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Streaks of Light--The Last Visit--Margot-- The +Far-Away Princess</title> +<meta name="Author" content="Hermann Sudermann"> +<meta name="Publisher" content="Charles Scribner's Sons"> +<meta name="Date" content="1910"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;} + + +p.normal {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;} +p.center {text-align:center; margin-top:9pt;} + + +p.right {text-align:right; margin-right:20%;} + +p.continue {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;} +.text10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} +.text20 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:20%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} + +.t0 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0px;} +.t1 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:1em; margin-right:0px;} +.t2 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0px;} +.t3 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:3em; margin-right:0px;} +.t4 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:4em; margin-right:0px;} +.t5 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:5em; margin-right:0px;} +.t6 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:6em; margin-right:0px;} +.t7 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:7em; margin-right:0px;} +.t8 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:8em; margin-right:0px;} + +.quote {font-size:90%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} +.dateline {text-align:right; font-size:90%; margin-right:10%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {text-align: center;} + +span.sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:100%; font-weight:bold} +span.sc2 {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:90%; font-weight:bold} + +hr.W10 {width:10%; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; + color:black;} + +hr.W20 {width:20%; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; + color:black;} + +hr.W50 {width:50%; margin-top:12pt; color:black;} +hr.W90 {width:90%; margin-top:12pt; color:black;} + +p.hang1 {margin-left:1em; text-indent:-1em;} +p.hang2 {margin-left:1em; text-indent:0em;} + +.poem { + margin-top: 24pt; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt + } + .poem .stanza { + margin : 1em 0; + margin-top:24pt; + } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Roses: Four One-Act Plays, by Hermann Sudermann + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Roses: Four One-Act Plays + Streaks of Light--The Last Visit--Margot--The Far-away Princess + +Author: Hermann Sudermann + +Translator: Grace Frank + +Release Date: November 18, 2010 [EBook #34360] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSES: FOUR ONE-ACT PLAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Note:<br> +Page scan source: +http://books.google.com/books?id=sF8qAAAAYAAJ&dq</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<table style="width:60%; margin-left:20%; border-top:solid black 2px; +border-bottom:solid black 2px; border-right:solid black 2px; border-left:solid black 2px"> +<tr><td> +<h3>BOOKS BY HERMANN SUDERMANN</h3> +<h4><span class="sc">Published By CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</span></h4> + +<hr class="W90"> +<p class="hang1">The Joy of Living (<i>Es Lebe das Leben</i>). A Play in Five +Acts. Translated from the German by Edith Wharton. <i>net</i> $1.25</p> + +<p class="hang1">Roses. Four One-Act Plays. Translated from the German by Grace +Frank. +<i>net</i> $1.25</p></td> +</tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>ROSES</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>ROSES</h1> + +<h2>FOUR ONE-ACT PLAYS</h2> + +<h3>STREAKS OF LIGHT--THE LAST VISIT<br> +--MARGOT--THE FAR-AWAY PRINCESS</h3> +<br> +<br> +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>HERMANN SUDERMANN</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN</h3> +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>GRACE FRANK</h2> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</h2> +<h2>NEW YORK:::::::::::::::::::::::: 1909</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3><span class="sc2">Copyright, 1909, by</span><br> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br> +Published September, 1909</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:20%"> +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_light" href="#div1_light"><span class="sc2">Streaks Of Light</span></a></p> + +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_margot" href="#div1_margot"><span class="sc2">Margot</span></a></p> + +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_visit" href="#div1_visit"><span class="sc2">The Last Visit</span></a></p> + +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_princess" href="#div1_princess"><span class="sc2">The +Far-away Princess</span></a></p> +</div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>I</h2> + +<h1><a name="div1_light" href="#div1Ref_light">STREAKS OF LIGHT</a></h1> + +<h2>A PLAY IN ONE ACT</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHARACTERS</h2> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:20%"> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Julia</span>.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Pierre</span>.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Wittich</span>.</p> +</div> +<br> + +<p class="center"><span class="sc2">The Present Day</span></p> +<br> + +<p class="normal"><i>The action takes place at a small pavilion situated in the +park +belonging to an old castle</i>.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>STREAKS OF LIGHT</h2> +<br> +<p class="normal"><i>An octagonal pavilion of the Rococo period, the three front +walls of +which are cut off by the proscenium. Ceiling and walls are cracked and +spotted by rain, and bear the marks of long disuse. At the back, in the +centre, a large doorway. The glass door is thrown wide open; the +shutters behind are closed. On the right and left, in the oblique walls +of the room, are windows, the shutters of which are also closed. +Through the blinds at the door and the right window, sunbeams in +streaks of light penetrate the semi-darkness of the room.</i></p> + +<p class="normal"><i>On the left, in the foreground, a Louis Sixteenth sofa with +table and +gilded chairs to match. On the wall above, an old mirror. Near the +sofa, a tapestried doorway. A chandelier wrapped in a dusty gauze +covering is suspended from the ceiling. A four-post bed with hangings +of light net takes up the right side of the stage. In the foreground, +in front of the bed, a table with plates, glasses, wine-decanters, and +provisions on it. A coffee percolator stands under the table. In the +middle of the stage, a little to the right, a chaise-longue. At the +head of it, a small table. Between the large door and the windows, +dusty marble busts on dilapidated pedestals. Above them, on the walls, +a collection of various sorts of weapons. The Oriental rugs which are +thrown about the floor and over the chaise-longue contrast strangely +with the faded splendour of the past.</i></p> + +<p class="normal"><i>The whole room is decorated with roses. On the table at the +left is a +bronze vessel of antique design overflowing with roses. Garlands of +roses hang from the chandelier and encircle the bedposts. On the small +table near the chaise-longue, a large, flat dish, also filled with +roses. In fact wherever there is any place for these flowers, they have +been used in profusion.</i></p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Part of the table which stands in front of the sofa is +covered by a +napkin, upon which are seen a bottle of wine and the remains of a +luncheon for one. It is a sultry afternoon in midsummer.</i></p> + +<p class="normal"><span class="sc">Julia</span> <i>lies on the chaise-longue, +asleep. She is a beautiful woman, +about twenty-five years of age, intractable and passionate, with traces +of a bourgeois desire to be "romantic." She is dressed in white, +flowing draperies, fantastically arranged.</i></p> + +<p class="normal"><i>A tower clock strikes four. Then the bells of the castle +are heard +ringing. Both seem to be at a distance of about two hundred paces.</i></p> + +<p class="normal"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> <i>enters cautiously through +the tapestried doorway at the left. +He is a fashionably dressed, aristocratic young fellow who has been +petted and spoiled. He is effeminate, cowardly, arrogant, and is trying +to play the passionate man, although inwardly cold and nervous.</i></p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Laughs in her sleep. Her laughter dies out in groans.</i>) +Pierre! +Pierre! Help! Pierre!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>bending over her</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, yes. What is it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing-- (<i>Laughs and goes on sleeping</i>).</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>straightening up</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Whew How hot it is! (<i>He stares at </i><span class="sc2"> Julia</span>, <i>his face +distorted by fear +and anger, and beats his forehead. Then indicating the outstretched +form of the woman.</i>) Beautiful!--You beautiful animal--you! (<i>Kneels</i>. +<span class="sc2">Julia </span><i>holds out her arms to him, but he evades her embrace.</i>) Stop! +Wake up!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>tearfully</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Please let me sleep.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No! Wake up! I've only come for a moment. It's tea-time, and I +have to +go back to the house.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Please stay!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, mamma will be asking for me. I have to be there for tea.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>pettishly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I have a headache. I want some black coffee!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then make it yourself. The gardener is cleaning the orchid +rooms in the +hot-house, and he has no time for you now.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He never has time for me!--And the meals that his wife cooks +are simply +abominable!--And the wine is always warm!--Do, for mercy's sake, steal +the key to the icehouse!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you know that I can't!--I always bring you all the ice +that I can +manage to take from the table. If I insist upon having the key, the +housekeeper will tell mamma.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I won't drink warm wine--so there! That's what gives me +these +headaches.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Your headaches, I want to tell you, come from the roses. +Ugh!--this +nasty smell from the withered ones--sour--like stale tobacco +smoke--why, it burns the brains out of one's head!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">See here, dearie, you let the roses alone! That was our +agreement, you +know--basketsful, every morning! I wish the gardener would bring even +more! That's what he's bribed for.--More! More! Always more!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">See here, if you were only reasonable----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I'm not reasonable! O you--you-- (<i>She holds out her +arms to him. +He comes to her. They kiss.</i>) More!--More!--No end!--Ah, to die!----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>freeing himself</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">To die!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>with hidden scorn</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--to die. (<i>Yawning nervously.</i>) Pardon me!--It's as +hot as an oven +in here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the shutters are always closed! For eight long days I've +seen +nothing of the sun except these streaks of light. Do open the +shutters--just once!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">For Heaven's sake!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just for a second!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But don't you realize that the pavilion is locked and that not +a soul +ever crosses the threshold?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes, I know--because your lovely, reckless +great-grandmother lost +her life here a hundred years ago! That's one of those old-wives' tales +that everyone knows.--Who can tell? Perhaps my fate will be the same as +hers.--But do open the shutters!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do be reasonable! You know that in order to come in here by +the side +door without being seen I have to crawl through the woods for a hundred +yards. The same performance twice a day--for a week! Now, if I should +open the shutters and one of the gardener's men should see it, why, +he'd come, and then----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Let him come! I'll smile at him--and he's no man if he doesn't +keep +quiet after that! Why, your old gardener would cut his hand off +for me any day of his life--just for a bit of wheedling!--It can't be +helped--they all love me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>aside</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Beast!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What were you muttering then? (<span class="sc2">Pierre </span><i>throws himself down +before her +and weeps.</i>) Pierre! Crying?--Oh!--Please don't--or I'll cry too. And +my head aches so!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>softly but nervously and +with hatred</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you know what I'd like to do? Strangle you!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ha! Ha! Ha!--(<i>pityingly</i>) Dear me! Those soft +fingers--so weak!--My +little boy has read in a naughty book that people strangle their +loves--and so he wants to do some strangling too!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>rising</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, what's to become of you? How much longer is the game to +last in +this pavilion?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">As long as the roses bloom--that was agreed, you know.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bah! Then!--Why think of it? I'm here now, here under the +protection of +your lovely, ghostly great-grandmother. No one suspects--no one dreams! +My husband is searching for me the whole world over!--That was a clever +notion of mine--writing him from Brussels--Nora, last act, last +scene--and then coming straight back again! I'll wager he's in Paris +now, sitting at the Café des Anglais, and looking up and down the +street--now toward the Place de l'Opera, now toward the Madeleine. Will +you wager? I'll go you anything you say. Well, go on, wager!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">On anything else you wish--but not on that!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why not?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Because your husband was at the castle this morning.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>rising hastily</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">My husband--was--at the castle----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What's so surprising about that? He always used to come, you +know--our +nearest neighbour--and all that sort of thing.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Did he have a reason for coming?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">A special reason?--No.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pierre--you're concealing something from me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>hesitating</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing that I know of. No.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why didn't you come at once? And now--why have you waited to +tell me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>sullenly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">You're hearing it soon enough.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pierre, what happened? Tell me, exactly!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, he came in the little runabout--without a groom--and +asked for +mamma. I naturally pretended to be going out. But you know how she +always insists on my staying with her.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And how was he was he--just the same as ever?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, no, I wouldn't say that.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">How did he look? Tell me, tell me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the first place, he wore black gloves--like a gravedigger.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ha! Ha! And what else?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the second place, he was everlastingly twitching his legs.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And what else? What else?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, he explained that you were at a Hungarian watering-place, +that you +were improving, and that you were expected home soon. (<span class="sc2">Julia </span><i>bursts +out laughing.</i>) Yes, (<i>gloomily</i>) it's screamingly funny, isn't it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">So I'm at a Hungarian watering-place! Ha! Ha! Ha!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he looked at me so questioningly, so--so mournfully--why, +it was +really most annoying the way he looked at me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">At a Hungarian watering-place!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then, later, mamma said to him, "It's a dreadful pity your +dear +wife isn't here just now. She does so love the roses."</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And what did he say?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Our roses are not thriving very well this year," said he.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But his turnips!--They always thrive!--And then----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a strange thing occurred that I can't help worrying +about. +Suddenly mamma said to him, "Something very peculiar is happening on +our estate this year. Now I can see from where I sit that the whole +place is one mass of roses. And yet, if at any time I ask for a few +more than usual, there are none to be had!"</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, you must have been shaking in your boots! Did you do +anything to +betray us?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I think I know how to take care of myself!--But suddenly +he grew +absolutely rigid--as if--as if he had been reflecting. He acted like a +man who sleeps with his eyes open. Mamma asked him a question three +times, and he never answered a word!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I say, did you come here to frighten me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>bursting out</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What is your fear compared to what I had to stand! Compared to +my +biting, nauseous shame as I sat there opposite him?--I scorned the man +inwardly, and yet I felt as if I ought to lick the dust on his boots. +When mamma said to him, "You don't look very well, Herr Wittich--are +you ill?"--her words were like the box on the ear that she gave me +when, as a lad of fifteen, I got into mischief with the steward's +daughter.--Why did you drag me into this loathsome business? I don't +like it!--I won't stand it!--I like to feel straight! I want my hands +clean!--I want to look down on the people that I meet!--I owe that to +myself.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Reproaches?--I'd like to know who has the guilty conscience in +this +case, you or I?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">How long have you been concerned about your conscience?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pierre, you know I had never belonged to any other man--except +him.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you've showered sweet glances right and left. You've +flirted with +every man who would look at you--even the stable-boy wasn't beneath +your notice!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And he was better than you!--For he wanted nothing more than +to follow +me with his eyes. But you, Pierre, you were not so easily satisfied. +No, the young Count was more exacting. Corrupt to the core--in spite of +his twenty years----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>proudly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I am not a bit corrupt. I am a dreamer. My twenty years excuse +that!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But your dreams are poisonous. You want a woman to be your +mistress and +yet be chaste--to keep the blush of maidenhood and yet be as passionate +as yourself.--And what have you learned from your experience in the +world? Nothing, except how to scent and track out the sins that lie +hidden in one's inmost soul, the secret sins that one dares not admit +to oneself.--And when the prey is in reach, then you fire away with +your "rights of the modern woman," your "sovereignty of the freed +individuality"--and whatever the rest of the phrases may be.--Ah! You +knew better than I that we all have the Scarlet Woman's blood in our +veins!--Blow away the halo--and the saint is gone!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seems to me you found a great deal of pleasure in your sin!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--at least that's what one tells oneself--perhaps one feels +it, +too.--It depends--more in the evening than the morning--more in March +than October.--But the dread, the horror of it, is always there.--The +weight of such love is like the weight of one's own coffin-lid.--And +you soon discovered that, Pierre.--Then you began softly, gently, to +bind me to you with glances and caresses that were like chains of +roses!--Yes, and that I become maddened by roses as cats by valerian, +that, too, you soon found out.--Then--then you began to speak to me of +the lover's pavilion--all covered with roses--where your ancestors +spent happy, pastoral hours in wooing their loves--the pavilion that +had been waiting so long for a new mistress. You spoke of adorning it +with beautiful hangings--of filling it full of roses. Oh you, you +Pierre, how well you understood!--Do have some black coffee made for +me! If the gardener can't do it, make it yourself! Please, please!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, I tell you, I have to go back to mamma.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nowadays, you always "have to go back to mamma." Shall I tell +you +something--a big secret? You are tired of me! You want to get rid +of me--only you don't know how!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Your notions are offensive, my dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pierre, I know my fate. I know I am doomed to the gutter. But +not +yet! Don't leave me yet! Care for me a little while longer--so the +fall won't be too sudden.--Let me stay here as long as the roses +bloom--here, where <i>he</i> can't find me! Oh, if I leave this place I +shall die of fear!--Nowhere else am I safe from those two great fists +of his!--Pierre, Pierre, you don't know his fists--they're like two +iron bolts!--You, too--beware of him!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>half to himself</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Why do you say that to me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was always jealous of you. When you sent the hothouse roses +in +April, he became suspicious. Ever since then, he has continually had +the notion of an admirer in his head. That was the danger-signal! +Pierre, if he surmised--then you would be the first--and I would come +afterward! Pierre, if you drive me to desperation, I'll give you up to +him!----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Are you mad?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'll write him a letter something like this: "If you want to +find the +traces of my flight, search the rubbish heap behind the lover's +pavilion. Search for the faded petals of the roses upon which, night +after night, Pierre and I celebrated our union. Search the highway for +the bloody prints of my bare feet after he turned me out. Then search +the dregs of the brothels where I found a refuge. And then--then avenge +me!"</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You'll do nothing of the kind, you-- (<i>Seizes her by the +wrists.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>laughing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Nonsense! You have no strength! (<i>Disengages herself without +difficulty.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You've taken it out of me, you beast!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Beast?--You've been muttering that word now for a couple of +days. This +is the first time that you have flung it in my face.--What have I done +that was bestial except to throw my young life at your feet?--And so +this is the end of our rose-fête?----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>in a low voice, breathing +with difficulty</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">No, not yet--the end is still to come!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I dare say.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">In fact--you must--leave here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I dare say.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you understand?--You must leave this place--at once!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">H'm--just so.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">For--you must know--you are no longer safe here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>turning pale</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Not here either?--Not even here?----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I didn't tell you everything, before.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Are you up to some new trick now?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">After I had accompanied him down the steps, he asked--very +suddenly--to +see the park.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The park----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes. And he seemed to be searching every rose-bush as if to +count +the number of blossoms that had been cut from it. Then--in the linden +lane--I kept pushing to the left--he kept pushing to the right, +straight for the pavilion. And as it stood before us----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>terrified</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">The pavilion?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>shuddering</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">So near!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He said he'd like to see the old thing once, from the inside.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Good heavens! But he knows that's impossible--he knows your +family +history!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And you may be sure that's how I put it to him.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And what did he----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was silent--and went back.