The same room, as in the first act. Time: toward two o'clock in the morning. The room is in complete darkness. Through the open middle door light penetrates into it from the illuminated hall. The light also falls clearly upon the wooden stairway that leads to the upper floor. The conversation in this act—with very few exceptions—is carried on in a muffled tone.
_EDWARD enters through the middle door, carrying a light. He lights the hanging lamp (it is a gas lamp) over the corner table. While he is thus employed, LOTH also enters by the middle door.
EDWARD
O Lord! Such goin's on! It'd take a monster to be able to close a eye here!
LOTH
I didn't even try to sleep. I have been writing.
EDWARD
You don't say! [He succeeds in lighting the lamp.] There! Well, sure, I guess it's hard enough, too … Maybe you'd like to have paper and ink, sir?
LOTH
Perhaps that would be … If you would be so good, then, Mr. Edward?
EDWARD
[Placing pen and ink on the table.] I'm always thinkin' that any honest fellow has got to get all the work there's in every bone for every dirty penny. You can't even get your rest o' nights. [More and more confidentially.] But this crew here! They don't do one thing—a lazy, worthless crew, a—… I suppose, sir, that you've got to be at it early and late too, like all honest folks, for your bit o' bread.
LOTH
I wish I didn't have to.
EDWARD
Me too, you betcher.
LOTH
I suppose Miss Helen is with her sister?
EDWARD
Yes, sir, an', honestly, she's a good girl, she is; hasn't budged since it started.
LOTH
[Looking at his watch.] The pains began at eleven o'clock in the morning. So they've already lasted fifteen hours—fifteen long hours—!
EDWARD
Lord, yes!—And that's what they calls the weaker sex. But she's just barely gaspin'.
LOTH
And is Mr. Hoffmann upstairs, too?
EDWARD
Yes, an' I can tell you, he's goin' on like a woman.
LOTH
Well, I suppose it isn't very easy to have to watch that.
EDWARD
You're right there, indeed. Dr. Schimmelpfennig came just now. There's a man for you: rough as rough can be—but sugar ain't nothing to his real feelings. But just tell me what's become of little, old Berlin in all this …
[He interrupts himself with a Gee-rusa-lem! as HOFFMANN and the DOCTOR are seen coming down the stairs.
HOFFMANN and DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG enter.
HOFFMANN
Surely—you will stay with us from now on.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Yes, I suppose I will stay now.
HOFFMANN
That's a very, very great consolation to me.—Will you have a glass of wine? Surely you'll drink a glass of wine, Doctor?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
If you want to do something for me, have a cup of coffee prepared.
HOFFMANN
With pleasure. Edward! Coffee for the doctor! [EDWARD withdraws.] Are you…? Are you satisfied with the way things are going?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So long as your wife's strength keeps up there is, at all events, no direct danger. But why didn't you call in the young midwife? I remember having recommended her to you.
HOFFMANN
My mother-in-law…! What is one to do? And, to be frank with you, my wife has no confidence in the young woman either.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
But your ladies place confidence in this old fossil? Well, I hope they'll … And I suppose you would like to go back upstairs?
HOFFMANN
Yes, honestly, I can't get much rest down here.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
It would be better undoubtedly if you were to go somewhere—out of the house.
HOFFMANN
With the best will in the world, I—. [LOTH arises from the sofa in the dim foreground and approaches the two.] Hallo, Loth, there you are too!
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[Surprised in the extreme.] Well, I'll be—!
LOTH
I heard that you were here. I would have looked you up to-morrow without fail.
[They shake hands cordially. HOFFMANN takes the opportunity to mash down a glass of brandy at the side-board and then to creep back upstairs on tiptoe.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So you've evidently forgotten—ha, ha, ha—that ridiculous old affair?
[He lays aside his hat and cane.
LOTH
Long ago, Schimmel!
