In short: make haste to get out as soon as possible; otherwise, as I said … Out! Out! You have probably seen now what is taking place here, and now you have nothing further to do.—Here are the papers. Constable! Take them right over to the court.
[He hands the papers to SCHULZE. The officers clash their sabres, grasp GUSTAV more firmly and prepare to lead him out. RAUCHHAUPT glares about in helpless and growing terror.
I have the impression, your honour, that this boy is really a patient.You will forgive me for mingling …
The boy's a imbecile—clean daft!
No, no, Doctor! Oh, no, Mr. Langheinrich, that there boy knows what he's doin'. I had a hen onct an' she went an' hatched out eleven little chicks and he goes an' takes bricks an' kills seven of 'em.
That's right, aunt. An' how about that other business, about the little purse what he stole?
The little purse, yes, an' what was in it. An' the way he went about that there thing … nobody as is well could ha' done it more clever.
An' then, aunt, the shawl …
Naw, an' then that there pistol. That boy's got all the good sense he needs. I'm a old an' experienced woman.
What's that you is? What? A ole witch with a low, lousy tongue in her head! You go an' sweep in front o' your own door before you go an' accuse other people. If somebody was to go an' watch your trade—takin' care o' babies an' such like an' seein' to it that there ain't no shortage o' angels in heaven—all kinds o' things might come out an' you wouldn't know how to see or hear no more.—What's this? What's the matter with Gustav? I gotta know that—what all this here is!
Hold your tongue! [To the constable.] Right about—march!
Hold on, I says! Hold on, now! That's no way! Things like that ain't mentioned in Scripter! I'm the father o' this here child! What's he done? What do people think he's done? Gustav! What is they accusin' you of? I went through the Schleswig-Holstein campaign; I was under fire in 'sixty-six; I was wounded in 'seventy. Here's my leg an' here is my scars. I served the King of Prussia …
Those are old stories that you're telling us.
… With God for King and Fatherland! But this thing here, no, sir; I can't allow that. I wants to know what this thing here with Gustav is about!
Look here, my man, you had better come to your senses! I have told you that once before. In consideration of your service to the state I have overlooked several things as it is. Well now, I'll do one thing more. Listen to me! This fine little product—this son of yours, has committed arson. At least, he is under the very strongest suspicion. Now step out of the way and don't interfere with the officers in the performance of their duty. Go on, Schulze!
Committed arson? That there boy? Over there? At Fielitz's? Gustav? This here boy? This here little feller? O Lordy! But that makes me laugh! An' that they ain't all laughin'—that's the funny part. Here, Schulze, don't you go in for no foolishness! I wore them brass buttons myself onct!—Howdy-do, Mrs. Fielitz! Well, Fielitz, how are you? Where are you goin' to hang up that clock o' yours?
Now he's jeerin' at us atop o' our troubles.
Not a bit. Why should I be jeerin' at you anyhow? It's a misfortune, you think! Lord, Lord, so it is! Cats die around in sheds an' the birds they falls down dead to the earth. No, I ain't jeerin' at you! Anyhow: I ain't scared o' many things. I've gone for some tough customers in my time—fellers that none o' the other constables wanted to tackle! This here finger is bitten through. Yessir! But before I tackles any one like you—I'll go an' hang myself.
[Almost grey in the face, with trembling lips, yet with considerable vehemence and energy.] What's that man goin' for me like that for? What did I ever do to him, I'd like to know! Can I help it that things has turned out this way? I ain't seen nothin'! I wasn't there! I ain't cast no suspicions on no one! An' if they went an' arrested that boy o' yours—I didn't know no more about that than you!
Woman! Woman! Look at me!
Rot! Stop botherin' me. Leave me in peace an' don't go showin' off that way! I got enough trouble to go through. The doctor tells a person not to get excited, 'cause you might go just like that! An' a man like you … We don't know where to lie down! We don't know where we're goin' to sleep to-night! We're lyin' in the street, you might say, half dead an' all broken up …
Woman! Woman! Can you look at me?
Leave me alone an' go where you belongs. I don't let nobody treat me like that! I c'n look at you all right! Why not? I c'n look at you three days an' three nights an' see nothin' but a donkey before me! If this here thing is put off on your boy now, whose fault is it mostly? How did you go an' talk about the boy? You says, says you: he steals, he sets fire to your straw shed—an' now you're surprised that things turns out this way! You beat this here poor boy … he used to come runnin' over to me with so many blue spots on his body that there wasn't a place on him that wasn't sore. An' now you acts all of a sudden like a crazy man!