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Went back! But he'll return!---- +</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You've dumped me into a pretty mess, you have!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do, for goodness' sake, stop pitying yourself, and tell me +what's to be +done.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Haven't I told you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'll not go away! I will not go away! He can't come in here! I +will not +leave this place!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Listen! I'll have a carriage here--at one o'clock in the +night--behind +the park wall. Take it as far as the station.--Listen, I tell you!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, no, no! As soon as I step into the street, I'm lost. And +you, too! +You don't know him! Gentle and tractable as he seems, when once he's +angry, his blood boils over!--If I hadn't taken the cartridges out of +his revolver in those days, he-- Why, I've seen him pick up two +unmanageable boys on our place and swing them over his shoulder into +the mill stream! And they would have been ground to pieces, too, if he +hadn't braced himself against the shaft. Pierre, Pierre, never get into +his way again. He's merciless!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>feigning indifference</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, nonsense! I can hit the ace of hearts at twenty paces! +I'll show +him!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, you'll "show him"! Do you suppose that he's going to wait +until +you take a shot at him?--Devilish much he cares about your duels! He'd +make a clod of earth out of you before you'd have time to take off your +hat!--I tell you, bolt the gate, lock every room in the house, hide +behind your mother's chair,--and even there you won't be safe from him!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Struggling against his growing apprehension.</i>) If +that's the case, +then--h'm, then the best thing for me to do is to disappear for a time.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>trying to cling to him</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, let's go away together!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>moving aside</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">That might suit you.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, after all, it would do no good. We could hide among +crowds of +people--in Piccadilly or in Batignolles--we could go to India or to +Texas--and yet, if he took it into his head, he would find us none the +less. Even if we should evade him--some day, sooner or later, you would +have to return--and then--you would have to pay the penalty!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>stammering</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I--would--have to----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>wildly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">So stay--stay here! Go and shoot him down!--at night--from +behind!--It +doesn't matter! Only--let--me--breathe--again.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you want to drive me mad? Don't you see that I'm trembling +all over?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Because you're a cad and a coward--because----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, yes--anything, for all I care! But go! Leave my property! +Insult +me, spit on me,--but go!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And what then? What then?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Can't you write to him? Tell him that you have come back from +your +little journey--that you have reconsidered--that you can't live without +him. Tell him to forget--and all shall be as it was before.--Now, +wouldn't that be splendid?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now when he suspects?--When he can follow me, step by step, +here to +this pavilion and back again? (<i>Contemptuously.</i>) Splendid!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then try something else!--Oh, now I have it! Now I have it!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Speak, Pierre, for God's sake, speak! I'll love you as--! +Speak! Speak!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You know him. His heart is soft?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, except when he's in a rage, then----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And you are sure that he loves you deeply?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If he didn't love me so much, what need we fear?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Good! Well then, take a carriage at the station and drive +home; throw +yourself at his feet and tell him everything. Tell him, for all I care, +that you hate me--that you loathe me--I don't mind--grovel before him +until he raises you. And then all will be well!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, if it were possible!--It would be deliverance--it would be +heaven! +I should be safe once more--a human being!--I should see the sun again, +instead of these streaks of light!--I should breathe the fresh air, +instead of this musty odour of dead roses!--I shouldn't have to sink +down, down into the filth!--I shouldn't have to be a bad woman--even if +I am one!--There would be a respectable divorce--or perhaps merely a +separation. For, I no longer dare hope to live with him as his wife, +even if I were satisfied to be no better than his dog for the rest of +my days!--Ah, but it cannot be! It cannot be! You don't know him. You +don't know what he's like when the veins stand out on his forehead!--He +would kill me!--Rather than that--kill me yourself!--Here--now--this +moment!--Get your duelling pistols. Oh no! There--there--there are +plenty of weapons! (<i>She pulls at the weapons on the wall, several of +which fall clattering upon the floor.</i>) Swords--daggers--here! (<i>Throws +an armful on the chaise-longue.</i>) They are rusty--but that doesn't +matter.--Take one! Stab me first--then--do as you please!--Live if you +can--do!--live as happily as you can! Your life is in your hands.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--I dare say. Live!--But how? Where? (<i>Sobs chokingly.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Come, then--we'll die together--together! (<i>They sink into +each other's +arms and remain motionless in mute despair. After a time</i>, Julia +<i>raises her head cautiously and looks about her.</i>) Pierre!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>troubled</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Well?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Has it occurred to you? Perhaps it isn't so, after all!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What do you mean?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps we've just been talking ourselves into this notion, +little by +little--think so?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You mean that he really wanted to do nothing but--look at the +pavilion?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, it's possible, you know.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--at least nothing very unusual occurred.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But your naughty, naughty conscience came and asserted itself. +Ha! Ha! +What a silly little boy it is! A downright stupid little boy!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My imagination was always rather easily aroused. I----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>laughing without restraint</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Such a stupid boy!--Pierre, let's make some coffee--for a +change, eh?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you know--I have to----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dear me, mamma has had her tea long ago. Tell her you sat down +in the +shade--and fell asleep--anything! It's growing a bit shady here now. +See there! The streaks of light have gone. (<i>Indicates a corner of the +room in which the streaks of light have just grown dim.</i>) Ah! but how +hot it is! (<i>Tears her dress open at the throat, breathing heavily.</i>) +Will you bring me the coffee-pot, like a good boy?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>listlessly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, well--all right. (<i>Carries the coffee-pot to the table.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pierre, you--you couldn't open the small door just a tiny bit? +No one +would look into the shrubbery.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, out there in the shrubbery, it's even hotter than in +here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, just try it--won't you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, you'll see! (<i>Opens the door at the left.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whew! It's like a blast from a furnace! And that disgusting +odour--a +mixture of perspiration and bad perfume--ugh!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That's from the roses of our by-gone days--they lie out there +in great +heaps.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Close the door! Hurry--close it!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>does so</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I told you how it would be!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, perhaps you could adjust the shutters at the large door +so that +we'd get more fresh air in here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even that would be dangerous. If some one happened to be +looking this +way and saw the movement----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>going to the door</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">One has to do it slowly, ve-ry slow-ly-- (<i>She starts, +uttering a low +cry of fear, and retreats to the foreground, her arms outstretched as +if she were warding off a ghost.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What's the matter?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sh! Sh! (<i>Approaches him cautiously, then softly.</i>) +There's a man--out +there.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Where?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hush! Come here you can see it against the light. (<i>They +cautiously +change places</i>. <span class="sc2">Pierre </span><i>utters a low shriek, then </i><span class="sc2">Julia</span>, <i>softly, +despairingly</i>) Pierre!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It must be the gardener.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It's not--the--gardener.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Who is it then?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Creep around--and lock--the glass door.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>weak from fright</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I can't.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I will. (<i>She has taken but a few steps toward the door +when the +streaks of light again become visible.</i>) He's gone now!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">How--gone?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">There--there--nothing----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Seize the opportunity--and go.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Where?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">To the gardener's house--quick--before he comes back.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">In broad daylight--half dressed as I am?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Throw on a wrap--anything--hurry! (<i>Knocking at the door on +the left. +They both stand rooted to the spot. The knocking is repeated. Then</i> +<span class="sc2">Pierre</span>, <i>in a choking voice</i>) Come in.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<span class="sc2">Wittich </span><i>enters. He is a large, burly man of about forty, +whose whole +appearance betrays neglect; his sandy-coloured hair is pushed back from +his forehead in damp strands; his beard is straggling and unkempt; his +face is haggard and perspiring, his eyes lustreless. He staggers +heavily in walking. He speaks in a stammering, hesitating voice; he +gives the impression, in sum, of a man who is deathly ill, but is +making an intense effort to hold himself together.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I beg your pardon if I am disturbing you. (<i>Both stare at +him without +venturing to move.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>taking heart</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh--p-p-please----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I see you were about to make coffee. Really--I don't want +to----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>stammering</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">P-p-please--th-there's no--hurry----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then we may as well--settle--our affair--first. (<span class="sc2">Julia</span>, <i> +who has +been standing quite still, panting, utters a low groan. At the sound of +her voice</i>, <span class="sc2">Wittich </span><i>catches his breath as if suffocating, then sinks +into one of the chairs at the left and stares vacantly at the floor.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>edging up to </i><span class="sc2">Julia </span><i> +then softly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Can you understand this?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>glancing back--aside to </i> +<span class="sc2"></span>Pierre).</p> + +<p class="normal">Keep near the weapons!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>as </i><span class="sc2">Wittich </span><i>moves</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Hush!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You must forgive me--I only wanted to--look after--my--wife. (<i>Breaks +down again.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>aside to </i><span class="sc2">Julia</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, he's quite out of his mind!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Keep near the weapons!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I don't care--to settle--this matter--by means of +a--so-called--affair +of honour. I'm a plain man. I only know about such things from hearsay. +And any way--I don't see that they help--m-matters much. (<i>Breaks into +tearless sobs.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>aside</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">He won't hurt us.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>stammering</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I simply--don't--understand it--at all!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>pointing to </i><span class="sc2">Wittich</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Try it! Go to him!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He's not a bit like himself.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Go on! Go on!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Who has timidly approached her husband, bid has drawn back +at a +movement of his, suddenly throws herself at his feet with great +emotion.</i>) George! George!--I am guilty!--I have sinned before +God and you!--I acknowledge my crime!--My life is in your hands!--Crush +me--grind me to dust!--But God knows, I only obeyed a wretched impulse. +My love for you has never left my heart.--My one desire is to die. Kill +me!--Here!--Now!--But forgive me! Ah, forgive me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span> (<i>staring straight ahead</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, they always talk like that--in books, at least.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Forgive me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is nothing to forgive. And I am not going to kill any +one. What +good would it do? (<span class="sc2">Julia </span><i>sobs, hiding her face in her hands.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then--don't kneel there--like that--Julia, dear!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I shall lie here until he raises me. Raise me! Take me in your +arms! +Oh, George----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, that's what they always say. (<i>Sinks into reverie +again.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>aside to her</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Hush! Stand up! (<i>She does so.</i>) Well--h'm--I suppose I +may assume, +Herr Wittich, that you had some purpose in seeking this interview?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--yes. (<i>Looking about him.</i>) I can well imagine that +my +wife--er--that the lady must find it very pleasant here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes--we needn't hesitate to say that, need we, Julia, +dear?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>uncertainly adopting his +tone</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">No, indeed, Pierre, dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">At least--she seems to have plenty of roses here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>laughing nervously</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes--plenty.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">May I ask whether the lady has made any arrangements for the +future?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>still timidly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I was thinking of making my home in Paris, wasn't I, Pierre?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes. You see, Julia wants to live a life suited to her tastes +and +inclinations--a life such as she cannot have even here--a life +consecrated to Beauty and Art.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">They say that an existence of that sort comes high. Has my +wife--er--has the lady made any provision for her expenses?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>embarrassed</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">From the moment that I become of age I shall be in a position +to--h'm--h'm----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I see. But <i>until</i> that moment--?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I--er----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, I consider it my duty--and mine alone--to protect the +woman +whom--until recently--I called my wife. And to save her from ruin, I am +willing to make any sacrifice whatsoever.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, as for that, of course----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I intend to put no obstacle in the way of your desire to +legitimize +your relations.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very kind of you--really--very thoughtful indeed.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not because--not that I don't dare insist upon <i>my</i> +rights in this +affair, but because I want to guard <i>her</i> from lifelong misery.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Really, you wouldn't believe how often we have discussed this +question--would he, Julia, dear?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I am never going to grant your wish, Pierre, dear. You +shall keep +your liberty--you shall be free! Even as I ask nothing better than to +follow my own inclinations. If I am ruined because of them--well, it's +no one's concern but my own--no one's! (<i>Tosses her head.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">May I inquire what those inclinations are?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It's hard to say--off-hand.--You must feel it--you must-- +Well, I want +to be free!--I want to hold my fate in my own hands!--I want-- Oh, why +talk about it? What is one poor, human life?--especially a life like +mine!--I am branded--doomed to the gutter!--One need use no ceremony +with me now!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Really! Well--h'm--if I had known that you felt that way about +it--I +should have made you--a different proposition--Julia, dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tell me! Please!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--tell us--please!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I suppose I may assume that the people at the castle know +nothing of +this little adventure of the young Count's?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You may rest assured, my dear sir, that I know what is due a +woman's +honour.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah--really!--Well, I'm sure no one saw me coming here. So +then, there +need be no scandal.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That would certainly be most agreeable to all parties +concerned.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But--how did the lady propose to leave here without being +seen?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pray, my dear sir, let that be my concern.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That concern, however, I shall share with you--my dear sir. +And it +seems to me that the best plan would be for the lady to put on a decent +dress, walk through the grounds with me, and pay a visit to the +Countess at the castle.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What!--my mother--? What's the use of that?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It will look as if she'd returned--and we'd--somehow--met +here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you think any one is going to believe that?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span> (<i>proudly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What else should they believe?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>frightened anew</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, but I don't want to! I don't want to do that! Pierre! I +want to +stay with you! I am under your protection, Pierre!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">See here, my dear sir, let us suppose that your plan is +successful--what then?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--yes--afterward--what then?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then?--Then-- (<i>Looks from one to the other, uncertainly, +almost +imploringly, and breaks down again.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well--won't you go on with your proposition?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, I suppose that when a man has acted as I have acted here, +he must +have lost--his sense of pride--and honour--and all the rest of it--long +ago.--Then nothing is left him but--his duty.--And the thing that seems +to me my--duty--I am going to do.--Let the Count sneer at me--I no +longer----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, please--I say!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then, let me tell you something, Julia. After I had read +the +letter from Brussels, I had two rooms prepared for you--in the left +wing--quite apart; so that some day, in case--you ever--came back-- Oh, +well--it doesn't matter now. But the rooms--are--still there--and if +you would like to come home with me now--straight off--well, you might +be spared--some annoyance.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">H'm--so you're willing--? (<i>Shrugs his shoulders and laughs.</i>) +I +suppose that sort of thing is all a matter of taste--but I can +understand----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am speaking to you, Julia.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I thank you most heartily, George. It's certainly very +noble +of you--and--I deeply appreciate it. But after--this, I should +always feel ashamed before you--I should feel that I was just being +tolerated--I-- No. Thank you, George--but I couldn't stand it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>correcting her</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">That is--! (<i>Aside to </i><span class="sc2">Julia</span>.) Don't be a fool!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span> (<i>without noticing </i> +<span class="sc2">Pierre</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">You shall never hear a word of reproach from my lips, Julia, +dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But--if I should actually accept--we never could go on as we +did +before, you know. I must be free to do exactly as I please--to go +away--come back--just as I like. There is such a thing as the +sovereignty of the individuality, my dear George--you can't deny that.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Wittich can't possibly deny that!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You shall have your own way as far as it lies in my power, +Julia, dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then, you must try to bring a little more--more beauty +into our +life.--I surely have the right to demand that. Just look about you +here. You know how passionately fond of roses I am. My soul demands +something besides--potatoes! Well, I insist upon having roses around +me. That's not unreasonable, is it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You shall have roses enough to smother you.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>nervously</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then, Julia, dear, I see no reason why we should not +accept this +proposition.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What have you got to say about it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I beg your pardon, Herr Wittich. I certainly don't want to +offend you. +But--as Julia and I have found so much in each other--haven't we, +Julia, dear?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--so very, very much, Pierre, dear.--And to know that we +were so +near--and yet could never see each other or talk together, or-- I, for +my part, couldn't endure it, could you, Pierre?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh--as for that--well, it would be hard, Julia, dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And what would the world say, dear George, if we should +suddenly--and +apparently without any cause--break off all communication with our +neighbors? How would Pierre explain it to his mother? Why, he simply +couldn't! No; if we are to carry out your plan, then everything must +remain outwardly the same as before. Don't you agree with me, Pierre, +dear?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Hesitating, with an apprehensive glance toward </i> +<span class="sc2">Wittich</span>.) Outwardly--yes, Julia, dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span> (<i>losing control of himself</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">So that's your condition, is it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span> (<i>with a sort of nervous +impudence</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, that's our condition--isn't it, Pierre, dear? (<span class="sc2">Pierre </span><i> +does not reply, but looks at </i><span class="sc2">Wittich</span>.)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Really?--Really!--Very well! (<i>He draws himself to his full +height, his +face flushes, and he looks around the room wildly, as if searching for +something.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What are you looking for, George?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If you-- (<i>Gasps as if suffocating.