . one thing that is beyond the reach of all your cunning! And
+that is a woman's soul. [With a gesture of exultant triumph.] You
+cannot buy me!
+
+HAGEN. Estelle!
+
+EST. Go!
+
+HAGEN. [Stretching out his arms to her.] I love you!
+
+EST. You love me! The slave driver . . . with his golden whip!
+
+HAGEN. Even so . . . I love you.
+
+EST. What do you know of love? What does the word mean to you? Before
+love must come justice and honor, with it come mercy and self-
+sacrifice . . . all things that you deride and trample on. What have
+you to do with love?
+
+HAGEN. [With intensity.] I love you! More than anything else in all
+the world . . . I love you !
+
+EST. [Stares at him.] More than your power?
+
+HAGEN. Estelle! Listen to me! You do not know what my life has been!
+But I can say this for myself . . . I have sought the best that I
+know. I have sought Reality. [A pause.] I seek your love! I seek those
+things which you have, and which I have not. [Fiercely.] Do you think
+that I have not felt the difference?
+
+EST. [In a startled whisper.] No!
+
+HAGEN. That which you have, and which I have not, has become all the
+world to me! I love you . . . I cannot live without you. I will follow
+you wherever you command. Only teach me how to win your love.
+
+EST. I cannot make terms with you. I will not hear of love from you
+while you have force in your hands.
+
+HAGEN. I will leave your home. I will set you free. I will humble
+myself before you. What else can I do?
+
+EST. You can lay down your power.
+
+HAGEN. Estelle! Those are mere words.
+
+EST. No!
+
+HAGEN. Who is to take up the power? Shall I hand it back to those who
+had it before? Are Plimpton and Rutherford better fitted to wield it
+than I?
+
+EST. [Vehemently.] Give it to the people!
+
+HAGEN. The people! Do you believe that in that mass of ignorance and
+corruption which you call the people there is the power to rule the
+world?
+
+EST. What is it that has made the people corrupt? What is it that has
+kept them in ignorance? What is it but your gold? It lies upon them
+like a mountain's weight! It crushes every aspiration for freedom...
+every effort after light! Teach them... help them... then see if they
+cannot govern themselves!
+
+HAGEN. I meant to do it...
+
+EST. Yes... so does every rich man! When only he has the time to think
+of it! When only his power is secure! I have heard my father say it...
+a score of times. But there are always new rivals to trample... new
+foes to fight... new wrongs and horrors to be perpetrated! The time to
+do it is now... NOW!
+
+HAGEN. Estelle...
+
+CAL. [Enters hurriedly.] Prince Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. What is it?
+
+CAL. A message from Isman. There is bad news from Washington.
+
+HAGEN. Well?
+
+CAL. A. bill has been introduced in Congress... it is expected to pass
+both houses to-night... your property is to be confiscated!
+
+HAGEN. What!
+
+CAL. The sources of natural wealth... the land and the mines and the
+railroads... all are to become public property. It is to take effect
+at once!
+
+EST. [Pointing at him in exultation.] Aha! It has come!
+
+[They stare at each other.]
+
+CAL. I tried to get more information... but I was cut off...
+
+HAGEN. Cut off!
+
+CAL. I think the wires are down... I can't get any response.
+
+HAGEN. I see! [Stands in deep thought; laughs.] Well... [To ESTELLE.]
+At least Plimpton and Rutherford are buried with me! [To CALKINS.]
+Send to town at once and have the wires seen to. And try to learn what
+you can.
+
+CAL. Yes, sir... at once! [Exit.]
+
+EST. They have done it themselves, you see!
+
+HAGEN. Yes... I see.
+
+GER. [Enters, centre; stands looking from one to the other.] Well,
+Prince Hagen... it looks as if the game was up.
+
+HAGEN. You've heard the news?
+
+GER. From Washington? Yes. And more than that. Your guards have
+revolted.
+
+HAGEN. What! Here?
+
+GER. Yes. We're prisoners of war, it seems.
+
+EST. Gerald!
+
+HAGEN. How do you know?
+
+GER. They've sent a delegation to tell us. They've cut the telephone
+wires, blocked the roads, and shut us in.
+
+HAGEN. What do they want?
+
+GER. They don't condescend to tell us that. They simply inform us that
+the woods are guarded, and that anyone who tries to leave the camp
+will be shot.
+
+EST. [In fright.] Prince Hagen!
+
+[HAGEN stands motionless.]
+
+GER. [Solemnly.] Hagen, the game is up!
+
+HAGEN. [In deep thought.] Yes. The game is up. [A pause.] Gerald!
+
+GER. Well?
+
+HAGEN. [Points to violin.] Play!
+
+GER. [Startled.] No!
+
+HAGEN. Play!
+
+GER. You will go?
+
+HAGEN. Yes. I will go. But I will come back! Play! [GERALD takes the
+violin and plays the Nibelung theme.] Louder!
+
+GERALD plays the Nibelung music, which is taken up by the orchestra
+and mounts to a climax, in the midst of which HAGEN pronounces a sort
+of incantation.
+
+Mimi! Mimi! Open the gates of wonderland! Bring back the mood of
+phantasy, and wake us from our evil dream!
+
+Silence. Then answering echoes of the music are heard, faintly, from
+the fireplace. There are rappings and murmurings underground, rumbling
+and patter of feet, and all the sounds of Nibelheim. As the music
+swells louder, the trap doors slide open, and MIMI appears, amid steam
+and glare of light. ESTELLE sees him, and recoils in terror. A company
+of Nibelungs emerge one by one. They peer about timidly, recognize
+HAGEN, and with much trepidation approach him. MIMI clasps his hand,
+and they surround him with joyful cries. He moves toward the
+fireplace, and the steam envelops him.
+
+EST. [Starts toward him, stretching out her arms to him.] Prince
+Hagen!
+
+HAGEN. Farewell!
+
+He gradually retires, and disappears with the Nibelungs. The orchestra
+sounds the motive of Siegfried Triumphant.
+
+CURTAIN
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Hagen, by Upton Sinclair
+