WEHRHAHN has motioned the officers who grasp GUSTAV more firmly and lead him toward the door. RAUCHHAUPT observes this and jumps with lightning-like rapidity in front of GUSTAV, placing his hands on the latter's shoulders and holding him fast.
Can't be done! I can't allow that, your honour. My Gustav ain't no criminal! I lived along reel quiet all to myself an' now I got into this here conspiracy. There's got to be proofs first of all! [To LANGHEINRICH.] Could it ha' been he, d'you think? [LANGHEINRICH shrugs his shoulders.] Them's all a crowd o' thieves around here—that's what … Gustav, don't you cry! They can't, in God's name—they can't do nothin' to you …
Hands off! Or … Hands off!
Your honour, I'll take my oath o' office, that's what I'll take, that my boy here is innercent!
Tempi passati. You're getting yourself into trouble. For the last time: Hands off!
Then I'd rather kill him right here on the spot, your honour!
[Steps between and separates RAUCHHAUPT from his son.] Move' on! You're not to touch the boy! If you dare the constable will draw his sabre!
[White as chalk, half maddened with excitement, has loosened his hold on GUSTAV and plants himself in front of the main door.] Don't do that to me, your honour, for God's sake, for Christ's sake—don't! That's a point o' honour with me—a point o' honour! Anythin' exceptin' that! I'll go instead. I c'n furnish bail. I'll run an' get bail. I c'n get back here right away! Eh? C'n I? Or can't that be done now?
Stuff and nonsense. Move out of the way!
I knows who it was that did it!
WEHRHAHN thrusts RAUCHHAUPT aside and the two officers conduct GUSTAV out. DR. BOXER and LANGHEINRICH support and restrain RAUCHHAUPT at the same time. He falls into a state of dull collapse. Silence ensues. Without saying a word WEHRHAHN returns to his table, blows his nose, glances swiftly at RAUCHHAUPT and MRS. FIELITZ and sits down.
Let us have some light, Glasenapp.
GLASENAPP lights a lamp on the table.
No, no, I tell you; it's bad, bad! A man like that! He goes an' accuses everybody in the whole place.
You! Mrs. Schulze! You can go your ways!
MRS. SCHULZE withdraws rapidly.
I'd like to ax your honour … we don't even know where we're goin' to sleep to-night.
Are you asleep now, Fielitz?
[Frightened from the contemplation of his clock.] Not me, your honour!
I thought you were because your head drooped so.
[With childish bashfulness.] I was just lookin' at the hands.
[To MRS. FIELITZ.] You want to go?
If it's maybe possible … I can't hardly stand on them two legs o' mine no more.
I believe that. When did you get up this morning?
— — —?
We both got up around eight o'clock.
Do you always get up so late?
Sure not! That there man is confused to-day in his mind. We got up at five. We always get up at five!
Well, Mrs. Fielitz, you go on home now.—I should be mighty sorry in some respects … However, justice goes its way. Murder will out. Criminals come to a fearful end! The eternal Judge doesn't forget. And—you [To RAUCHHAUPT.] might as well go home. Go home and wait to see how things turn out. I'll let things go this time. Your paternal feeling robbed you of your senses.
[Steps forward.] I should like 'umbly to report, your honour …
Go on! Go on! What else do you want? Let us have no more nonsense, my good man.
[Goes close up to MRS. FIELITZ.] God is my witness! I'll show you up!
The attic room over LANGHEINRICH'S smithy. To the left, two small, curtained windows. At one of the windows an arm-chair on which MRS. FIELITZ is sitting. She has aged perceptibly and grown thinner.—At the second window stands a sewing-machine with a chair beside it. A skirt at which some one has been working is thrown across the chair. A bodice lies on the machine itself. A door in the rear wall leads to a little sleeping-chamber immediately under the roof. To the left of this door a brown tile-oven; to its right, a yellow wardrobe. In the right wall there is likewise a door which opens upon the hall. Behind this door a neatly made bed and a yellow chest of drawers. Above this chest hangs a seven-day clock. The SHOEMAKER FIELITZ stands in his stocking feet upon the chest of drawers and winds the clock.
_In the middle of the room an extension table. A hanging lamp above it. Four yellow chairs surround the table, a fifth—of the same set stands near the bed. LANGHEINRICH and EDE,dressed in their working-clothes, are busy at the table. LANGHEINRICH holds an iron weather-vane which EDE is painting red.
EDE and LANGHEINRICH break out in loud laugh.