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">George! George! What's the matter?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Wittich</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">There--there--there! (<i>With a loud cry, he falls upon the +weapons and +snatches one of the daggers.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Julia</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Help! Help! Pierre! Save me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Pierre</span> (<i>at the same time</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Help! Help! (<i>He pushes open the door and escapes, screaming</i>. +<span class="sc2">Julia </span> +<i>rushes out through the door at the left</i>. <span class="sc2">Wittich </span><i>dashes after her. A +piercing shriek is heard. After a short pause</i>, <span class="sc2">Julia </span><i>appears at the +large door in the centre. She tries to go further, fails, supports +herself against the door posts for an instant, and then reels into the +room. She attempts to lean against the small table in the centre, but +falls to the floor, dying. As she falls the small table is upset, +burying her beneath a shower of roses.</i></p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Through the doorway at the left</i>, <span class="sc2">Wittich </span><i>is heard, +sobbing and +groaning. In the distance </i><span class="sc2">Pierre </span><i>is shouting for help. The sound of +many voices, growing louder as the curtain falls.</i>)</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>II</h2> + +<h1><a name="div1_margot" href="#div1Ref_margot">MARGOT</a></h1> + +<h2>A PLAY IN ONE ACT</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHARACTERS</h2> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:20%"> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Herr Ebeling</span>, a lawyer.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Frau von Yburg</span>.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Margot</span>, her daughter.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Doctor von Tietz</span>.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Bonath</span>, a secretary.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">A Servant</span>.</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc2">The Present Day</span></p> +<br> +<p class="continue">The scene is laid in a large German city.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>MARGOT</h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal"><i>The richly furnished office of a prosperous lawyer. +Pictures, bronzes, +carved furniture, costly hangings. In the foreground, on the left, a +window; turned toward it, a writing-table with a writing-chair behind. +Near the window, a leather arm-chair. At the narrow side of the table, +in the foreground, a low seat. On the right, a sofa, table, and chairs. +In the background, a door which, when opened, reveals the clerks +working at long tables. To the right, back, another door. The backward +projection of the writing-table forms a revolving-stand for reference +books. On the writing-table, among documents and writing materials, are +photographs in standing frames and a slender vase filled with dark red +roses.</i></p> + +<p class="normal"><i>It is winter, about six o'clock in the evening. The lamps are +lighted.</i></p> + +<p class="normal"><span class="sc2">Ebeling </span><i>is seated in the +writing-chair. He is a man of about forty, +attractive, winning in manner, his clothes betokening wealth and +refinement; he wears a short, dark beard, and his hair is slightly gray +at the temples</i>. <span class="sc2">Von Tietz</span>, <i>sitting opposite him +in the arm-chair, is +about thirty, very smartly dressed--in appearance a type of the +ordinary drawing-room devotee.</i></p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>holding out a box of +cigars</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">There! Now let's chat. Will you smoke?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span> (<i>helping himself</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Really now--if I'm disturbing you----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">See here, my dear fellow, if you were disturbing me, I'd make +short +work of you. But (<i>looking toward the clock</i>) my office hours are over. +And we'll find out immediately what else there is. (<i>He rings.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Bonath</span> <i>appears with a bundle of +papers</i>.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is any one still there?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Bonath</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, Herr Ebeling, but a lady is expected.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, I know. Well, let me have the papers. (<span class="sc2">Bonath </span><i>lays +them before +him.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>To </i><span class="sc2">v. Tietz</span>.) You can go on speaking. These are only +signatures.--Have you a light?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Who has stood up and is looking around the room.</i>) Yes, +thank you.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">See that this decision is delivered to Baron von Kanoldt at +once.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Bonath</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, Herr Ebeling.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You've become a collector, I see.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>signing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">One must have some diversion.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What's that? Looks like a Terburg. Is it an original?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>signing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Would you expect it to be a copy?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">H'm, your practice is certainly splendid.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">There are a lot of people, though, who think they are cleverer +than +I--and take great pains to justify their opinion. (<i>To </i><span class="sc2">Bonath</span>.) Will +it be necessary to work overtime?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Bonath</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not to-day, Herr Ebeling.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then you can announce Frau von Yburg as soon as she comes. (<span class="sc2">v. +Tietz </span><i>listens attentively.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Bonath</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well, Herr Ebeling. (<i>Goes out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lady you are expecting is Frau von Yburg?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course you know that I've been the Yburg's legal adviser +for years.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span> (<i>sitting down</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, really, this is quite a marvellous coincidence. It's on +account +of the Yburgs that I've come to see you.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>interested</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Is that so? What's the matter?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear friend, if you hadn't so completely drawn away from +all society +since your wife l---- (<i>alarmed.</i>) I beg your pardon.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Go on! Say it! Left me! Walked out of the house! You may say +it. But +then--drop it! Even our old fraternity friendship doesn't oblige us to +be everlastingly putting each other on the grill.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, really--it escaped me somehow. I'm awfully sorry.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, well, never mind. You know, I speak of it quite +disinterestedly. +And it's a good many years since then. Only--I'd rather not be attacked +unawares.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Don't worry. I'll be on my guard. But--as we've mentioned +it--there's +something I wanted to ask you before--only I hadn't the courage. Tell +me, do you always keep her picture on your table?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>in a hard voice</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then you still love her?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No. I only keep the picture there to warn me against making a +fool of myself again. So many charming women sit there where you're +sitting, women just on the point of divorce--and therefore in +need of consolation. Every now and then one of them undertakes to +faint--um--and then I have to-- (<i>Holds out his arms.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span> (<i>bursting out laughing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Aha! Very interesting! Very interesting!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">In short, it does no harm to keep the picture there.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course, everyone knows how much courted you are. For +instance, no +matter when I come to see you, I always find those beautiful roses on +your table. They speak for themselves. Heavens! What a luxury! Roses in +January!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Things like that come anonymously. If I knew who the sender +was, I +wouldn't accept them.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Let me with all due modesty give you a piece of advice: you +ought to +marry.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Ironically, shaking his finger at him across the table.</i>) +Thank you. +But didn't you want to speak to me about the Yburgs?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes. What was I going to say?--Oh, yes. Well, if you hadn't +taken it +into your head to live like a hermit, you'd know that, for some time +past, I've been a very frequent visitor at the Yburgs's.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes, I know. I go there myself sometimes--only not when +other +people are around.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then, to make a long story short--why should I mince +matters with +you?--I am courting Margot.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>startled</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah--you, too? You're also one of the crowd?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span> (<i>conceitedly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I trust that I stand up a bit above the crowd.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Indeed? I thought perhaps the social glamour of the Yburgs was +attracting you. A thing like that can't help dazzling one. But +that you----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is it so surprising? That girl is so bewitching--so--so +entirely unlike +these forward, city-bred girls. With her, at least, one knows what one +can count on. She's so--so the essence of everything innocent and +chaste and pure.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>quoting</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow,"--thy dowry shall +not +escape me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, no--don't joke. It's out of place. I won't deny that, as +an +official without fortune--that would also be very--h'm--but----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, but what have I got to do with it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">See here, my dear friend, we scattered remnants of the old +college +fraternity have grown so accustomed to ask your help in times of need, +to look up to you as a sort of father confessor----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you want me to go and propose for you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">We'll talk of that later. But first I'd like to ask you +something. See +here, what rôle is Baron von Kanoldt playing in this family?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">So that's it!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You're his counsel in his divorce proceedings, aren't you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the affair has become common talk, I need make no secret of +it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">They say that it is the wife who has been the martyr. And yet, +after +fifteen years, <i>he</i> begins the divorce proceedings. Why should he?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear fellow, you must put that question to some one who's +not so +well informed as I am.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, see here, I don't want to be indiscreet about it, but the +further +the case goes, the more persistent are the rumours that he has designs +on Margot's hand--and, furthermore, that her mother is encouraging him!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Frau von Yburg will be here in a few minutes.--Ask her!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What do you take me for?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>shrugging his shoulders</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, well then----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But just think! that man--forty, if he's a day, fat, worn out, +a roué +whose amorous adventures are common gossip to every cabby on the +street!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pardon me, my clients are all virtuous, young, handsome, +desirable--of +inestimable pulchritude.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">See here--are you chaffing me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'm only trying to make you understand that you've unwittingly +walked +into the enemy's camp.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span> (<i>standing up</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well--if you don't want to----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Also stands up, and puts his hand on </i><span class="sc2">v. Tietz's </span><i> +shoulder.</i>) My dear +fellow, you're ten years younger than I. You're one of your country's +young hopefuls. Go ahead and do what your heart and pocket-book bid +you.</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I didn't need you to tell me that. (<i>A knock at the door.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Come in.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Bonath</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Frau von Yburg and----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ask her in.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<span class="sc2">Bonath </span><i>stands aside, opening the door. Enter </i><span class="sc2">Frau v. +Yburg </span><i>and </i><span class="sc2">Margot</span>. +<span class="sc2">Frau v. Yburg </span><i>is a woman of about forty, dressed simply but +tastefully; her bearing is dignified, self-possessed, refined, and +betrays a natural, unaffected knowledge of the demands of convention; +but hidden behind her assurance, and scarcely noticeable, are the +traces of an old sorrow, a helpless glance, and a forced smile</i>. Margot +<i>is a lovely young girl, extremely well-bred, with a somewhat shy, +reserved manner.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span> (<i>at sight of Margot</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I brought my little girl along, Herr Ebeling, to let her catch +a +glimpse of the lion's den. I hope that you won't mind.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>kissing her hand</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">A thousand times welcome, dear ladies. (<i>Shakes hands with </i><span class="sc2"> +Margot</span>.)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Good evening, Herr von Tietz. This is indeed a pleasure. (<i>Gives +him +her hand.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'm very happy to meet you both--I hadn't hoped to see +Fräulein Yburg +here. But our friend believes in military promptitude. I have just +received permission to take my leave.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I hope that you will come to see us soon, Herr von Tietz.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That's very kind of you. (<i>Bowing to </i><span class="sc2">Margot</span>.) Fräulein +Yburg!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>accompanying him to the +door</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Good-bye, my dear fellow. No bad feelings now----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Tietz</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I say! Of course not! (<i>Goes out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Won't you sit down?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, no. Margot is only going to glance around a bit. Yes, my +little +girl, you may well look about. Between these four walls many a fate has +been shaped.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Let us rather say, has been mended.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>softly, suddenly looking up</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Mine, too?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Looking at her with evident disapproval.</i>) Perhaps +Margot may call +for me again in half an hour. You won't mind?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It will give me great pleasure.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then run away, dear, pay your visit, and let the carriage +bring you +back again. (<i>Sits down, right.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Giving him her hand with social assurance, but a little +timidly, none +the less.</i>) Au revoir, Herr Ebeling.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Au revoir, Fräulein Margot. (<i>Accompanies her to the door, +and calls.</i>) +Bonath, see to it that Fräulein Yburg finds her way out. She is coming +back later.</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><i>Voice of </i><span class="sc2">Bonath</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well, Herr Ebeling.</p> + +<p class="center">(<span class="sc2">Ebeling </span><i>bows to </i><span class="sc2">Margot</span>, <i>who is already out of +sight, and closes the +door.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, Frau von Yburg, we've brought matters to this point.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span> (<i>sighing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The divorce was granted yesterday morning.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, I know.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, aren't you pleased?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear Herr Ebeling, my heart is so full of +gratitude--really, I don't +know how to thank you--for myself and also for my poor, dear child. But +I'm so helpless--so perplexed--I really don't know--I----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, what can be wrong?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--just fancy--well, then--<i>she won't do it!</i></p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>astonished</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What's that?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Think of the monstrosity of it! She won't do it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Has she been notified that the divorce has been granted?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yesterday--just after the proceedings--Baron von +Kanoldt--came--with +his proposal.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">H'm!--quicker than I had expected.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My husband, of course, was simply thunderstruck. One can +surely +sympathise with him--von Kanoldt--a man in the forties--divorced--with +grown children--and <i>such</i> a reputation! But when he saw that I took +the man's part--I had to do that, didn't I?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That was our only course.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then his position, his wealth, his connections at court--oh, +yes, and +naturally our long friendship-- Of course, my husband doesn't surmise +what this man did to her! In the end, he agreed that Margot herself +should decide.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, and--? What----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">She came, looked him quietly in the face, and asked for time +to think +it over.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seems to me your husband was very clever. Otherwise, he +might +perhaps have----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, but when we were alone, just fancy! she declared quite +simply: +"No, I won't do it." I exclaimed, "Why, my dear child, you're out of +your mind! You know that we've done everything for the sake of this +day!" "Yes, I know all about it--but I won't." "You've been wishing it +for three years," I said to her. And what do you suppose she answered! +"I never wished it. You talked it into me--and he."</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He?" Pardon me, who?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You, Herr Ebeling.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>standing up in his +excitement</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear lady, it was my duty to carry out what you and +Fräulein Margot +desired--and what, in short, the circumstances demanded.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I know! My God, how well I realise it! And what a task +you've +accomplished! No--when I remember how much persuasion, how much subtle +reasoning, how much-- Ah, and how I've suffered these three years! See, +my hair is quite gray!--And I still can't understand it! I still look +upon the girl as if she were a stranger, a mysterious being who has +lost her way and accidentally come to me. I--I who was brought up so +strictly, watched, and carefully tended all my life, kept worlds away +from any taint of the unconventional-- And she, too-- No, on that +point, I can't reproach myself. And yet--this horror! No, I shall +never, never understand it! Ah, and to have to bear it all alone! Oh, +yes, I had to do that. My husband, with his long army training, would +have forced him to fight--and then we should all have been dragged in +the dust. Margot's life--our position in society--everything! Ah, if +you hadn't been here, Herr Ebeling! Do you remember how I came to you? +I think I was half dead from wretchedness! With the letter to him in my +hand, the letter that I had taken from her as she lay distracted in my +arms! Do you remember?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, don't speak of it! As I read that handwriting--still so +childish--and that helpless, stammering question: "What has happened to +me?"--God knows, everything turned black before my eyes! Oh! it's too +horrible!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then you yourself said to me, "You're right--the +blackguard <i>must</i>. +I'll make him."</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I said it in the heat of the first great indignation. Please +take that +into consideration. After I went to work, I religiously kept to my +programme to leave all threats and violence out of the question. Not +only because-- Ah, as I've come to feel now, such a calm method of +procedure would be impossible. But then I had to keep in mind that a +new life--I don't venture to say a happy one--was to be gained through +me. To-day, some one is grateful to me--the very one who at first +opposed me most violently--that poor, wretched wife.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now everything would have been forgiven. I can't +understand it. I +don't know--I----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">So she won't do it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And that's why I've fled to you in my need! Later, when she +returns, I +want to have gone. You understand? I've arranged it this way so that +you could bring her to her senses. A little heart to heart talk, you +know. But if your influence doesn't help, then I don't know--then----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>walking up and down</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">And so she won't do it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, just explain it to me! The only possible way in which to +rehabilitate herself in her own eyes! And she throws it to the winds! +What can she be thinking of? What----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so she won't do it!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What's come over you, Herr Ebeling? You're not listening!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>firmly, quietly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well, then she <i>shall</i> not.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">For God's sake! You, too! You, too, want----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear friend, I have done all that lay in my power, often +against my +own convictions, I can assure you. She knows what she is doing. She +will not. Very well. I'm not here to bait her to her ruin. I am very +sorry, but this time I must refuse my assistance.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what will happen? Must all our work count for +nothing--your work, +my work? For I have worked over her with all my powers, I need not +hesitate to say it, worked to place her again on those spiritual +heights where a young girl of family by right belongs. I have led her +back to Religion, for whoever has anything to expiate must possess +Religion. I have read with her only the most carefully selected books, +books that could never, never endanger a young girl's imagination. And +I have taken special care to see to it that when she was in the company +of young people, she should, if possible, be stricter and even more +reserved than the most timid of her friends. For her need of such +behaviour was double theirs, wasn't it? And you yourself will admit +that my efforts have been successful. No one could deny it and look +into those clear, steadfast eyes of hers. (<span class="sc2">Ebeling </span><i>nods assent.</i>) She +has become all soul--all----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>doubtingly, sadly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, indeed, Herr Ebeling. No clandestine, no unseemly wish +finds its +way into her heart. I'll vouch for that. She glides through life like a +silent spirit, cleansed and purified.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And therefore we are to throw her into the jaws of that beast.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is there any other way? Do you know of any?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>tormented</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">H'm! She certainly has suitors enough!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">She'll reject them all--as she has heretofore. She simply +says, "I +shall not begin my new life with a lie. I think too much of myself for +that. And to confess, to tell the man, and have him turn his back on +me, or out of pure pity raise me to his own level--I think <i>entirely</i> +too much of myself for that."</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I believe one can readily appreciate her feelings.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what will become of her? Is she to wither and wear +away--this +heavenly young creature? (<span class="sc2">Ebeling </span><i>walks about, growing more and more +excited. A pause.