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Well, so have I, as you can well imagine. [They shake hands once more.] I've had so few pleasant surprises in this hole, that this one seems positively queer to me. And it is strange that we should meet just here. It is.
LOTH
And you faded clear out of sight. Otherwise I'd have routed you out long ago.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Oh, I just dived below the surface like a seal. Made deep-sea investigations. In about a year and a half I hope to emerge once more. A man must be financially independent—do you know that?—In order to achieve anything useful.
LOTH
So you, too, are making money here?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Naturally and as much as possible. What else is there to do here?
LOTH
You might have let some one hear from you!
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I beg your pardon. But if I had been heard from, I would have heard from you fellows—and I absolutely didn't want to hear. Nothingnothing. That would simply have kept me from exploiting my diggings here.
The two men walk slowly up and down the room.
LOTH
I see. But then you mustn't be surprised to hear that … well, they all, without an exception, really gave you up as hopeless.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
That's like them—the scamps! They'll be made to take notice.
LOTH
Schimmel—otherwise the "rough husk"!
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I wish you had had to live here among the farmers for six years. Hellhounds—every one of them.
LOTH
I can imagine that.—But how in the world did you get to Witzdorf?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The way such things do happen! You remember I had to skin out from Jena that time.
LOTH
Was that before my crash?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Yes, a short time after we'd given up living together. So I took up medicine at Zuerich, first simply so as to have something against a time of need. But then the thing began to interest me, and now I'm a doctor, heart and soul.
LOTH
And about this place. How did you get here?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Very simply. When I got through I said to myself: first of all you've got to have a sufficient pile. I thought of America, South and North America, of Africa, Australia and the isles of the sea … In the end it occurred to me, however, that my escapade had become outlawed; and so I made up my mind to creep back into the old trap.
LOTH
And how about your Swiss examinations?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Why, I simply had to go through the whole rigmarole once more.
LOTH
Man! You passed the state medical examination twice over?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Yes, luckily I then discovered this fat pasture here.
LOTH
Your toughness is certainly enviable.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
All very well, unless one collapses suddenly.—Well, it wouldn't matter so greatly after all.
LOTH
Have you a very large practice?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Oh, yes. Occasionally I don't get to bed till five o'clock in the morning. And at seven my consultation hour begins again.
EDWARD comes in, bringing coffee.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[Sitting down at the table, to EDWARD.] Thank you, Edward.—[To LOTH.]—The way I swill coffee is—uncanny.
LOTH
You'd better give that up.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
What is one to do? [He takes small swallows.] As I told you awhile ago—another year; then—all this stops. At least, I hope so.
LOTH
Don't you intend to practice after that at all?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Don't think so. No—no more. [He pushes back the tray with the dishes and wipes his mouth.] By the way, let's see your hand. [LOTH holds up both his hands for inspection.] I see. You've taken no wife to your bosom yet. Haven't found one, I suppose. I remember you always wanted primaeval vigour in the woman of your choice on account of the soundness of the strain. And you're quite right, too. If one takes a risk, it ought to be a good one. Or maybe you've become less stringent in that respect.
LOTH
Not a bit! You may take your oath.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I wish the farmers around here had such notions. But they're in a wretched condition—degeneration along the whole line … [He has half taken his cigar case from his inner pocket but lets it slip back and arises as a sound penetrates through the door which is only ajar.] Wait a moment! [He goes on tiptoe to the door leading to the hall and listens. A door is heard to open and close, and for several moments the moans of the woman in labour are audible. The DOCTOR, turning to LOTH, says softly.] Excuse me!
[And goes out.
For several seconds, while the slamming of doors is heard and the sound of people running up and down the stairs, LOTH paces the room. Then he sits down in the arm-chair in the foreground, right. HELEN slips in and throws her arms about LOTH, who has not observed her coming from, behind.
LOTH
[Looking around and embracing her in turn.] Nellie! [He drams her down upon his knee in spite of her gentle resistance. HELEN weeps under his kisses.] Don't cry, Nellie! Why are you crying so?