[Who has been minding the clock while the others have been laughing.] Somebody's been pokin' around here again.
You c'n bet on that. I s'ppose that's what's happened. You'd better watch out more.
[Renewed laughter.
All I say is: let me catch some one at it! An' I won't care what happens neither!
That's right! That's the way! Don't you care who it is, neither. I think it was Leontine.
The girl ain't been near that there clock!
Oh, oh!
Somethin's goin' to happen some day. I don't take no jokes o' that kind.
You gotta save that to put it in the shop.
That's the truth! That's what I always been sayin'! That corner shop'll soon be built now, an' then maybe he won't have no clock to hang up in it. How could he go an' start a business then!
Firebrands! Pack o' thieves! Laugh if you wants to! You can't never get the better o' me!
Not a bit, can they! An' that wouldn't do. How many contracts has you been makin'? I mean about furnishin' people with shoes. You got to have somethin' to start with!
Can't you leave the man in peace!
You just go in my room; there you c'n see letters an' contracts lyin' around—packages an' heaps o' them!
[Looks into the adjoining room.] I don't see nothin'.
Tear up the floorin': you'll find the docyments hidden there. People has got to have their business secrets!
O' course they has! An' whippersnappers don't know much about that. Go an' learn how to read an' write before you go an' mix in my business.
Come, Fielitz, let them be! Don't lose your temper. You know asLangheinrich has got to have his joke! That's the way the man is made.
I do feel pretty jolly to-day, an' that's a fac'! I got a piece o' work done. An' if I don't go an' fall down from the steeple when I puts it up—I'll go an' christen this here occasion. An' I won't use water.
Are you goin' to put it up yourself?
You c'n take your oath on that! An' why not? Schmarowski, he designed it.But I forged it an' I'll put it up.
LEONTINE enters.
You better let Schmarowski do that himself.
Schmarowski ain't afraid o' anything shaky.
No, that's as true as can be, I know. He ain't afraid o' God nor the devil. That little man … I tell you, Bismarck is just a coward alongside o' him!
I'd like to make a inquiry: who is it that built that there new house?
Well, who did?
Me! An' not Schmarowski.
Well, that's certain! We all knows that, Mr. Fielitz.
Right up from the foundation! Me an' nobody but me! That there is my land, my bricks, my money! All the insurance money's been sunk into that. Ax mother here if that ain't the fac'!
[Laughter.
Oh, Lord, Fielitz! Can't you let that be? Has you got to tell them old stories all over again?
That I has! I got to prove that, mother! I got to let them people know who I is! Watch out, I tell you, when I makes my speech to-day!
Schmarowski says there ain't goin' to be no speech makin'.
You can't go an' tie up my tongue, an' Schmarowski can't do it neither!
[He withdraws into the adjoining little room.
You better look out, ole lady, an' see that there ain't no bloody row raised. There's talk now o' some people wantin' to get ugly. Better be a bit careful!
All you gotta do is to keep your eye on him a bit. Treat him to drinks from the beginnin'. I can't keep that man in order to-day. He's bound to go to the festival.
Schmarowski got a drubbin' yesterday.
Last night, yes, after the people's meetin'.
Maybe he went an' gave it to 'em a bit too hot.
That's what he did. That little scamp talked, Mrs. Fielitz! The whole meetin' just shouted! An' he didn't mind callin' a spade a spade neither.
He oughtn't to be so hot, I think.
That he ought, just that! An' why not? Do what you can an' go ahead! That's the way! That whole crowd don't deserve no better. Not Wehrhahn an' not Friderici. An' anyhow, it was a good thing, Mrs. Fielitz. It was done just in the nick o' time! Now he's gone an' broken with them fellers, an' everybody knows it. There ain't no goin' back now. Now he belongs to us, Mrs. Fielitz, an' I never would ha' thought it of him!
You got reason to be satisfied with him, I'm thinkin'. Look at the noise in your workshop with four journeymen …
That's true, too, an' I'm not denyin' it. He put money in circulation. I couldn't make friends with Pastor Friderici's collection plate. Couldn't do it. Now everything's arranged.—Now I want you to keep your eyes open at the window when I gets up to the top o' the steeple. I'll wave an' sing out an'—jump down!
LANGHEINRICH and EDE exeunt with the weather vane. A brief silence.
I wonder if Rauchhaupt will be comin' in to-day?
I don't see, mother, why you're so frightened all the time. Rauchhaupt ain't nothin' but an old fool. Let him come all he pleases an' jabber away! Let him, mother. Nobody don't pay no attention to his nonsense!