</i>) Herr Ebeling, speak! Advise me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>firmly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I know of only one solution: she must choose some one who +knows it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Who could that be--except----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>breathing heavily</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Except that man, there is only one other.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Stares at him uncomprehendingly with her hands clasped, +then +stammering.</i>) Oh! oh, God! What a joy that would be!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What more can I say? Such things come and grow great in a man, +one +knows not how. She bore <i>her</i> sorrow, <i>her</i> shame, I mine. At first, +perhaps, it was no more than a casual fancy--no, an interest, for my +inclinations were always involved--but to-day it has become a passion, +a passion that, lonely man as I am, gnaws me to the very core of my +being.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But how have you managed through it all to keep so quiet, so +deliberate, so----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">One learns, little by little, to be master of oneself. And +five minutes +ago there was absolutely no hope, (<i>bursting out</i>) but if she no longer +wants him--why shouldn't I--oh! (<i>Hides his face in his hand, trembling +with emotion.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wait! I don't see, after you've led him on to this point, how +you'll +ever justify all this to Baron von Kanoldt.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I don't know! Until now, I've led a tolerably respectable +life. For, in +the disgrace that <i>she</i> (<i>pointing to the picture of his wife</i>) +brought +upon me, I played no part.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes, everyone in society knows that.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I haven't once asked myself whether what I am now going to +do--or +should like to do--conforms to the prevailing standards of propriety. +One ought to think it over, to let some time elapse--in short, I don't +know! All I can say is that if she doesn't want him, if she won't take +that--(<i>checking himself</i>)--him, well, then, the path is open to +any one--to me as well as to another.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span> (<i>hesitating</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I feel that I ought to warn you of just one thing more. She +has never +seemed to consider you as anything more than a fatherly sort of friend.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">H'm! (<i>Laughs bitterly.</i>) Even though I'm a couple of +years younger +than----, I've certainly acted more like a father to her. But you're +probably right. (<i>Knocking.</i>) Come in. (<span class="sc2">Bonath </span><i>enters.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Bonath</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I've let the clerks go home. Have you any further orders, Herr +Ebeling?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You can go, too, Bonath. But tell my man to answer the door.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Bonath</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well, Herr Ebeling. Good evening. (<span class="sc2">Bonath </span><i>goes out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Frau von Yburg, your daughter will return in a few minutes. +Meanwhile, +the scene has changed not altogether insignificantly. Do you still +approve of that little private heart to heart talk--or not?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, my dear friend, I have such boundless confidence in you. +You've +been her good angel for so long. I don't hesitate for a moment to leave +her in your hands. And you'll carefully observe all the conventions? Of +course you will.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what can I say to her?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You're so skilled in reading the heart. You'll have found a +way to +make her confess something before she's aware of it. Only let me beg of +you--if you find nothing in what she says that gives you reason to +hope, then please don't worry her. She has already suffered so much.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well, then, I'll proceed upon the assumption that I have +only to +comply with the request that brought you to me to-day.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If you would----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hush! (<i>Listens at the door, then pointing to the right.</i>) +May I ask +you to go out this door? You know your way.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Yburg</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And please, please, spare her delicacy. You've no idea how +pure she +is--in spite of----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If I didn't know <i>that</i>-- (<i>Knocking. He opens the +door, right.</i>) +Good-bye.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<span class="sc2">Frau v. Yburg </span><i>goes out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Come in.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Servant.</p> + +<p class="normal">A young lady is outside. She wants to know whether her mother +is still +here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Hurrying to the centre door--vivaciously.</i>) Just fancy +Fräulein +Margot, your mother thought you'd no longer be coming, and has only +just left. (<span class="sc2">Margot </span><i>appears at the centre door, and stands there, +hesitating.</i>) But won't you come in for a few moments?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gladly, if I may. (<i>Looking about irresolutely.</i>) Only I +don't know +whether I----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What, my dear child?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It isn't usually mamma's way to go off without me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I'll take you home myself. You need have no fears.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I'm not afraid.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>inviting her to sit down</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Won't you----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'd like to look around a bit first; may I? I couldn't a while +ago.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'm only too happy to think that you take some interest in my +home.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dear me, mamma has so often told me about it. Of late years +her visits +to you were our principal topic of conversation. I think I've known +every tiny nook here for a long, long time.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Really?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, there's the stand with the horrible law books! (<i>Sighing.</i>) +Ah, +Herr Ebeling, everything in life is Law--and everything is in books.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear young girl, the hardest laws are never to be found in +books.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, you are right. The laws that drag us down to destruction +are the +laws that we make for ourselves. And all those beautiful women! I +suppose one must be very beautiful to join them?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>parrying lightly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Most of them are clients who have presented me with their +pictures as a +token of gratitude.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, but I'm your client, too--and yet I should never dare to +offer +you my picture in that way.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If you only----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>startled</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, and there's your-- (<i>Looks at him questioningly, +confused.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, that's my former wife.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw her only once in my life. I was a mere child then. She +was very +lovely.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, she was lovely.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, and the wonder--wonderful roses! Mamma has told me that +you always +have such lovely roses.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>lightly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, I have an agreement with a gardener. He keeps me +supplied.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>seemingly convinced</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">May I present them to you, Fräulein Margot?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, dear me, no. The gardener who keeps you supplied might be +offended.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>laughing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">As you wish.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And this is the inquisitional chair--where the poor secrets +are dragged +out?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Quite the contrary! The secrets come forth of their own +accord. I +always have to say "stop."</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then, I needn't hesitate to sit down. (<i>Does so.</i>) <i> +My</i> secret +you know--(<i>sighing</i>)--only too well!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear Fräulein Margot; the real secret of your life, the law +that +governs your thoughts and feelings, I believe no one knows--not even +your mother.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>smiling and shrugging her +shoulders</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">My good mamma! And I'm here to give you proofs of that fact, +am I?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>evasively</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The reason for my being here isn't the one you've given me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Indeed! What is it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I wasn't left here alone for nothing! Please go ahead, Herr +Ebeling, do +your duty and talk me nicely into marrying Baron von--(<i>shudders</i>). +See?--I've never once been able to bring his name to my lips. And yet +I'm to pass my whole life with that man! Can one picture anything more +horrible? (<i>Shudders again.</i>) Do you know of any occupation for me, +Herr Ebeling?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Occupation? Why?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I want to leave home.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ebeling</p> + +<p class="normal">Is that your earnest intention?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>nods</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">But, unfortunately, I've learned nothing. And then--it has to +be an +occupation that wouldn't humiliate me--and that wouldn't spoil my hands +(<i>takes off her gloves</i>), for I love my hands. I don't care a bit about +my face, but my hands--they're like two friends. I can keep up long +conversations with them--especially with the left. That one's so weak. +So, something that wouldn't spoil the hands--and would leave me time +for reading--and--well, I want to be alone.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I might have suggested nursing, even though it requires the +constant +use of the hands. But, of course, you'd never be alone.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No. I have no love for my fellow-creatures. I don't want to do +anything +for them.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Those are hard words, Fräulein Margot.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am hard. What have my fellow-creatures ever done for me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And--your parents?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You refer to mamma? Mamma certainly means well. But mamma has +torn my +soul from my body. She has made use of the old principle of family +rule--which may have had some sense in the Stone Age--and has turned me +into a doll, a doll-creature that moves its eyes and says <i>ba</i> when you +press its head.--Just watch, Herr Ebeling!--Now haven't I a touching +fashion of casting up my eyes when I look at you in this simple, +thoughtful, innocent way?--And when I let the lids fall again in all +the bashful piety that I still can muster--isn't it simply sweet?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>earnestly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear young girl, I really believe I must begin to say +"stop" now!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dear me! You're already disgusted with me! But if you had any +idea--do +you know what you'd think? "Pity that I wasted such pains on a creature +like her!"</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I should never think that, my dear child. I should only pity +you and +love you the more.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I don't want to be pitied! And loved? (<i>Shakes her head.</i>) +At least not +that way--and not the other, either. That's still stupider. When I +listen to my friends--this one loves me, and that one loves me, and +this one kept my glove, and that one kissed my handkerchief--ugh! It +reminds me of the cackling of a lot of hens. Herr Ebeling, do you +believe criminals are scornful?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why do you ask?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Please answer.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It's very often true of born criminals.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then, I've the criminal nature.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>laughing against his will</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Tut, tut, my dear child, why so--all of a sudden?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Because I inwardly shrug my shoulders at everything that goes +by the +name of Innocence. I keep thinking to myself, "You silly sheep, what do +you know about it?"--Ah, and yet, I envy them! At the balls, I see +everything as through a veil. The things that the men chatter about +sound far, far away--oceans off. I always feel like saying, "Don't +trouble about me. Go to that girl over there. She's stupid enough." And +then--after I've come home--I weep, weep from sheer envy and utter +boredom, weep until I have to turn my pillow.--And mamma? Mamma drags +me from ball to ball: I mustn't be unlike the others, you know!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear child, if this goes against your nature, why don't you +make +some resistance? Why don't you show your mother that you have thoughts +and feelings of your own which must be respected?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, my dear Herr Ebeling, just be a whipped dog yourself, year +in year +out! The dog doesn't resist either--but suddenly, some day--when he's +at the very end of his endurance--he bites his master's hand. I shall +bite soon!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I'll grant you that your mother has probably made some +mistakes. +But only out of love, or because she knew no better. Just ask yourself +what would have become of you if you'd been left to yourself all this +time?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I should have been embittered just the same--you're right--but +I should +not have let myself fall.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Who knows?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Never! And I'll tell you something to prove it. Severely as I +have been +watched--and--surely there's nothing coquettish about me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly not.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You can believe me when I say that, in the general moral tone +prevailing over our society just now--and of which our mothers +naturally know nothing--there lurks a temptation which has over and +over again enticed even me. Such things are so personal, so secret--one +cannot describe them. Oh, I could have done whatever I wished! But +I said to myself: the first time, you were ignorant, you were +sacrificed--or, at least, you can talk it into yourself that you were +sacrificed--but if ever again--no, I can't say it after all!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I understand, my child.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If ever again--then you'll be lost--forever! Then there can be +no more +ideals, no more poetry--nothing lofty--nothing for which to work--and, +worst of all, nothing of which to dream. For to dream--ah, one must +dream, mustn't one? When one no longer has <i>that</i>!----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>moved</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, dear child.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you mustn't think that I'm trying to make myself +interesting, or +that I stand here before you beautifully whitened and purified! Oh, no! +What I'm going to say to you now has never been said to any one, to any +man before. And you are going to despise me utterly. But I must say +it--once, once in my life--and then the old hypocrisy can go on again. +Well, I don't know what it is, but it's like a fire in me. No, worse, +much worse! When I think of that frightful man, my heart fairly +shrivels up. And yet--I can never get away from it. There's always a +terror, a horror in me; and yet there is always an eternal--an eternal +hunger. Yes--a restlessness--a search--the whole day long. It's +strongest toward twilight. Then I want to go out--out into the wide +world--to fly to unknown lands. Then I think to myself--out there, no +one knows you; out there, there is no sin. Ah, it's as if I were +lashed! And I heap such reproaches upon myself because of it! Even now +you have not heard the worst. I must tell you the worst, too. Well, you +know how I hate that man--yet, sometimes it seems to me that I must go +to him and say to him--Behold, here I am again!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>jumps up, muttering to +himself</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What has he done? The scoundrel! The blackguard!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">There! Now you know on whom you've wasted your sympathy! Now I +can go. +(<i>Stands up, snatches her muff, and prepares to leave.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Who has been silently walking up and down more hotly.</i>) +It appears +then that you still love that man.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>with a short, cutting laugh</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, Herr Ebeling, if you've gathered <i>that</i> from all I've +said, then I +might just as well have addressed myself to the four walls. I've been +hoping for three long years that you would secretly manage the thing in +such a way that I'd never have to see him again in all my life--never, +never--not even from a distance.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why did you never confide in me before? Why to-day for the +first time?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Can</i> one do such a thing? Is one ever allowed to? I'm a +well-bred +young girl, you know. I must observe the conventions. How I came to do +it to-day, I don't know myself. But formerly when you were alone with +me, did you ever, at any time, give me to understand, even by a glance, +that you--you knew anything--about me? Do you think such an attitude +gives one courage? Ah, and in my need I've prayed so often, "Dear God, +let him see into my soul! If <i>he</i> doesn't free me, no one will." +Instead, you've only plunged me the deeper--pushed me before +you--always deeper into misery--into the arms of that beast--into the +filth. (<i>Sinks into a chair, sobbing.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Regards her confusedly, then approaches her.</i>) Dear +child! That +wasn't my intention! (<i>Laying his hand on her shoulder caressingly.</i>) +My dear, dear child!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Grasps his hand, and presses her cheek to it. As he tries +to free it, +she holds it the more closely.</i>) Oh, don't leave me. I'm so lonely!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear, dear child. (<i>He bends down to her and kisses her +on the brow. +She throws her arms about his neck and draws herself close to him. He +kisses her lips. She lets her head fall heavily upon his shoulder and +remains motionless while he caresses her gently. With a sudden impulse +she flings him from her, and sinks back in the chair.</i>) Margot, my +darling. Have I hurt you? Are you offended at what I did? If I've +misunderstood, if I have abused your confidence, I earnestly beg you to +forgive me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I've so hungered--so hungered--for this--kiss!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>turning eagerly toward her</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Margot!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>warding him off</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">No! Go away! Go away!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you don't refuse me? And I'm not too old?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>passionately bursting into +laughter</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was never free from the fear that you might not see anything +in me +except an image of that wasted, old creature. (<i>Instead of answering</i>, +<span class="sc2">Margot </span><i>stretches out her arms to him with a soft cry of longing</i>. +<span class="sc2">Ebeling </span><i>draws the low stool to the writing-chair on which she is +sitting, sits down upon it, and embraces her.</i>) Margot, my youth, my +whole youth that I've squandered and frittered away comes back to me +once more through you. And now all will be well with you, too. It was +only a nightmare. Your true self had nothing to do with it. Only--you +must take heart again--you must think of yourself now.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>ecstatically</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, I am equal to anything now. I am not afraid to face the +worst. +I can even marry that man. I shall send him my acceptance quite +calmly.--Of course. Why not?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>shocked</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why should you be astonished at that? Now that I know you love +me? Only +for a year! Perhaps for two! Yes, two! Oh, please, two! Then, later, +when you've left me, let others come! It's all the same, who! For +marriage, of course, I'm entirely spoiled! But I'll be revenged on him! +On him and on Virtue and on Loyalty and on all that stuff with which +they've so long tormented me. And the evening before my wedding--then +may I--come to you again? Toward twilight! It must be on a Sunday. I'll +arrange for that, so we can be alone. Ah, I shall count the days till +then! Why do you look at me like that? (<span class="sc2">Ebeling </span><i>stands up and throws +himself on the sofa, burying his face in his hands. A long pause.</i>) +What can I have done? (<i>She stands up. Another pause.</i>) Surely I +haven't done you any wrong by loving you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Go home now, my child.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I wanted to leave some time ago, but you made me stay. (<i>She +buttons +her coat, throws on her boa, and is about to go out. Then she turns +around resolutely, and places herself before him.</i>) Oh, I know--I'm +disgraced--I'm not worthy of anything better--; but I needn't have had +to endure <i>such</i> scorn and contempt! (<span class="sc2">Ebeling </span><i>rises, looks at her, +groans, buries his face in his hands, and falls back into the chair</i>. +<span class="sc2">Margot </span><i>kneels beside him, weeping.</i>) Dear--dearest--what is it? What's +wrong, my darling?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>compelling himself to be +composed</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Stand up! (<i>She does so.</i>) I am going to tell you. (<i>Stands +up +himself.</i>) I asked your mother's consent to my marrying you to-day. +There, now you know it. Good-bye. (<i>Sits down in the writing-chair. A +pause.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Does not move. Her face becomes hard and bitter.</i>) And +now that you +see what sort I am----H'm, yes. Ah, well, you'll soon console yourself. +There are so many others. Why should it be just I? Let me suggest one +of my friends--a dear--a pretty girl--with white teeth. Why take it to +heart? It hurts for the moment--but one easily forgets. Such girls as I +deserve nothing better. To them--one does this! (<i>Plucks the petals +from the roses which are standing before her in the vase.</i>) And then +one throws them away--like this! (<i>Throws the petals in his face.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>brushing away the petals</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What have the roses done to you, my child?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sent them to you. I, too, may destroy them.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>springing up</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">It was you, you who all these years----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Good evening, Herr Ebeling. (<i>She goes out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Pauses for a moment irresolutely, struggling with himself, +then +hurries after her. His voice is heard.</i>) Stay here! Stay here! Come in +here! (<i>He reappears at the centre door, pulling her by the arm.</i>) Come +in here! Come back!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What do you want of me? I'll cry for help----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Come here! (<i>Drags her to the writing-table.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Leave me alone!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Be quiet! Be quiet! (<i>Picks up one of the pictures standing +on the +table.</i>) There! That woman dragged my name in the gutter. Will you do +the same? Answer me! (<span class="sc2">Margot </span><i>stands motionless, the tears running down +her cheeks.</i>) Answer, I say.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>slowly and heavily</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, one thinks and says so much when there's no longer a +particle of +hope in one's life.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I understand. (<i>He throws the picture on the ground; frame +and glass +are dashed to pieces.</i>) Let us go to your parents. We'll arrange with +them what's best to be done. (<i>As she doesn't move.</i>) Well? (Margot +<i>shakes her head.</i>) You don't want to?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not that way! As I am now, +humiliated--mortified--disgraced--no, not +that way! I am so tired of playing Magdalen! No! When I come, I'll come +with a free step. I'll be able to look every man in the face! But I +must find out first what I am still worth, and (<i>looking him full in +the face</i>) it must be a great, great deal--to be worthy of you.