They says as he's been talkin' around a lot.
Well, let him! I got letters too. Here's one of 'em again, mother. [She throws down a letter in its envelope.] But I don't worry about that. An' anyhow it's only that assistant at the railroad.
It might ha' been Constable Schulze, too.
Or that assistant teacher Lehnert—if you want to go on guessin'!
Well, let 'em! Them fellers is jealous—an' envious o' Schmarowski an' his new house! They'd like to go an' lay somethin' at our door. But no! 'Tain't so simple as that!
[Who has been sewing at her machine for a moment.] Look, mama, I found this here!
Hurry now, hurry! Don't go an' lose time now. That dress has got to be ready by two. Adelaide has been sendin' over again!—The one thing you ought to do is to go down to the cellar an' get that couple o' bottles o' wine, so's we can drink their health when they come up! You c'n see, they'll soon be through.
That thing was the Missis' spine supporter.
She was a poor, wretched crittur: strappin' herself an' tyin' herself an' squeezin' herself, an' yet she couldn't get rid o' her hump.
Well, why did she have to be so vain!
Don't grudge her her rest. She's deserved it.
They says that her ghost keeps rappin' up in the top attic whereLangheinrich sleeps.
Let her be! Let her be! Don't talk no more. Maybe he was a bit rough with her for all she brought money to him. She had to sew an' sew an' earn money…. No wonder she can't find no rest.
Why did she have to go an' marry Langheinrich?
Let them old stories be! I don't like to hear about 'em. My head's full enough o' trouble without 'em. I don't know what's wrong with me anyhow. A body sees ghosts enough now an' then without thinkin' o' the past.
I must say, though, that if he's unfaithful to me that way….
Langheinrich? Let him go an' be. When it comes to that, there ain't no man that's any good. If there was to be a single one whom you could go an' depend on when it comes to that—it'd be somethin' new to me.—Main thing is to be at your post. The man ain't bad. He means reel well. Be savin'. You know how careful he is! An' take care o' his bit o' clothes an' be good to his little girl. He don't object to your boy. [FIELITZ re-enters clad in his long, black Sunday coat.] You can't go to that dinner lookin' like that. Come here an' I'll sew on that there button.
'Tain't possible you'll do that much! Don't go an' hurt yourself now.
[Holds his garment with her left hand and sews, still seated.] It ain't nobody's fault if a body can't get around so quick no more. You gets well enough taken care of.
Aw, them times is past! You needn't lie atop of it all! I'm like a old bootjack—kicked in a corner.—Has anybody been shovin' my clock?
It's likely. He's got a screw loose.
[Exit.
You just wait!
Langheinrich was just jokin'?
I'll show the whole crowd o' you somethin' now that I got on top. I c'n go an' stand up to any man yet!
Well, o' course. There ain't nobody doubts that.
I just want you to wait two years an' see who it'll be that has made the most money: Schmarowski, Langheinrich or me!
I don't see what grudge you got against Langheinrich? He went an' took us into his house….
He did that 'cause he's got his reason an' 'cause he wants a high rent.
You better be glad he is the way he is.
On account o' that bit o' business with the fuse? You go right ahead an' let him trample on you.
What was that there about a fuse?
That business? What d'you s'ppose? Dr. Boxer talked about it too.
I don't know nothin' about them affairs o' yours.
Mother, I got a good conscience.
You c'n go an' put it in a glass case.
Mother, I ain't sayin' nothin' else right now …
That's all foolishness!
All right.
Schmarowski was here. How's that now with, the mortgage?
You mean that my mortgage is now the fourth?
Anybody knows that a buildin' like that costs money.
Schmarowski is sinkin' all his money in bricks an' mortar.
Nonsense!
It's a fac'! That thing has taken hold o' him like a sickness.
Main thing is that you agrees. Don't you?
Not a bit! I don't agree to nothin'. I been a agent in my time an' took care o' the most complexcated affairs. Yes, an' Wehrhahn patted me on the back an' was mighty jolly 'cause I'd been so sly … No, mother, I ain't so green.—I c'n keep accounts! I knows how to use my pen! I'm more'n half a lawyer! That feller ain't goin' to get the better o' me.
SCHMAROWSKI enters very bustling. He has changed the style of his garments considerably—light Spring overcoat, elegant little hat and cane. He carries a roll of building plans.
Mornin', Mrs. Fielitz. How are you now? Did you get over that slight cold?
Thank you kindly; I gets along. Take a seat.