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Ebeling</span> (<i>moved</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Give me your hands, dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Margot</span> (<i>doing so</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">When we see each other again, they'll be red and ugly. +(<span class="sc2">Ebeling </span><i>kisses +her hands and presses them to his face.</i>) Good-bye. (<i>She turns to +go.</i>)</p> +<br> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc2">Curtain</span>.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>III</h2> + +<h1><a name="div1_visit" href="#div1Ref_visit">THE LAST VISIT</a></h1> + +<h2>A PLAY IN ONE ACT</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHARACTERS</h2> +<div style="margin-left:20%"> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">The Unknown Lady</span>.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Lieutenant Von Wolters</span>.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Mulbridge</span>, a horse-trainer.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">His Wife</span>.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Daisy</span>, their daughter.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Kellermann</span>.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">Tempski</span>, an orderly.</p> +<p class="continue"><span class="sc2">A Groom</span>.</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc2">The Present Day</span>.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><i>The scene is laid in a large German garrison</i>.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE LAST VISIT</h2> +<br> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, now we have seen our poor, dear captain for the last +time.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes. He was a good fellow, our captain and--awfully fond of +horses.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, Daisy, what's the matter, dear? You've been standing here +all +alone, and yet, until now, you wouldn't stir from the coffin.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw him quite well from here, mother, dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Mulbridge</span> (<i>caressing her</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">My girlie--my little girl. Yes--we all loved him.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>To </i><span class="sc2">Tempski</span>, <i>who is sobbing.</i>) There, there, +Tempski, hush now. (<i>A +bell rings, right.</i>) There's the bell; go and open the door. (<span class="sc2">Tempski </span> +<i>goes out at the right.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Mulbridge</span> (<i>to the </i><span class="sc2">Groom</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">And we'll be off to the stables!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sh! The Lieutenant!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Mulbridge</span> (<i>to the Groom</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Go on! (<i>Pushes the </i><span class="sc2">Groom </span><i>out, left.</i>)</p> + +<p class="normal">(<span class="sc2">Lieutenant von Wolters </span><i>enters. He is an attractive young +officer, +very smart in appearance, wearing the uniform of an Uhlan</i>. <span class="sc2">Kellermann</span>, +<i>a self-possessed, sharp-eyed man, follows him. While they are +entering</i>, <span class="sc2">Tempski </span><i>comes in at the right, quietly places a wreath on +one of the piles near the columns, and goes out again.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, Herr-- (<i>He puts his hand to his eyes, overcome for +the moment, +then stiffly, trying to conceal his emotion.</i>) Herr--Kellermann was the +name, wasn't it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">At your service, Lieutenant.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You have done everything very satisfactorily. I am much +obliged to you. +You understand that the removal of the coffin to the church is to be +accomplished as secretly as possible.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'm silent as the grave, Lieutenant. My business sort of +carries that +with it, don't you know.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It will be dark about half past five. I have ordered the +troops that +are to accompany the casket to be here at half past six. At the +church--the catafalque and the rest--I can confidently leave all that +to you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Most assuredly, Lieutenant. I shall see that everything is of +the +finest.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But remember your instructions: all superfluous ostentation is +to be +rigorously avoided--to-morrow at the funeral procession, also.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I understand, Lieutenant--because of the way he met his death.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The reason does not concern you. (<i>Turns to go.</i>)</p> + +<p class="normal">Mulbridge. +Beg pardon, Lieutenant, but may I speak to you? I've been in the +captain's service seven years. I've been in Germany nearly eighteen +years--have a German wife and daughter. I'm not as young as I used to +be. What's going to become of the horses and the racing-stable, and-- +the rest?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, it's really too bad about him, Lieutenant. He's so fond +of his +horses. Why, if ever you want to speak to him, you have to go and stay +at the stable. That's the only way I can manage to see him.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And she's a great help to me, too, Lieutenant.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I can understand your anxiety, Mulbridge. The captain spoke +about you +on our last journey together. He especially commended you and your +family to my care. But, of course, everything will depend upon the +heir.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And who is the heir, Lieutenant?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one knows. He had no relatives. But be assured that whoever +it is, I +will do my best to----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thank you, Lieutenant! Thank you! (<i>He says a few words +aside to his +wife and goes out, left.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Have you anything else to do here, Herr Kellermann?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, indeed, a great many things, Lieutenant. (<i>Goes out at +the centre, +carrying several wreaths, and then returns for more</i>. Frau Mulbridge +<i>helps him.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, by the way, may I have a word with you, Daisy? (<span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i> +comes +forward</i>, <span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span><i>continues aside to her.</i>) My dear child, I know +that the captain had a great deal of confidence in you.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, he had.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well then, listen. Some one wishes to come here before the +casket is +removed some one who must not be seen.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well. She may.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>amazed</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What----? She----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, it must be the lady.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What lady?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lady for whom he let himself be shot.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What! You know----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had to come, of course. Who else should it be?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">H'm! Well then, listen carefully. If the undertaker--or any +other +stranger--should still be here when it begins to grow dark, throw on a +wrap and wait at the door downstairs until a carriage stops. Will you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly I will. And Tempski?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, Tempski, faithful as he is----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tempski was never around in those days.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>looking at her in +astonishment</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh--so Tempski--was never--around--in those days! H'm! Well +then, I'll +undertake to get rid of Tempski myself. Thank you, my child. (<i>Gives +her his hand, then aloud.</i>) I have another errand, but I'll be back +soon. (<i>Goes out at the right.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What did the lieutenant want of you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing in particular--something about the wreaths.</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span> (<i>coming in from the back</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, with all those wreaths, we'll have to have an extra +carriage for +the flowers. He was a fine man, he was--a highly respected man! And on +horseback! Why, I've won every time I bet on him! Ah, yes, but sooner +or later they all have to come to me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And he was such a kind master! He was just like a child +sometimes--so +light-hearted and happy--like a little boy! Lately, to be sure, +he-- (<i>The bell rings.</i>) Well, Daisy!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Who has stood without moving, lost in thought.</i>) I +guess Tempski will +go.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, yes, you're right. Tempski is outside.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Tempski</span> (<i>brings in a wreath, sobbing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">F-from--our--major.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, Tempski, it's perfectly natural that the major----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Tempski</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">From--our--major.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Take the wreath from him, Daisy.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, mother, dear. (<i>She does so</i>. <span class="sc2">Tempski </span><i>goes out, +crying.</i>)</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span> (<i>reaching for the wreath</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">From his major that must go on the coffin!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'll do it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span> (<i>in doubt</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Don't you think----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, let her; she looks after everything.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But nail it tightly, little lady--else it'll fall off when +they're +carrying him to the church.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, yes. (<i>Goes out back with the wreath. During the +following +conversation, the strokes of a hammer are heard.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Everything is so well arranged here. I don't see why they've +got to +take him to the church.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The official statement is that it will prevent any +demonstration in the +street. You know, the town folks haven't taken very kindly to this +murdering business of late. But, of course, that's not the real reason. +The truth of the matter is that several very influential ladies would +like to attend the funeral without being seen. H'm!--love never dies, +they say. Ah, the captain was no saint, I can tell you!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What do you know about it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, well, there's a lot of talk about the veiled figures that +used to +go in and out of here at twilight. And if these mirrors could speak--! +That reminds me--I'd almost forgotten--we must cover the mirrors. +(<span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i>appears in front of the curtain. She is staring into space.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But since the casket is to be taken away in less than an +hour--what's +the use?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That doesn't make any difference. The mirrors have got to be +draped. It +would be a blemish on my art--and I wouldn't answer for it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Daisy!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, mother, dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Go get a pair of lace curtains to hang over the mirrors.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, mother, dear. (<i>She does not stir.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Daisy! You're not listening.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes I am, mother, dear. You asked me to-- (<i>Falters.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I asked you to fetch a pair of lace curtains.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, mother, dear. (<i>Goes out, left.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now that the child isn't here--tell me, Herr Kellermann, do +you know +anything about the cause of the duel? We're all groping in the dark +here at the house.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, they're saying all sorts of things. But the dead are my +friends. +I never say anything against them. It's a business principle with me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--but the man who shot him, is he still walking around free +as air?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, that's the way with these fine folks. They fall upon one +another +like highwaymen. Your honour or your life! The man who survives can +laugh. The man who falls--well, he falls into my arms. But, see here, +getting into a duel with that fellow, that Baron Renoir--why it was +nothing short of suicide! I tell you, where that man goes, no grass +grows! On the turf, at the card-table, with the women--always the same +story. That man shot him down like a rabbit. Oh, of course, it's +always a fine thing to lay down your life for a woman. That's a phrase +that----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you really think that a woman----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sh! Here comes your little girl. (<span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i>enters with two +vases, which +she is carrying very carefully.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What's that you're bringing?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I stopped and filled them first.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you were to get a pair of lace curtains!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, forgive me, mother, dear. I thought you said vases. I'll +go (<i>Exit +with the vases.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I don't know what's come over the child! Why, she's been such +a help +these days--thought of everything, wanted to do everything herself.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">A nice little girl--how old is she?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Seventeen, her last birthday.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is she at school?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">She's been going to the Art Institute. She wants to teach +drawing.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I suppose the captain thought a lot of her?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, dear me, yes. She was always around him from the time that +she was +a mere child. They used to play together out in the yard like two +little kittens! Of course, when she grew older, that sort of thing +stopped. But lately, when he seemed so worried, I----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he seemed worried, did he?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, indeed. I've had my suspicions for the last two months. +Well, when +he seemed so worried, I used to manage to send her in to him pretty +often. She read aloud to him--and so on. (<span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i>enters with a couple +of curtains, and a dark coat on her arm.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thanks, thanks, little lady. (<i>Takes the curtains from her +and stands +on a chair under one of the mirrors.</i>) What lovely Venetian lace! Ah, +yes, every mirror comes to this sooner or later!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'd like to get a breath of fresh air, would you mind, mother, +dear? I +feel so----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, yes, dear. Go out for a little while. (<span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i>puts on +her coat.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span> (<i>in front of the other mirror</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, here's a little bunch of flowers!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>eagerly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, please, please, let me have it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Kellermann</span> (<i>blowing off the dust</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">If it doesn't fall to pieces. (<i>Hands it to her.</i>) Ah, +yes, many, many +loved him! He had a beautiful life, he had a beautiful death, and, as +for a beautiful funeral--just leave that to Kellermann! (<i>Takes his +hat.</i>) I'll be back again for the procession. Good evening, ladies.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Good evening. (<i>To </i><span class="sc2">Daisy</span>, <i>seeing her take off her +coat.</i>) I thought +you said you were going out?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, well, I've changed my mind now.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'm glad, because one feels so--so alone in here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>with a glance backward</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">But we are not alone yet.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span> (<i>shuddering slightly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">That's just it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>staring straight before +her</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I'm not afraid.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tell me something, Daisy, dear. Weren't you in there last +night?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>alarmed</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Last night? I?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, at the coffin.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What should I be doing at the coffin?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, I thought I heard some one go past the door.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You must have been dreaming, mother, dear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very likely. I haven't been sleeping well these nights. See +here, +Daisy, perhaps he's left us something--you, at least--tell me, haven't +you been thinking about that sometimes?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>apart, with a glance at +the clock</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">If she doesn't come soon----!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What's that you were saying? (<i>The bell rings</i>. <span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i> +starts.</i>) Why, +what's the matter with you? (<span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span><i>enters.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>calling</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Tempski!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Tempski</span> (<i>at the threshold, in military attitude</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Here, Lieutenant!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hurry over to the garrison church and see if everything is +ready.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, Kellermann will see----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then go--or no--stay there until the casket arrives. Do +you +understand?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Tempski</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">At your command, Lieutenant. (<i>He goes out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That's attended to. And now, my dear Frau Mulbridge, there's +something +that I want to confide to you. A visitor is coming here presently--a +lady. (<span class="sc2">Frau Mulbridge </span><i>glances anxiously at </i><span class="sc2">Daisy</span>, <i>who nods.</i>) She +is +not to be seen by any one--except Daisy. Daisy, it appears, used to +open the door for her sometimes in former days.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Daisy--? What does this mean?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, Tempski might have gossiped, you know.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so he let <i>you</i> open the door?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I never gossip, mother.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'm finding things out now! Why did I never hear of this +before?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, you were always in the stables with father in the evening.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And there I was trying to keep this child from any knowledge +of the +things that went on in here--and he----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">We've no time for that now, Frau Mulbridge. Daisy, you will +watch +outside, won't you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span> (<i>protesting</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, that's too----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>firmly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, I'll watch. (<i>The bell rings softly.</i>) Should I----? +(<span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span><i>nods.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span> (<i>calling her back</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Daisy! (<span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i>goes out without noticing her mother.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">May I ask, Frau Mulbridge, that you----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Mulbridge</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well. We have served him faithfully, and I'll not start +making any +trouble now at the end. (<i>Exit, left</i>. <span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span><i>goes to the door at +the right, listens, and then opens it cautiously</i>. <span class="sc2">The Unknown Lady </span> +<i>enters. She is heavily veiled, dressed entirely in black, and carries +a spray of white roses. As she enters, she staggers slightly and leans +against the writing-table for support.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>who has softly locked +the door</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">May I show you the way, Countess? (<span class="sc2">The Lady </span><i>shakes her head +and +motions questioningly toward the back</i>. <span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span><i>nods, and she goes +out through the curtained doorway. After a short pause</i>, <span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span> +<i>opens the door at the right.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>calling</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Daisy! (<span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i>appears at the threshold.</i>) Kindly see +that no one +enters the house while this lady is here--no one, do you understand?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes, I understand very well.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It may be that she has something else to say to me. If the men +should +come for the casket before she has left, take them around the other +way. Keep the main entrance clear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, that wouldn't be safe.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, what shall we do?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>breathing heavily</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I'll--think of something.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">His death grieves you, too, dear child?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Me? Oh, yes--me too. (<i>She goes out</i>. <span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span><i>walks +to and fro, +pauses to listen in front of the curtain, turns on the electric lamp, +again walks to and fro, etc. At a slight movement of the curtain, he +stops, expectant</i>. <span class="sc2">The Lady</span>, <i>still veiled, comes forward slowly until +she has reached one of the chairs on the left. A pause.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, Herr von Wolters--to let them close the coffin before I--I +had seen +him--I must confess, I had not expected that of you, Herr von Wolters.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I didn't dare prevent it, Countess--just because of your +coming. It was +the only way to have the house to ourselves.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Don't call me countess, Herr von Wolters. I am not a countess +here. +(<i>Glancing toward the door.</i>) I am only an unhappy woman whom no one in +this house knows, whom no one is to know.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wouldn't you care to rest for a moment?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Are we quite safe here?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Quite. The little girl who, you say, is not unknown to you, is +outside +at the entrance. I have told her mother of your visit and she will not +enter the house. If you wish, however, we can lock the door.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, do. Or, no, perhaps it would be better not to--in case +any one----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Throws back her veil, revealing a very beautiful face, +which is +deathly pale and wears an expression of the deepest affliction. She +sinks into the chair. A pause.</i>) I wanted to lay my roses on his +breast. Ah, Herr von Wolters, I loved that man with an infinite love. +Perhaps grief will give my life a new and holier meaning--who knows? We +seek beauty--and find grief. Tell me, Herr von Wolters, you were his +best friend, did you never suspect----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Never, never.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And when you received my letter early this morning asking you +to come +at once--not even then?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could draw--various conclusions--from that.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">For instance----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, please--really, you must excuse me----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, Herr von Wolters. We are here--but why don't you sit down? +(<i>He +does so.</i>) We are here together, you and I, to hold the last rites over +our sainted dead. His friend and his beloved who else has any right to +be here? Herr von Wolters, I have given you my full confidence--I have +made a strange confession to you. You will not betray me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so, in this sacred hour, there must be no concealment +between us. +Answer me now. What does the world say?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>embarrassed</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">The world says so many things, Countess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tell me, to what extent has my name been associated with this +affair?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I can't conceal the fact from you, Countess. Your name is +mentioned.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>thoughtfully</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, that's what my husband says.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But please let me add that not a shadow, not the slightest +suspicion, +has ever----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what else can they think?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear Countess, when a woman is as beauti-- I mean, that +when a woman +is the centre of so much interest, it's not surprising that some notice +was taken of the attentions which he--</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>somewhat impatiently</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--but----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It naturally was observed that my friend----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Our friend had a--what shall I say--a susceptible heart. We +knew that, +who knew him so well. This was not the first time he had--been +interested in a woman. And that was why I arranged to have him seen in +our house as little as possible--lately, not at all.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That fact did not escape notice, Countess. And as Baron Renoir +was +frequently seen with you--instead of----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>somewhat excited</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Don't mention that name, Herr von Wolters! I can't stand it! +What could +have possessed that man Renoir--? But do tell me the rest. I've heard +only the merest details. They've only told me what they thought +necessary.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one knows what actually occurred between the two men. He +begged me +to ask no questions. You know, he was so reserved of late. It may +be that certain expressions which passed between them a few days +ago--after they had been drinking--had something to do with it--no one +knows. Perhaps there was some insult which was given in private--and +which neither of them would make public. The assurance that the injury, +whatever it may have been, was irreparable, must satisfy us.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, how I hate that man Renoir!--quite apart from the trouble +which he +has gotten me into! My husband warned me against him long ago. "That +scoundrel will compromise you some day," he said, "and then I'll have +to fight a duel with him." Instead--this! Oh, you poor, poor darling! +And now, when all was so quiet and peaceful between us!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear Countess, if you think that the change which came over +him in +the last few months betokened peace and quiet----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>nervously</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I don't know anything about that! It wasn't my fault! Was I to +blame if +he insisted on having notions? Tell me one thing, Herr von Wolters, did +he die easily?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one dies easily, Countess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Was he still living when they reached the house?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, he died on the field.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you know my first name, Herr von Wolters?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>hesitating</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Did he--by any chance--speak--that name?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That would have betrayed his secret, Countess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I only meant--at the very last--when he was no +longer--conscious.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, Countess. But--pardon me, I don't want to be +indelicate--but did he +ever call you by some little--little term of endearment--some-- +(<i>Stops, embarrassed.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why do you ask?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the very end, he kept murmuring something that sounded like +"Girlie"--or----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>indignantly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear Herr von Wolters, our intimacy was of a different +sort.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pardon me, Countess, but you yourself asked. (<i>She nods. A +short +pause.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Good heavens--these curtains over the mirrors! They make me +feel as if +I were looking a blind man in the eyes!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Would you like to have me remove them?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, no. Never mind. I want to ask you something, Herr von +Wolters. Tell +me, what do you think of me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>confused</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What do you mean, Countess?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I want to know what I have done that I should be doomed to +bring so +much sorrow into the lives of others. I had only just left school when +a strange young man shot himself under my window. It was on my account +that my husband was transferred here from his former garrison. Tell me, +what mark of Cain do I bear that all men follow me? I dress as simply +as I can. I never go out without a double veil. Sometimes I have +actually been tempted to throw vitriol in my face!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>candidly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, that would have been a shame, Countess!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>severely</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr von Wolters!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, Countess, to mar that image of divinity would be a +sin--and I do +not hesitate to repeat it beside the coffin of my friend.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Don't! (<i>Reaches him her hand, which he kisses respectfully.</i>) +Dear me, +how strange it seems! Yesterday we scarcely knew one another--those few +visits at my house don't count. To-day--this short conversation--and +here we are, sitting side by side, the guardians of a secret which will +be buried forever with him. It will, Herr von Wolters?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, my dear Countess, please do not offend me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well, I shall not worry. Did you love him very dearly?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought a great deal of him, Countess. He took care of me +when I was +a young fellow quite alone in the world. He was so-- Really, I don't +know how I shall-- (<i>breaking down.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Courage, dear friend! We must both try to be brave.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>firmly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Thank you, Countess. You will not have to reprove me again.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You evaded my question before. Do you consider me very guilty, +Herr von +Wolters?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He loved you, Countess. That makes you holy in my eyes.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I thank you for that word--little as I deserve it. It has +never been my +way to undervalue myself. But your opinion meant so much to me----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>puzzled</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What difference could my humble opinion----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Don't say that, my dear friend. There are few people--perhaps +not even +my own husband--who have ever seen me as you see me at this moment--so +weak, so helpless, so--I had almost said--unguarded. Remember that--and +spare me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I hope that I have not been inconsiderate, Countess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Putting her hand to her brow, stammering.</i>) No, no, no; +it's--it's +grieving for him that makes me lose my wits. The world had so long set +me on a pedestal that I thought I belonged there. Now I feel as if I +were torn down. Now I lie there-- Herr von Wolters, pay no attention to +me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If I could only help you, Countess!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>smiling sorrowfully</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Help me--you? And yet, why not? His friend and his beloved! It +is we, +you and I, who are paying the last honours to the dead. Who could know +his worth better than we? Whose grief could be more eloquent than ours? +No, no, no--I must not talk. Ah, I see him before me now with his +bright, careless smile--his conqueror's smile! I suppose you never were +courted by women as he was?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear Countess, I lead a fairly quiet, uneventful life.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you're not--you're not a Puritan, are you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I must let others judge of that, Countess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh! I should like to cry out my sorrow to the whole world--say +to them +all, "You sordid souls, you couldn't know how much I loved him! What do +I care if you damn me, if you----" (<i>The bell rings. She starts.</i>) +There's the bell!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>reassuringly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Probably just a wreath.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And if it's not--a----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, Daisy is outside. But to make sure-- (<i>Listens at the +door, then +opens it cautiously.</i>) Daisy! (<span class="sc2">The Lady </span><i>drops her veil</i>. <span class="sc2">Daisy </span> +<i>appears at the threshold.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What is it, Herr von Wolters?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Who rang?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a wreath.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>to </i><span class="sc2">The Lady</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Just as I supposed.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>to </i><span class="sc2">Daisy</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Come here, dear. (<span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i>comes forward.</i>) You used to +open the door for +me, didn't you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you don't know who I am?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You'll not try to find out?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, no.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Was he fond of you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And have you been crying since he died?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You're a pretty little girl.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>going</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Has my lady any more questions?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Taking out a gold purse, to </i><span class="sc2">v. Wolters</span>.) Do you think +one might give +her anything? (<span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span><i>shakes his head.</i>) Thank you, dear. We shall +see each other again. (<i>As </i><span class="sc2">Daisy </span><i>lingers.</i>) What is it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well--since I shall see my lady again. (<i>Goes out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It did seem though, as if she were waiting for something.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If you will pardon me for the suggestion, it was surely +not--not for +money.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">By the way, this incident reminds me of something I was just +about +to-- Herr von Wolters, are you my friend?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If you consider me worthy of that distinction, Countess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Most assuredly. Well, Herr von Wolters, there is something +that +troubles me--something that desecrates my grief, if I may use the +word. There's the anxiety--the fear that-- Yes, yes--I must tell you +all. Herr von Wolters, he has my letters. Do you understand? (<i>He +nods.</i>) Didn't he give you something for me--a small, sealed package, +perhaps--nothing?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You are forgetting, Countess, that I was ignorant of all this +until a +short time ago.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, that's true. H'm--it's really too bad. Who has the keys?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, he gave them to me just before the duel. I have them with +me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You've looked through the writing-table?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, I had to hand over his papers to the legal authorities. I +didn't +consider myself entitled to touch his private correspondence at +present.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why not?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He made a will the day before the duel.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Really? In whose favor?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I don't know.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What! Didn't he make any allusion--nothing----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The only thing he said was that he had named me as executor.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he had no relatives. Who is to inherit his large fortune?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">As I've said, I don't know. However, he made a remark that I +didn't +quite understand, and that I--pardon me--would rather not repeat, if +you don't mind.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, please!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It might give you pain, Countess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>sadly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing can give me pain after <i>this</i>.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, he said with a decided emphasis--though perhaps he did +not intend +that I should notice it--he said, "The one who loved me best shall be +my heir."</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What! He said that? Who could have loved him best if not I? +(<i>Terrified.</i>) For God's sake, Herr von Wolters!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Don't be alarmed, Countess. That would be too grotesque.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps this is his revenge.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Revenge? On you? What for?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, no--I'm quite out of my senses, I-- But, as you have the +keys, you +won't mind doing me this slight favour.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What favour, Countess?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Search for the letters with me--now. It seems to me your duty, +not only +as a friend but as a gentleman.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pardon me, my dear Countess, you were certainly his +last--perhaps his +only great love. But his life was varied--and if we were to open his +desk now--I really don't know what we might find there.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You mean there would be letters from other----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I must say no more.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, I'll shut my eyes. I'll only look for my own +handwriting.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The will is to be opened in a few days, Countess. He has +doubtless +inserted a clause authorising me as executor to return certain papers +to their owners--or destroy them.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, I see you're a Puritan, after all.--No, no, I'll not +trouble your +conscience. This loyalty which you bear him to the very grave is +so beautiful, so poetical, and I feel so near to you because of +it--(<i>Putting her hand over her eyes.</i>) Oh, those curtains in front of +the mirrors! They make me feel as if I were dead myself, (<span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span> +<i>is about to tear them down.</i>) No, no--don't. Thanks. Tell me, how long +will it be before the will is opened?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Unfortunately, the day is not yet appointed.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I shall not sleep a moment until then. Not even my love, my +grief, can +outweigh this terrible fear. My honour, my future, my life--everything +is at stake!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>amazed</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Please stop calling me Countess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Forgive me. What should I----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Call me your friend. I want to be that. From this day you +become closer +to me than any other being in all the world. Are you not the legacy, as +it were, that our dear dead has left me?--Ah, you and I must become +like brother and sister, two beings who have--nothing--to conceal from +one another. Herr von Wolters, will you be my guide, my confidant--my +friend?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess! My dear, dear Countess!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>softly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">But you're not to----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Forgive me. Your kindness to me makes me feel +so--confused--I----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why should it? I feel certain that if he could see us at this +moment, +he himself would join our hands together.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess, if you ever need a man who would let himself be torn +to +pieces for you----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, not that. I only want you to take this great weight from +my soul.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, Countess, I am a man of my word.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And that's what you call being torn to pieces for me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>trembling</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Whether I can answer for this to him and to my own +conscience--whether +I can ever again think of him--without shame--will depend upon what we +shall find in there.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you will open it? (<i>A pause.</i>) Herr von Wolters, +you'll not let me +die of fear and distraction?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I'll open it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>laying her hand on his +arm</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Thanks, thanks! Ah, you are good----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>taking out the key</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Don't thank me. I feel as if he could hear it in there.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>shuddering involuntarily</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">No--no! (<span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span><i>turns the key in the keyhole +unavailingly.</i>) Won't +it work?--Heavens, why your hand is trembling. Let me have it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>with a last attempt at +resistance</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">The keys were entrusted to <i>me</i>, Countess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>coaxingly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, do let me have it. (<i>Sits at the writing-table and opens +the +drawer. With a low cry of surprise.</i>) Empty!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>bending over her</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Empty?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Are you sure that this was----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, that was the drawer in which he kept his private papers. +I'm sure +of it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>staring straight ahead</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, how can you explain----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps he burned everything.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>springing to her feet</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">And perhaps not!--Who knows?--This is the way he played with +the honour +of the woman who gave him all! This is my thanks! This is the action of +a gentleman!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No gentleman, Countess, can do more than let himself be shot +for a +woman.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Who asked him to do it? Was it my fault if jealousy of Renoir +drove him +mad? And perhaps this is really his revenge! Perhaps we'll live to see +even more interesting disclosures!--This is my reward! This-- (<span class="sc2">Daisy </span> +<i>appears at the door in the centre.</i>) What do you want?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I beg your pardon. My lady is looking for--letters?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">So you've been in there eavesdropping, have you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I brought in a wreath.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, what do you know about my letters?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here they are. (<i>Takes a small package of letters from her +dress and +hands it to </i><span class="sc2">The Lady</span>.) I intended to give them to you <i>secretly</i> when +you left.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Snatches the letters from her hand and looks at them.</i>) +How do you +happen to have these letters?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>wonderingly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, how should I happen to have them? He gave them to me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">To you? Who are you? Why to you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Because he knew that I would do exactly what he told me to do.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>to </i><span class="sc2">v. Wolters</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Can you understand this?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span> (<i>gently</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What did he tell you to do, Daisy?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He said to me, "These letters belong to the lady who used to +come to +see me sometimes. No one is to know about her--not even Herr von +Wolters.--When I am dead, the lady will----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Did he say that?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes. "When I am dead, the lady will probably come here again. +If she +does, give her these letters. If she doesn't, then burn them with the +others."</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What others?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Those over there in the stove.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>examining the letters</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Look at this! Unsealed! Unwrapped!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>smiling</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">He knew that I wouldn't read them.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I suppose from now on I shall be at <i>your</i> mercy!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I don't know you, my lady. And even if I did, you need have no +fear.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span> (<i>to </i><span class="sc2">v. Wolters</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Isn't she kind!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>always respectfully</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">But I should like to ask you a favour, my lady.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">By all means. What could I deny you, my dear?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Goes into the room behind and returns with the flowers +that </i><span class="sc2">The Lady </span><i>had brought.</i>) +Oh please, please take these roses--away--with you.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What does this mean?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>imploringly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, please take them!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What right have you to make such a shameless request of me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Daisy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I heard--forgive me, I didn't want to--I heard the way you +spoke about +him before. And it seems to me that your flowers no longer belong upon +his coffin.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What do you say to that, Herr von Wolters? This person acts as +if she +were the mistress of the house!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>proudly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I am.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Stares at her through her lorgnette and smiles.</i>) Oh, +really!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>her bearing pure and +proud</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">The night before he died I became--his wife. (<i>A long pause.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I hope you'll come and take tea with me in the near future, +Herr von +Wolters.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Wolters</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pray, excuse me, but official duties will make it impossible +for me +to----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Taken aback, but quickly recovering herself.</i>) Thank +you just the +same. (<i>A loud ring.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">v. Daisy</span> (<i>starts and looks at the +clock</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">There are the troops already.--Would you be so kind, Herr von +Wolters--? Please let no one come in here. (<span class="sc2">v. Wolters </span><i>bows and +hurries out at the right.</i>) May I take you out the back way, my lady? +No one will see you--or at least, only my mother. (<i>As the heavy steps +of the soldiers are heard, to herself, in suppressed agony.</i>) And +meanwhile--they will--take the coffin--away! (<i>Regaining possession of +herself.</i>) But wouldn't it be better to drop your veil? (<span class="sc2">The Lady </span><i>does +so.</i>) And your roses--do take them! (<span class="sc2">The Lady </span><i>snatches the roses from +her hand.