Yes, I will. I've reely deserved it. I've been on my feet since four o'clock this morning! Lord only knows how I succeed in staggerin' along.
Mornin'. I'm here too, you know.
Good mornin'. Didn't notice you at all. I have my head so full these days …
Me too.
Certainly. Don't doubt it! Have you anything to say to me? If so, go ahead, please!
Not this here moment! I got other things to attend to just now. I gotta go an' meet a gentleman at the station on account o' them Russian rubber shoes. Later. Sure. But not just now.
[He stalks out excitedly.
That cobbler makes us all look ridiculous. He plays off in all the public houses. The other day this thing happened out there in the waiting-room where all the best people were sittin': he just made his way to 'em an' talked all kinds of rot about the factories he was goin' to build and such like.
The man acts as if he didn't have his right mind no more.
But you're gettin' along all right.
Tolerable. Oh, yes. Only I can't hardly stand the hammerin' no more. I wish we was out o' this here house!
Patience! For Heaven's sake, have patience now! Things have gone pretty smoothly so far. Don't let's begin to hurry now. Just a little patience. I'm as anxious as any one for us to get settled. But I can't do no wonders. I'm glad the roof is on. I know what that cost me—an' then all these annoyances atop o' that. [He shows her a number of opened letters.] Anonymous, all of 'em, of course. The meanest accusations of Fielitz, of you, an', of course, of myself.
I don't know what them people wants. When you got trouble you needn't go huntin' for insult. That's the way things is, an' different they won't be. They questioned us up an' down. Three times I had to go an' run to court. If there'd been anythin' to find out, they'd ha' found it out long ago.
I don't want to offer no opinion about that. That's your affair; that don't concern me. 'S far as I'm concerned, I gave the people to understand what I am. When people want to get rid o' me, they got to take the consequences. That's what Pastor Friderici had better remember. I saw through his game.—But to come to the point, as I'm in a hurry, as you see. Everything's goin' very 'well—but cash is needed—cash!
But Fielitz ain't willin'.
Mr. Fielitz will have to be!
He's still thinkin' about that corner shop o' his. Can't you keep a bit o' space for it?
Can't be done! How'd I end if I begin that way? You got sense enough to see that yourself. No. There wasn't no such agreement. We can't be thinkin' o' things like that.—A banker is comin' to this dinner, Mrs. Fielitz, an' I ought to know what to expect exactly. Everything is bein' straightened out now. If I'm left to stick in the mud now…!
I'll see to it. Don't bother.
Very well. An' now there's something else. Have you heard anything fromRauchhaupt again?
Yes, I hears that he don't want to hold his tongue an' that he goes about holdin' us up to contempt. That's the same thing like with Wehrhahn. I never did nothin' but kindnesses to Rauchhaupt. An' now he comes here day in an' day out an' makes a body sick an' sore with his old stories that never was nowhere but in his head. Maybe … my goodness … a man like that … he c'n go an' keep on an' on, till, in the end … well, well …
Don't be afraid, Mrs. Fielitz. Things don't go no further now that the noise is quieted down.—By the way, I see that the carpenters are assemblin'. I got to go over there an' rattle off my bit o' speech. It's just this: if Rauchhaupt should come in again, you just question him carefully a little. There's a new affair bein' started. Got a political side to it. Immense piece o' business. 'Course I got my finger in that pie, as I has in all the others now. We'd like to get Rauchhaupt's land … He bought it for a song in the old days. If we c'n get it—the whole of it an' not parcelled—there'd be a cool million in it.
An' here I got two savin's bank books.
Thank you. Just what I need. There are times when a man can't be sparin' o' money …
The girl is comin'. Hurry an' slip 'em into your pocket.
SCHMAROWSKI hastily puts the bankbooks into his pocket, nods to MRS. FIELITZ and withdraws rapidly.
[Half rising from her chair and looking anxiously out through the window.] If only they don't go' an' make trouble this day. There's a great crowd o' people standin' around.
LEONTINE returns with the three bottles of wine and the glasses.
Mama! Mama! He's downstairs again. That fool of a Rauchhaupt is down there.
[Frightened.] Who?
Rauchhaupt. He's comin' in right behind me.
[She places the bottles and glasses on the table.
[With sudden determination.] Let him! He c'n come up for all I cares. I'll tell him the reel truth for onct.
[RAUCHHAUPT puts his head in at the door.
Is I disturbing you, Mrs. Fielitz?
No, you ain't disturbin' me.
Is I disturbin' anybody else then?
I don't know about that. It depends.