</i>) This way, please. (<i>She opens the door at the left and goes +out slowly behind </i><span class="sc2">The Lady</span>, <i>her eyes turned longingly toward the room +behind.</i>)</p> +<br> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc2">Curtain</span>.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h1><a name="div1_princess" href="#div1Ref_princess">THE FAR-AWAY PRINCESS</a></h1> + +<h2>A COMEDY IN ONE ACT</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHARACTERS</h2> +<br> +<table style="width:50%; margin-left:25%"> +<colgroup><col style="width:40%"><col style="width:5%"><col style="width:55%"></colgroup> +<tr> +<td colspan="3"><span class="sc2">The Princess von Geldern</span>.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td colspan="3"><span class="sc2">Baroness von Brook</span>, her maid of honour.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td colspan="3"><span class="sc2">Frau von Halldorf</span>.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td><span class="sc2">Liddy</span><td> +<td rowspan="2" style="font-size:36pt">}</td> +<td>her daughters</td> +</tr><tr> +<td><span class="sc2">Milly</span></td> +</tr><tr> +<td colspan="3"><span class="sc2">Fritz Strübel</span>, a student.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td colspan="3"><span class="sc2">Frau Lindemann</span>.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td colspan="3"><span class="sc2">Rosa</span>, a waitress.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td colspan="3"><span class="sc2">A Lackey</span>.</td> +</tr></table> +<br> + +<p class="center"><span class="sc2">The Present Day</span>.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal"><i>The scene is laid at an inn situated above a watering-place +in central +Germany.</i></p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE FAR-AWAY PRINCESS</h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal"><i>The veranda of an inn. The right side of the stage and half +of the +background represent a framework of glass enclosing the veranda. The +left side and the other half of the background represent the stone +walls of the house. To the left, in the foreground, a door; another +door in the background, at the left. On the left, back, a buffet and +serving-table. Neat little tables and small iron chairs for visitors +are placed about the veranda. On the right, in the centre, a large +telescope, standing on a tripod, is directed through an open window</i>. +<span class="sc2">Rosa</span>, <i>dressed in the costume of the country, is arranging flowers on +the small tables</i>. <span class="sc2">Frau Lindemann</span>, <i>a handsome, stoutish woman in the +thirties, hurries in excitedly from the left</i>. +</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">There! Now she can come--curtains, bedding--everything fresh +and clean +as new! No, this honour, this unexpected honour--! Barons and counts +have been here often enough. Even the Russian princes sometimes come +up from the Springs. I don't bother my head about them--they're just +like--that!--But a princess--a real princess!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps it isn't a real princess after all.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span> (<i>indignantly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What? What do you mean by that!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was only thinking that a real princess wouldn't be coming to +an inn +like this. Real princesses won't lie on anything but silks and velvets. +You just wait and see; it's a trick!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Are you going to pretend that the letter isn't genuine;--that +the +letter is a forgery?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Maybe one of the regular customers is playing a joke. That +student, +Herr Strübel, he's always joking. (<i>Giggles.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Herr Strübel makes a joke, he makes a decent joke, a +real, genuine +joke. Oh, of course one has to pretend to be angry sometimes--but as +for writing a forged letter--My land!--a letter with a gold crown on +it--there! (<i>She takes a letter from her waist, and reads.</i>) "This +afternoon, Her Highness, the Princess von Geldern, will stop at the +Fairview Inn, to rest an hour or so before making the descent to the +Springs. You are requested to have ready a quiet and comfortable room, +to guard Her Highness from any annoying advances, and, above all, to +maintain the strictest secrecy regarding this event, as otherwise the +royal visit will not be repeated. Baroness von Brook, maid of honour to +Her Highness." Now, what have you got to say?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Strübel lent me a book once. A maid of honour came into +that, too. +I'm sure it's a trick!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span> (<i>looking out toward +the back</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Dear, dear, isn't that Herr Strübel now, coming up the hill? +To-day of +all days! What on earth does he always want up here?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span> (<i>pointedly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">He's in such favour at the Inn.--He won't be leaving here all +day.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That won't do at all. He's got to be sent off. If I only knew +how I +could--Oh, ho! I'll be disagreeable to him--that's the only way to +manage it!</p> + +<p class="normal">(<span class="sc2">Strübel </span><i>enters. He is a handsome young fellow without much +polish, +but cheerful, unaffected, entirely at his ease, and invariably +good-natured.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Good day, everybody.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span> (<i>sarcastically</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Charming day.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>surprised at her coolness</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I say! What's up? Who's been rubbing you the wrong way? May I +have a +glass of beer any way? Glass of beer, if you please!--Several glasses +of beer, if you please.--(<i>Sits down.</i>) Pestiferously hot this +afternoon.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span> (<i>after a pause</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">H'm, H'm!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Landlady Linda, dear, why so quiet to-day?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the first place, Herr Strübel, I would have you know that +my name is +Frau Lindemann.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just so.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And secondly, if you don't stop your familiarity----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Singing, as </i><span class="sc2">Rosa </span><i>brings him a glass of beer.</i>) +"Beer--beer!"--Heavens and earth, how hot it is! (<i>Drinks.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If you find it so hot, why don't you stay quietly down there +at the +Springs?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, my soul thirsts for the heights--my soul thirsts for the +heights +every afternoon. Just as soon as ever my sallow-faced pupil has thrown +himself down on the couch to give his red corpuscles a chance to grow, +"I gayly grasp my Alpine staff and mount to my beloved."</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span> (<i>scornfully</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Bah!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, you're thinking that <i>you</i> are my beloved? No, +dearest: my beloved +stays down there. But to get nearer to her, I have to come up here--up +to your telescope. With the aid of your telescope I can look right into +her window--see?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span> (<i>laughing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, so that's why----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps you think I'm interested in all that?--Besides, I've +no more +time for you.--Moreover, I'm going to have this place cleaned right +away. Good-bye, Herr Strübel. (<i>Goes out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>laughing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I certainly caught it that time! See here, Rosa, what's got +into her +head?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span> (<i>mysteriously</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Ahem, there are crowned heads and other +heads--and--ahem--there are +letters <i>with</i> crowns and letters <i>without</i> crowns.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Letters--? Are you----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">There are maids of honour--and other maids! (<i>Giggles.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Permit me. (<i>Tapping her forehead lightly with his finger.</i>) +Ow! Ow!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What's the matter?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, your head's on fire! Blow! Blow! And while you are +getting some +salve for my burns, I'll just-- (<i>Goes to the telescope.</i>)</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Enter </i><span class="sc2">Frau Von Halldorf</span>, +<span class="sc2">Liddy</span>, <i>and </i><span class="sc2">Milly</span>. <span class="sc2">Frau +Von Halldorf </span><i>is +an aristocratic woman, somewhat supercilious and affected.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here's the telescope, mother. Now you can see for yourself.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What a pity that it's in use just now.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>stepping back</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I beg of you, ladies--I have plenty of time. I can wait.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span> (<i>condescendingly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, thanks so much. (<i>She goes up to the telescope, while +Strübel +returns to his former place.</i>) Waitress! Bring us three glasses of +milk.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span> (<i>as </i><span class="sc2">Milly </span><i>languidly +drops into a chair</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Beyond to the right is the road, mother.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I have found the road, but I see no carriage--neither a +royal +carriage nor any other sort.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Let me look.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Please do.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It has disappeared now.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Are you quite sure that it was a royal carriage?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, one has an instinct for that sort of thing, mother. It +comes to one +in the cradle.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>As </i><span class="sc2">Milly </span><i>yawns and sighs aloud.</i>) Are you +sleepy, dear?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Milly</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, only tired. I'm always tired.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, that's just why we are at the Springs. Do as the +princess does: +take the waters religiously.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Milly</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The princess oughtn't to be climbing up such a steep hill +either on a +hot day like this.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span> (<i>more softly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, you know why we are taking all this trouble. If, by good +luck, we +should happen to meet the princess----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Who has been looking through the telescope.</i>) Oh, there +it is again!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span> (<i>eagerly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Where? Where? (<i>Takes </i><span class="sc2">Liddy's </span><i>place.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It's just coming around the turn at the top.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, now I see it! Why, there's no one inside!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then she's coming up on foot.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span> (<i>to </i><span class="sc2">Milly</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">See, the princess is coming up on foot, too. And she is just +as anĉmic +as you are.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Milly</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If I were going to marry a grand-duke, and if I could have my +own +carriage driven along beside me, I wouldn't complain of having to walk +either.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I can't see a thing now.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You have to turn the screw, mother.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have been turning it right along, but the telescope won't +move.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Let me try.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Who has been throwing little wads of paper at </i><span class="sc2">Rosa </span><i> +during the +preceding conversation.</i>) What are they up to?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seems to me that you've turned the screw too far, mother.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, what shall we do about it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>rising</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Permit me to come to your aid, ladies. I've had some +experience with +these old screws.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very kind indeed. (<span class="sc2">Strübel </span><i>busies himself with the +instrument.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Listen, mother. If the carriage has almost reached the top the +princess +can't be far off. Wouldn't it be best, then, to watch for them on the +road?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly, if you think that would be best, dear Liddy.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">This is not only an old screw, but it's a regular perverted +old screw!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, really?--(<i>Aside to her daughters.</i>) And if she +should actually +speak to us at this accidental meeting--and if we could present +ourselves as the subjects of her noble fiancé, and tell her that we +live at her future home--just imagine what an advantage that would give +us over the other women of the court!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">There, ladies! We have now rescued the useful instrument to +which the +far-sightedness of mankind is indebted.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau V. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thanks, so much.--Pardon me, sir, but have you heard anything +about the +report that the princess is going to make the journey up here to-day?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The princess? The Princess of the Springs? The Princess of the +lonely +villa? The Princess who is expected at the iron spring every morning, +but who has never been seen by a living soul? Why, I am enormously +interested. You wouldn't believe how much interested I am!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span> (<i>who has looked out, back</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">There--there--there--it is!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The carriage?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It's reached the top already. It is stopping over there at the +edge of +the woods.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">She will surely enter it there, then. Come quickly, my dear +children, +so that it will look quite accidental.--Here is your money. (<i>She +throws a coin to </i><span class="sc2">Rosa </span><i>and unwraps a small package done up in tissue +paper which she has brought with her.</i>) Here is a bouquet for you and +here's one for you. You are to present these to the princess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Milly</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">So that it will look quite accidental--oh, yes! (<i>All three +go out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Good heavens! Could I--? I don't believe it! Surely she +sits--Well, +I'll make sure right away-- (<i>Goes up to the telescope and stops.</i>) Oh, +I'll go along with them, anyhow. (<i>Exit after them.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span> (<i>entering</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Have they all gone--all of them?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Rosa</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">All of them.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span> (<i>looking toward the +right</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">There--there--two ladies and a lackey are coming up the +footpath. Mercy +me! How my heart is beating!--If I had only had the sofa re-covered +last spring!--What am I going to say to them?--Rosa, don't you know a +poem by heart which you could speak to the princess? (<span class="sc2">Rosa </span><i>shrugs her +shoulders.</i>) They're coming through the court now!--Stop putting your +arms under your apron that way, you stupid thing!--oh dear, oh dear----</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>The door opens</i>. <span class="sc2">A Lackey </span><i>in plain black livery +enters, and remains +standing at the door. He precedes </i><span class="sc2">The Princess </span><i>and </i><span class="sc2">Frau Von Brook</span>. +<span class="sc2">The Princess </span><i>is a pale, sickly, unassuming young girl, wearing a very +simple walking costume and a medium-sized leghorn hat trimmed with +roses</i>. <span class="sc2">Frau Von Brook </span><i>is a handsome, stately, stern-looking woman, in +the thirties. She is well dressed, but in accordance with the simple +tastes of the North German nobility.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Who is the proprietor of this place?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">At your command, your Highness.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span> (<i>reprovingly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I am the maid of honour.--Where is the room that has been +ordered?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span> (<i>opens the door, +left</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Here--at the head of the stairs--my lady.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Would your Highness care to remain here for a few moments?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very much, dear Frau von Brook.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Edward, order what is needed for Her Highness and see that a +room next +to Her Highness is prepared for me. I may assume that these are your +Highness's wishes?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why certainly, dear Frau von Brook. (<span class="sc2">The Lackey</span>, <i>who is +carrying +shawls and pillows, goes out with </i><span class="sc2">Rosa</span>, <i>left.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mais puisque je te dis, Eugenie, que je n'ai pas sommeil. +M'envoyer +coucher comme une enfant, c'est abominable.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mais je t'implore, chérie, sois sage! Tu sais, que c'est le +médecin, +qui----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, ton médecin! Toujours cette corvée. Et si je te dis----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Chut! My dear woman, wouldn't it be best for you to +superintend the +preparations?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am entirely at your service. (<i>About to go out, left.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">One thing more. This veranda, leading from the house to the +grounds--would it be possible to close it to the public?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, certainly. The guests as often as not sit out under the +trees.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well, then do so, please. (<span class="sc2">Frau Lindemann </span><i>locks the +door.</i>) We +may be assured that no one will enter this place?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">If it is desired, none of us belonging to the house will come +in here +either.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">We should like that.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau Lindemann</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well. (<i>Exit.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Really, you must be more careful, darling. If that woman had +understood +French-- You must be careful!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What would have been so dreadful about it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, my dear child! This mood of yours, which is due to nothing +but +your illness--that reminds me, you haven't taken your peptonised milk +yet--this is a secret which we must keep from everyone, above all from +your fiancé. If the Grand-Duke should discover----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>shrugging her +shoulders</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, what of it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">A bride's duty is to be a happy bride. Otherwise----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Otherwise?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">She will be a lonely and an unloved woman.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>with a little smile of +resignation</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What is it, dear? (<span class="sc2">The Princess </span><i>shakes her head.</i>) And +then think of +the strain of those formal presentations awaiting you in the autumn! +You must grow strong. Remember that you must be equal to the most +exacting demands of life.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of life? Whose life?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What do you mean by that?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, what good does it do to talk about it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, you are right. In my soul, too, there are unhappy and +unholy +thoughts that I would rather not utter. From my own experience I know +that it is best to keep strictly within the narrow path of Duty.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And to go to sleep.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, it isn't only that.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Look out there! See the woods!--Ah, to lie down on the moss, +to cover +oneself with leaves, to watch the clouds pass by high above----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span> (<i>softening</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">We can do that, too, sometime.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>laughing aloud</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Sometime!</p> + +<p class="normal">(<span class="sc2">The Lackey </span><i>appears at the door</i>).</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is everything ready? (<span class="sc2">The Lackey </span><i>bows.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>aside to </i><span class="sc2">Frau v. +Brook</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">But I simply cannot sleep.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Try to, for my sake. (<i>Aloud.</i>) Does your Highness +command----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>smiling and sighing</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, I command. (<i>They go out, left.</i>)</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>The stage remains empty for several moments. Then </i><span class="sc2"> +Strübel </span><i>is heard +trying the latch of the back door.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel's Voice</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hullo! What's up! Why is this locked all of a sudden? +Rosa!--Open up! +I've got to look through the telescope! Rosa! Won't you?--Oh, well, +I know how to help myself. (<i>He is seen walking outside of the +glass-covered veranda. Then he puts his head through the open window at +the right.</i>) Not a soul inside?-- (<i>Climbs over.</i>) Well, here we are. +What on earth has happened to these people? (<i>Unlocks the back door and +looks out.</i>) Everything deserted. Well, it's all the same to me. +(<i>Locks the door again.</i>) But let's find out right away what the +carriage has to do with the case. (<i>Prepares to look through the +telescope</i>. <span class="sc2">The Princess </span><i>enters cautiously through the door at the +left, her hat in her hand. Without noticing </i><span class="sc2">Strübel</span>, <i>who is standing +motionless before the telescope, she goes hurriedly to the door at the +back and unlocks it.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Startled at the sound of the key, turns around.</i>) Why, +how do you do? +(<span class="sc2">The Princess</span>, <i>not venturing to move, glances back at the door through +which she has entered.</i>) Wouldn't you like to look through the +telescope a while? Please do. (<span class="sc2">The Princess</span>, <i>undecided as to whether +or not she should answer him, takes a few steps back toward the door at +the left.</i>) Why are you going away? I won't do anything to you.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>reassured</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I'm not going away.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That's right. But--where have you come from? The door was +locked. +Surely you didn't climb through the window as I did?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>frightened</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What?--You came--through the window?----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course I did.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>frightened anew</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I had rather (<i>About to go back.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, my dear young lady, you just stay right here. Why, before +I'd drive +you away I'd pitch myself headlong over a precipice!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>smiling, reassured</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I only wanted to go out into the woods for half an hour.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, then you're a regular guest here at the Inn?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>quickly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes--yes, of course.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And of course you drink the waters down below?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>in a friendly way</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes, I drink the waters. And I'm taking the baths, too.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal"> +Two hundred metres up and down every time! Isn't that very hard on you? +Heavens! And you look so pale! See here, my dear young lady, don't you +do it. It would be better for you to go down there--that is-- Oh, +forgive me! I've been talking without thinking. Of course, you have +your own reasons-- It's decidedly cheaper up here. <i>I</i> know how to +value a thing of that sort. I've never had any money in all my life!