[Enters. His appearance is not quite so neglected as formerly.] My congratulations. I'm comin' in to see if things is goin' right again.
[With forced joviality.] You got a fine instinct for them things, Rauchhaupt.
[Staring at her, emphatically.] That I has, certainly! That I has!—I just met Dr. Boxer, too. He's goin' to come up and see you in a minute, too. An' I axed him about a certain matter, too.
What kind o' thing was that?
About that time, you know! They says that he said somethin' toLangheinrich that time an' Langheinrich said somethin' to him, too.
I ain't concerned with them affairs o' yours. Leontine! Go an' get a piece o' sausage so that they c'n have a bite o' food when they comes over afterwards.
The world don't stop movin'.
No, it don't. That's so.
Wouldn't you like for me to stay here now?
Yon better be goin' an' buy some silk stockin's.
What's the meanin' o' that?
That don't mean, nothin' much. You might think she was a countess—standin' there at Mrs. Boxer's:—Adelaide, I mean, what's now Mrs. Schmarowski. There she stood in the shop an' chaffered about a yellow petticoat. She's a great lady nowadays an' one as wears red silk stockin's.
People like us don't hardly have enough to buy cotton, ones.
[Exit.
I wonder what people will say about Adelaide in the end?
That ain't just talkin'. Them's facts. T'other day the beer waggon unloaded some beer at Mrs. Kehrwieder's—Mrs. Kehrwieder that's a washerwoman hereabouts. Well, my lady comes rustlin' up—that's what she does—an' turns up her nose—she ain't no beastly snob, oh, no!—an' then she asks Mrs. Kehrwieder: is it reely true that the poor drinks beer?
You needn't come to me with your rot an' your gossip.
Anyhow, what I was goin' to tell you is this: I'm on a new scent!
What kind of a scent is that you're on?
Mum's the word! I gotta be careful. I can't say nothin'; I don't pretend to know nothin'. But I kept my eyes open pretty wide, I tell you. There's detectives workin', too. I been to Wehrhahn, too, an' he told me to go right on!
[Knitting.] O Lordy! Wehrhahn. He's goin' to do you a lot o' good, ain't he? It'll cost some more o' your money—that's what!
Mrs. Fielitz, the things we has found out, I'll show 'em up clear as day, I tell you. You c'n get hold o' the smallest secret. The public prosecutor hisself pricked up his ears. An' the way you does it is this: first you draws big circles, Mrs. Fielitz, an' then you draws littler ones an' littler ones an' then—then somebody is caught! Who? Why, them criminals what set fire to the house. O' course I don't mean you, Mrs. Fielitz.
I'd give the matter a rest if I was you. Nothin' ain't goin' to come out.
How much you bet, Missis? I'll take you up.
If nothin' didn't come out at first …
How much you bet, Missis? Come now, an' bet. All a body's gotta be is patient. You ordered Gustav to come over at eleven o'clock with the seeds. An' just then Mrs. Schulze passed by your door. No, I don't take my nose off the scent.
Now I'll tell you something Rauchhaupt. I don't care nothin' about your nose. But I tell you, if you don't stop but go on sniffin' around here all the blessed time…. I tell you, some day my patience'll be at an end!
Why don't you go an' sue me, Mrs. Fielitz?
For my part you c'n say right out what you has to say. Then a person'll know what to answer you. But don't go plannin' your stinkin' plans with that Schulze woman! I put that there woman outta here! She comes here an' tries to talk me into lettin' Leontine come over to her. The constable, he'd like that pretty well. My girl ain't that kind, though. An' now, o' course, the old witch'd like to give us a dig. Before that she wanted to do the same to you!—I don't know anyhow what you're makin' so much noise about! I don't see as anythin' bad has happened to that boy o' yours! He's taken care of. He's got a good home! He gets nursin' an' good food!
No, no, that don't do me no good inside. I don't let that there rest on me—not on me an' not on Gustav. Can't be done! That keeps bitin' into me. I can't let that go. It cost me ten years o' my life. I knows that! I knows what I went through that time when I tried to hang myself. I ain't never goin' to get over that, 's long's I live! I'll find out who was at the bottom of it all! I made up my mind to that!
Good Lord, an' why not? Go ahead an' do it! Keep peggin' away at it. What business is it o' mine? Has I got to have myself excited this way all the time when, the doctor told me how bad it is for me….
Missis, there ain't a soul as knows what that was. I knows it. I just ran home, blind…. couldn't see nothin'! I didn't know nothin' no more o' God or the world. I just kept pantin' for air! An' then there I lay—like a dead person on the bed. They rubbed me with towels an' they brushed me with brushes, an' sprayed camphor all over me an' such stuff! Then I came back to life.