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>trying to seem +practical</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">But when one comes to a watering-place, one must have money.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>slapping himself on the +chest</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Do I look to you as if I drank iron? Thank Heaven, I can't +afford such +luxuries! No; I'm only a poor fellow who earns his miserable pittance +during vacation by acting as a private tutor--that's to say, +"miserable" is only a figure of speech, for in the morning I lie abed +until nine, at noon I eat five, and at night seven, courses; and as for +work, I really haven't a thing to do! My pupil is so anĉmic--why, +compared to him, <i>you're</i> fit for a circus rider!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>laughing +unrestrainedly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, well, I'm rather glad I'm not one.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dear me, it's a business like any other.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Like any other? Really, I didn't think that.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And pray, what did you think then?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I thought that they were--an entirely different sort of +people.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My dear young lady, all people are "an entirely different +sort." Of +course <i>we</i> two aren't. We get along real well together, don't we? As +poor as church mice, both of us!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>smiling reflectively</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Who knows? Perhaps that's true.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>kindly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you know what? If you want to stay down there--I'll tell +you how one +can live cheaply. I have a friend, a student like myself. He's here to +mend up as you are. I feed him up at the house where I'm staying. +(<i>Frightened at a peculiar look of </i><span class="sc2">The Princess's</span>.) Oh, but you +mustn't be-- No, I shouldn't have said it. It wasn't decent of me. +Only, let me tell you, I'm so glad to be able to help the poor fellow +out of my unexpected earnings, that I'd like to be shouting it from the +housetops all the time! Of course, you understand that, don't you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You like to help people, then?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Surely--don't you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>reflecting</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">No. There's always so much talk about it, and the whole thing +immediately appears in the newspapers.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What? If you help some one, that appears----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>quickly correcting +herself</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I only mean if one takes part in entertainments for +charity----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes, naturally. In those things they always get some woman +of rank +to act as patroness, if they can, and she sees to it, you may be sure, +that the newspapers make a fuss over it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>demurely</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, not every----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just try to teach me something I don't know about these titled +women! +Besides, my dear young lady, where is your home--in one of the large +cities, or----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, no. In quite a small town--really more like the country.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, I'm going to show you something that you probably never +saw +before in all your life.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh do! What is it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">A princess! H'm--not a make-believe, but a real, true-blue +princess!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, really?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes. Our Princess of the Springs.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And who may that be?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, Princess Marie Louise.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of Geldern?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you know her?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, certainly.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Really? I thought that she lived in great retirement.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, that doesn't do her any good. Not a bit of it. And +because you +are such a jolly, good fellow, I'm going to tell you my secret. I'm in +love with this princess!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You can't imagine what a comfort it is. The fact is, every +young poet +has got to have a princess to love.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Are <i>you</i> a poet?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Can't you tell that by looking at me?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I never saw a poet before.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Never saw a poet--never saw a princess! Why, you're learning a +heap of +things to-day!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>assenting</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">H'm--And have you written poems to her?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, that goes without saying! Quantities of 'em!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, please recite some little thing--won't you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, not yet. Everything at the proper time.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, yes, first I should like to see the princess.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, first I am going to tell you the whole story.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes, yes. Please do. (<i>Sits down.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then--I had hardly heard that she was here before I was +dead in +love with her. It was just as quick as a shot, I tell you. Just as if I +had waited all my life long to fall in love with her. Besides, I also +heard about her beauty--and her sorrow. You see, she had an early love +affair.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>disconcerted</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What? Are they saying that?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes. It was a young officer who went to Africa because of +her--and died +there.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And they know that, too?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What don't they know?--But that's a mere detail--it doesn't +concern +me. Even the fact that in six months she will become the bride of a +grand-duke--even that can make no difference to me. For the present she +is <i>my</i> princess.--But you're not listening to me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes I am!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you know what that means--<i>my</i> princess? I'll not give +up <i>my</i> +princess--not for anything in all the world!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But--if you don't even know her----?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I don't know her? Why, I know her as well as I know myself!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Have you ever met her, then?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I don't know of any one who has ever met her. And there's not +a soul +that can tell what she looks like. It is said that there were pictures +of her in the shop-windows when she first came, but they were removed +immediately. In the morning a great many people are always lurking +around the Springs trying to catch a glimpse of her. I myself have +gotten up at six o'clock a couple of times--on the same errand--and if +you knew me better, you'd realise what that meant. But not a sign of +her! Either she has the stuff brought to her house, or she has the +power of making herself invisible. (<span class="sc2">The Princess </span><i>turns aside to +conceal a smile.</i>) After that, I used to hang around her garden--every +day, for hours at a time. Until one day the policeman, whom the +managers of the Springs have stationed at the gates, came up to me and +asked me what on earth I was doing there. Well, that was the end of +those methods of approach! Suddenly, however, a happy thought struck +me. Now I can see her, and have her near to me as often as I wish.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, that's very interesting. How?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, that's just the point. H'm, should I risk it? Should I +take you +into my confidence?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You promised me some time ago that you would show her to me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wait a second. (<i>Looks through the telescope.</i>) There she +is. Please +look for yourself.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I am-- (<i>She, too, looks through the telescope.</i>) +Actually, there +is the garden as plain as if one were in it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And at the corner window on the left--with the +embroidery-frame--that's +she.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Are you absolutely certain that that is the princess?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, who else could it be?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, 'round about a princess like that--there are such a lot of +people. +For instance, there is her waiting-woman, there's the seamstress and +her assistants, there's----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But my dear young lady, if you only understood anything about +these +matters, you would have been certain at the very first glance that it +was she--and no one else. Observe the nobility in every motion--the +queenly grace with which she bends over the embroidery-frame----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">How do you know that it's an embroidery-frame?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, what should a princess be bending over if not an +embroidery-frame? +Do you expect her to be darning stockings?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It wouldn't hurt her at all!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, that's just one of those petty, bourgeois notions which +we ought +to suppress. It's not enough that we have to stick in this misery, but +we'd like to drag her down, too--that being far above all earthly +care----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, dear me!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What are you sighing about so terribly?</p> + +<p class="normal">The Princess</p> + +<p class="normal">Tell me, wouldn't you like to have a closer acquaintance with +your +princess, sometime?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Closer? Why should I?--Isn't she close enough to me, my +far-away +princess?--for that's what I call her when I talk to myself about her. +And to have her <i>still</i> closer?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why, so that you could talk to her and know what she really +was like.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>terrified</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Talk to her! Heaven forbid! Goodness gracious, no! Just see +here--how +am I to face a princess? I'm an ordinary fellow, the son of poor folks. +I haven't polished manners--I haven't even a decent tailor. A lady like +that--why, she'd measure me from top to toe in one glance.--I've had my +lessons in the fine houses where I've applied as tutor. A glance from +boots to cravat--and you're dismissed!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And you think that I--(<i>correcting herself</i>)--that this +girl is as +superficial as that?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This girl"! Dear me, how that sounds! But, how should I ever +succeed +in showing her my real self? And even if I should, what would she +care?--Oh, yes, if she were like you--so nice and simple--and with such +a kindhearted, roguish little twinkle in her eye----!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Roguish--I? Why so?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Because you are laughing at me in your sleeve. And really I +deserve +nothing better.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But your princess deserves something better than your opinion +of her.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">How do you know that?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">You really ought to try to become acquainted with her +sometime.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, no, no--and again no! As long as she remains my far-away +princess, +she is everything that I want her to be--modest, gracious, loving. She +smiles upon me dreamily. Yes, she even listens when I recite my poems +to her--and that can't be said of many people! And as soon as I have +finished, she sighs, takes a rose from her breast, and casts it down to +the poet.--I wrote a few verses yesterday about that rose, that flower +which represents the pinnacle of my desires, as it were.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>eagerly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, yes. Oh, please, please!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then, here goes. H'm--"Twenty roses nestling close----"</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What? Are there twenty now?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>severely</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">My princess would not have interrupted me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh please--forgive me.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I shall begin again.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t4">Twenty roses nestling close</p> +<p class="t5">Gleam upon thy breast,</p> +<p class="t4">Twenty years of rose-red love</p> +<p class="t5">Upon thy fair cheeks rest.</p> +<p class="t4"> </p> +<p class="t4">Twenty years would I gladly give</p> +<p class="t5">Out of life's brief reign,</p> +<p class="t4">Could I but ask a rose of thee</p> +<p class="t5">And ask it not in vain.</p> +<p class="t4"> </p> +<p class="t4">Twenty roses thou dost not need</p> +<p class="t5">--Why, pearls and rubies are thine!--</p> +<p class="t4">With nineteen thou'dst be just as fair,</p> +<p class="t5">And <i>one</i> would then be <i>mine</i>!</p> +<p class="t4"> </p> +<p class="t4">And twenty years of rose-wreathed joy</p> +<p class="t5">Would spring to life for me--</p> +<p class="t4">Yet twenty years could ne'er suffice</p> +<p class="t5">To worship it--and thee!</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">How nice that is! I've never had any verses written to me +b----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, my dear young lady, ordinary folks like us have to do +their own +verse-making!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And all for one rose!--Dear me, how soon it fades! And then +what is +left you?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, my dear friend, a rose like that never fades--even as my +love for +the gracious giver can never die.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But you haven't even got it yet!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That makes no difference in the end. I'm entirely independent +of such +externals. When some day I shall be explaining Ovid to the beginners, +or perhaps even reading Horace with the more advanced classes--no, it's +better for the present not to think of reaching any such dizzy heights +of greatness--well, then I shall always be saying to myself with a +smile of satisfaction, "You, too, were one of those confounded artist +fellows--why, you once went so far as to love a princess!"</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And that will make you happy?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Enormously!--For what makes us happy after all? A bit of +happiness? +Great heavens, no! Happiness wears out like an old glove.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, then, what does?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, how should I know! Any kind of a dream--a fancy--a wish +unfulfilled--a sorrow that we coddle--some nothing which suddenly +becomes everything to us. I shall always say to my pupils--"Young men, +if you want to be happy as long as you live, create gods for yourselves +in your own image; these gods will take care of your happiness."</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And what would the god be like that you would create?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Would be? Is, my dear young lady, is!</i>--A man of the +world, a +gentleman, well bred, smiling, enjoying life--who looks out upon +mankind from under bushy eyebrows, who knows Nietzsche and Stendhal by +heart, and--(<i>pointing to his shoes</i>) who isn't down at the heels--a +god, in short, worthy of my princess. I know perfectly well that all my +life long I shall never do anything but crawl around on the ground like +an industrious ant, but I know, too, that the god of my fancy will +always take me by the collar when the proper moment comes and pull me +up again into the clouds. Yes, up there I'm safe.--And your god, or +rather your goddess--what would she look like?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>thoughtfully</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">That's not easy to say. My goddess would be--a quiet, peaceful +woman +who would treasure a secret, little joy like the apple of her eye, who +would know nothing of the world except what she wanted to know, and who +would have the strength to make her own choice when it pleased her.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">But that doesn't seem to me a particularly lofty aspiration, +my dear +young lady.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lofty as the heavens, my friend.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">My princess would be of a different opinion.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Do you think so?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">For that's merely the ideal of every little country girl.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not her ideal--her daily life which she counts as naught. It +is my +ideal because I can never attain it.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh. I say, my dear young girl! It can't be as bad as that! A +young girl +like you--so charming and--I don't want to be forward, but if I could +only help you a bit!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Have you got to be helping all the time? Before, it was only a +cheap +lunch, now it's actually----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, yes, I'm an awful donkey, I know, but----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>smiling</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Don't say any more about it, dear friend! I like you that way.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>feeling oppressed by her +superiority</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Really you are an awfully strange person! There's something +about you +that--that--</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I can't exactly define it.--Tell me, weren't you wanting to go +into the +woods before? It's so--so oppressive in here.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oppressive? I don't find it so at all--quite the contrary.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, no--I'm restless. I don't know what--at all events, may I +not +escort you--? One can chat more freely, one can express himself more +openly--if one-- (<i>Takes a deep breath.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>smiling</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">And you are leaving your far-away princess with such a light +heart?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span> (<i>carelessly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, she! She won't run away. She'll be sitting there tomorrow +again--and the day after, too!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so that is your great, undying love?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, but when a girl like you comes across one's path----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Hurrying in and then drawing back in feigned astonishment.</i>) +Oh!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Liddy</span> and Milly (<i>similarly</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, ladies, didn't I tell you that you wouldn't find her? +Princesses +don't grow along the roadside like weeds!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Disregarding him ceremoniously.</i>) The infinite +happiness with which +this glorious event fills our hearts must excuse in some measure the +extraordinary breach of good manners which we are committing in daring +to address your Highness. But, as the fortunate subjects of your +Highness's most noble fiancé, we could not refrain from----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, well! What's all this?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">--from offering to our eagerly awaited sovereign a slight +token of our +future loyalty. Liddy! Milly! (<span class="sc2">Liddy </span><i>and </i><span class="sc2">Milly </span><i>come forward, and, +with low court bows, offer their bouquets.</i>) My daughters respectfully +present these few flowers to the illustrious princess----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I beg your pardon, but who is doing the joking here, you +or----?</p> + +<p class="normal">(<span class="sc2">Frau v. Brook </span><i>enters</i>. <span class="sc2">The Princess</span>, <i>taken unawares, +has retreated +more and more helplessly toward the door at the left, undecided whether +to take flight or remain. She greets the arrival of </i><span class="sc2">Frau v. Brook </span> +<i>with a happy sigh of relief.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span> (<i>severely</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">Pardon me, ladies. Apparently you have not taken the proper +steps +toward being presented to Her Highness. In matters of this sort one +must first apply to me. I may be addressed every morning from eleven to +twelve, and I shall be happy to consider your desires.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Halldorf</span> (<i>with dignity</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">I and my children, madame, were aware of the fact that we were +acting +contrary to the usual procedure; but the impulse of loyal hearts is +guided by no rule. I shall be glad to avail myself of your very kind +invitation.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">(<i>All three go out with low curtsies to </i><span class="sc2">The Princess</span>.)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">What forwardness!--But how could you come down without +me?--And what is +that young man over there doing? Does he belong to those people?</p> + +<p class="normal">(<span class="sc2">The Princess </span><i>shakes her head</i>. <span class="sc2">Strübel</span>, <i>without a +word, goes to get +his hat which has been lying on a chair, bows abruptly, and is about to +leave.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, no! That wouldn't be nice. Not that way----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span> (<i>amazed</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">What?--What!--Why, your Highness----!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Let me be, Eugenie. This young man and I have become far too +good +friends to part in such an unfriendly, yes, almost hostile, fashion.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Your Highness, I am <i>very</i> much----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span> (<i>to </i><span class="sc2">Strübel</span>).</p> + +<p class="normal">You and I will certainly remember this hour with great +pleasure, and I +thank you for it with all my heart. If I only had a rose with me so as +to give you your dear wish!--Eugenie, haven't we any roses with us?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Your Highness, I am <i>very</i> much----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Examining herself and searching among the vases.</i>) +Well, how are we +going to manage it?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">I most humbly thank--your Highness--for the kind intention.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, no--wait! (<i>Her glance falls upon the hat which she is +holding in +her hand with a sudden thought.</i>) I have it!--But don't think that I'm +joking.--And we'll have to do without scissors! (<i>She tears one of the +roses from the hat.</i>) I don't know whether there are just twenty +(<i>Holding out one of the roses to him.</i>) Well?--This rose has the +merit of being just as real as the sentiment of which we were speaking +before--and just as unfading.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is this--to be--my punishment? (<span class="sc2">The Princess </span><i>smilingly +shakes her +head.</i>) Or does your Highness mean by it that only the Unreal never +fades?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">That's exactly what I mean--because the Unreal must always +dwell in the +imagination.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">So that's it! Just as it is only the <i>far-away</i> +princesses who are +always near to us.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Permit me to remark, your Highness that it is <i>high</i> time----</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">As you see, those who are near must hurry away. (<i>Offering +him the rose +again.</i>) Well?</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Strübel</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Is about to take it, but lets his hand fall.</i>) With the +far-away +princess there--(<i>pointing down</i>) it would have been in harmony, but +with the-- (<i>Shakes his head, then softly and with emotion.</i>) No, +thanks--I'd rather not. (<i>He bows and goes out.</i>)</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">(<i>Smiling pensively, throws away the artificial flower.</i>) +I'm going to +ask my fiancé to let me send him a rose.</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Frau v. Brook</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Your Highness, I am <i>very</i> much--surprised!</p> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">The Princess</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, I told you that I wasn't sleepy.</p> +<br> +<br> +<p class="center"><span class="sc2">Curtain</span>.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Roses: Four One-Act Plays, by Hermann Sudermann + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSES: FOUR ONE-ACT PLAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 34360-h.htm or 34360-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/3/6/34360/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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