How many hundreds o' times has you been tellin' me that? I knows, Rauchhaupt, that you went off o' your head. Well, what about that? Look at me! My hair didn't get no blacker from that there business; I didn't get no stronger from it neither. Who's worse off right now—you or me? That's what I'd like to know. You got your health; you're lookin' prosperous! An' me? What am I to-day? An' how does I look? Well, then, what more d'you want?—I dreamed o' my own funeral, already!—What do you want more'n that? I ain't goin' to bother nobody much longer. There ain't much good to be got by houndin' me!… An' that's the truth.—An' anyhow, you're a foolish kind o' a man, Rauchhaupt. You're so crazy, nobody wouldn't hardly believe it. First you was always wantin' to get rid o' the boy …
Oh, you don't know Gustav, that you don't! What that there boy could do when I had him … an' the way he was kind to children an' such like! An' the way he c'n sing! An' the thoughts he's got in his head! That there time when he ran away from the asylum, he went an' he sat down in front o' the church where he was always listenin' to the bells, an' there he sat reel still, waitin'. You ought to ha' seen the boy then, Mrs. Fielitz, the way all that shows in his face. That's somethin'! Only thing is, he can't get it out the way the likes o' us c'n do it.
Rauchhaupt, I had worse things 'n that. Yes. I lost a boy—an' he was the best thing I had in this world. Well, you see? You c'n go an' stare at me now! My life—it ain't been no joke neither.—Go right on starin' at me! Maybe you'll lose your taste for this kind o' thing the way you did onct before.
Mrs. Fielitz, I'm a peaceable man, but that there … I'm peaceable,Missis. I never liked bein' a constable, but …
Well, then! Everybody knows that! On that very account! An' now there ain't nobody as bad as you! You're actin' like a reg'lar bloodhound! Why? You've always been as good as gold, Rauchhaupt! Every child in the place knows that! An' now, what's all this about?—You c'n go an' open one o' them there bottles. Why shouldn't we go an' drink a bit o' a drop together? [RAUCHHAUPT wipes his eyes and then walks across to draw the cork of one of the bottles.]—Fightin' c'n begin again afterwards. I s'ppose life ain't no different from that.—An' we can't change it. There ain't nothin' but foolishness around. An' when you want to go an' open people's eyes—you can't do it! Foolishness—that's what rules this world.—What are we: you an' me an' all of us? We has had to go worryin' and workin' all our lives—every one of us has! Well, then! We ought to know how things reely is! If you don't join the scramble—you're lazy: if you do—you're bad.—An' everythin' we does get, we gets out o' the dirt. People like us has to turn their hands to anythin'! An' they, they tells you: be good, be good! How? What chanct has we got? But no, we don't even live in peace with each other.—I wanted to get on—that's true. An' ain't it natural? We all wants to get out o' this here mud in which we all fights an' scratches around … Out o' it … away from it … higher up, if you wants to call it that … Is it true as you're wantin' to move away from here, Rauchhaupt?
Yes, Mrs. Fielitz, I been havin' that in my mind. An' why? Dr. Boxer an' me, we knows why. [He groans sorrowfully.] It ain't only on account o' my wantin' to be nearer to Gustav. No, no! I don't feel well in this here neighbourhood no more. Everybody looks at me kind o' queer nowadays.
[The bottle has now been uncorked and RAUCHHAUPT fills two glasses.
That's another thing. Why does we care what people think?
No, no! When a man has done what I has—that's different. When a man's gone that length—an' a former officer at that—that he's gone an' taken a rope an' tried…. I don't understand, Missis, I don't understand how I could ha' done that.—But they cut me down … that they did.
[He drinks.
Is it reely true what people says about it?
You see, it got out, an' people knows! An' that—me bein' a former officer—when I think o' that! No, no rain an' no wind can't wash that blot off o' me.
[He drinks.
I say: let's drink to our health. I don't care about people nor what they thinks.—But if, maybe, you do want to sell some day—who knows?… I c'n talk to Schmarowski. You two might agree.
DR. BOXER, EDE and LEONTINE enter.
You're having a very jolly time here, Mrs. Fielitz.
Just to-day. It's an exception; that it is!
Young lady! Hey, there! You want to see somethin'? Langheinrich is dancin' around on the church-steeple!
MRS. FIELITZ rises with difficulty and looks out.
I can't bear to look at things like that even.
Let him fall! He won't fall nowhere but on his feet; he's just like a cat.
[Softly and half-humorously threatening RAUCHHAUPT.] Stop exciting my patient all the time. A deuce of a lot of good all my doctoring will do then!
You c'n leave the man be, Doctor. People has put him up to things.Otherwise he's the best feller in the world.
Very well, then! And beyond that, Mrs. Fielitz, how do you feel?
Well enough. 'Tis true,—[she points to her breast]—somethin's cracked inside o' here. But then! Everybody's gotta get out o' the world sometime. I've lived quite a while!
You musn't talk so much! You must keep still longer. [To RAUCHHAUPT.] I've got an invitation for you. Mr. Schmarowski saw you going in here, and so he stopped me and asked me to say that he'd like to have you come over to the dinner!
Rauchhaupt—well, o' course. Why not?
An' I won't go givin' nothin' away yet.
And you, Doctor?
[Quickly.] Heaven forbid! Not I?
An' why not? Do you bear him a grudge about anythin'?
I? Bear a grudge? I never do that. But, do you see, I'm a lost man as far as all this is concerned. I don't deny that it amuses me to watch all these doings here, but I can't join in them. I'll never learn to do that.—I will probably go away again, too.
An' give up such a good practice?
Sea-faring—that gives a man true health. That is the best practice for one, Mrs. Fielitz, who is in some respects so little practical.
You ain't very practical, that's true.
No, I am not.—Listen, listen, how they're letting themselves go! [Many voices are heard in enthusiastic shouting.] Great enthusiasm again! In a moment they will raise Schmarowski and carry him on their shoulders. They were about to do it a moment ago. [A great, confused noise of huzzaing voices floats into the room.] Well, do you see? Isn't that truly uplifting?
Mother, look, look who the workin'men is raisin' up! The workin'men is raisin' him up!
Who?
[She rises convulsively and stares out.
Don't you see who it is?
Schmarowski.
That's how it is. I couldn't bear to see that there feller. But now … well … he's got some sense an' he's fightin' for sensible ideas—against arbitrary an' police power—now, well, I'll drink to his health, too.
Well, of course, Ede, naturally you will!
FIELITZ enters highly excited.
Me … me … me … me … it was me that did it! Go on an' shout, an' shout! It's that there feller that they lifts up! Let 'em. But I don't make no speeches like that! Character, conscience—them's the main things. Yes, it was me as paid an' me as built. But even if Wehrhahn went an' dropped me—I don't let go my sound opinions! There's gotta be order! There's gotta be morality! I'm for the monarchy right down to my marrow! I don't envy him that there triumph!
Look here, Fielitz! Come over here to the light, will you? I'd like to examine your eyes.—Don't your pupils move at all?
[Pants swiftly and convulsively, throws her hands high up as if in joy, and cries out half in rapture, half in terror:] Julius!
Mama! Mama!
She's gone to sleep.
[Appealing to the DOCTOR.] Mother is swingin' her arms around so!
Who? Where? Mrs. Fielitz?
Look! Look!
[Laughing.] Is she tryin' to catch sparrows in the air?
DR. BOXER has turned from FIELITZ to MRS. FIELITZ.
Mrs. Fielitz!
FIELITZ unconcerned by the events in the room, walks excitedly up and down in the background. RAUCHHAUPT is tensely watching from the window what takes place without.
What is it? Mother won't answer at all!
I believe they're goin' to end by comin' over here!
What is it, Mrs. Fielitz? What are you trying to do? Why do you move your hands about in that way?
[Reaching out strangely with both hands.] You reaches … you reaches … always this way …
After what?
[As before.] You always reaches out after … somethin' …
[Her arms drop and she falls silent.
[To DR. BOXER.] Is she sleepin'?
[Seriously.] Yes, she has fallen asleep. But keep all those people back now.
The whole crowd is comin' over here.
[Emphatically.] Keep them back! Ede! Turn them back at once!
EDE runs out.
Doctor, what's happened to mother?
Your mother has …
What, what?
[Significantly.] Has fallen asleep.
[Face assumes an expression of horror; she is about to shriek. DR. BOXER takes hold of her vigorously and puts his hand over her mouth. She regains a measure of self-control.] But, Doctor, she was talkin' just now…?
[Gently draws LEONTINE forward with his left hand and places his right upon the forehead of the dead woman.] So she was. And from now on she takes her fill of silence.
In the background FIELITZ, careless of what has happened, regards his eyes sharply and intently in a hand mirror.