HELEN
Why? Oh, if I knew!… I keep thinking that I won't find you here. Just now I had such a fright …
LOTH
But why?
HELEN
Because I heard you go out of your room—Oh, and my sister—we poor, poor women!—oh, she's suffering too much!
LOTH
The pain is soon forgotten and there is no danger of death.
HELEN
Oh, but she is praying so to die. She wails and wails: Do let me die!… The doctor!
[She jumps up and slips into the conservatory.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[On entering.] I do really wish now that that little woman upstairs would hurry a bit! [He sits down beside the table, takes out his cigar case again, extracts a cigar from it and lays the latter down on the table.] You'll come over to my house afterward, won't you? I have a necessary evil with two horses standing out there in which we can drive straight over. [He taps his cigar against the edge of the table.] Oh, the holy state of matrimony! O Lord! [Striking a match.] So you're still pure, free, pious and merry?
LOTH
You might better have waited a few more days with that question.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[His cigar is lit now.] Oho! I see!—[laughing]—so you've caught on to my tricks at last!
LOTH
Are you still so frightfully pessimistic in regard to women?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
_Fright_fully! [Watching the drifting smoke of his cigar.] In other years I was a pessimist, so to speak, by presentiment….
LOTH
Have you had very special experiences in the meantime?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
That's just it. My shingle reads: Specialist for Diseases of Women.—The practice of medicine, I assure you, makes a man terribly wise … terribly … sane …; it's a specific against all kinds of delusions.
LOTH
[Laughing.] Well, then we can fall back into our old tone at once. I want you to know … I haven't caught on to your tricks at all. Less than ever now … But I am to understand, I suppose, that you've exchanged your old hobby?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Hobby?
LOTH
The question of woman was in those days in a certain way your pet subject.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I see! And why should I have exchanged it?
LOTH
If you think even worse of women than …
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[Somewhat aroused. He gets up and walks to and fro while he is speaking.] I don't think evil of women.—Not a bit!—I think evil only of marrying … of marriage … of marriage and—at most, of men … The woman question, you think, has ceased to interest me? What do you suppose I've worked here for, during six years, like a cart horse? Surely in order to devote at last all the power that is in me to the solution of that question. Didn't you know that from the beginning?
LOTH
How do you suppose I could have known it?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Well, as I said … and I've already gathered a lot of very significant material that will be of some service to me! Sh! I've got the bad habit of raising my voice. [He falls silent, listens, goes to the door and comes back.] But what took you among these gold farmers?
LOTH
I would like to study the local conditions.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[In a repressed tone.] What a notion! [Still more softly.] I can give you plenty of material there too.
LOTH
To be sure. You must be thoroughly informed as to the conditions here. How do things look among the families around here?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Miserable! There's nothing but drunkenness, gluttony, inbreeding and, in consequence,—degeneration along the whole line.
LOTH
With exceptions, surely?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Hardly.
LOTH
[Disquieted.] Didn't the temptation ever come to you to … to marry a daughter of one of these Witzdorf gold farmers?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The devil! Man, what do you take me for? You might as well ask whether I …
LOTH
[Very pale.] But why … why?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Because … Anything wrong with you?
[He regards LOTH steadily for several moments.
LOTH
Certainly not. What should be wrong?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[Has suddenly become very thoughtful. He stops in his walking suddenly and whistles softly, glances at LOTH and then mutters to himself.] That's bad!
LOTH
You act very strangely all of a sudden.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Sh!
[He listens carefully and then leaves, the room quickly by the middle door.
HELEN
[Comes at the end of several seconds from the middle door. She cries out.] Alfred!—Alfred!… You're here. Oh, thank God!
LOTH
Well, dear, did you suppose I had run away?
[They embrace each other.
HELEN
[Bends back. With unmistakable terror in her face.] Alfred!
LOTH
What is it, dearest?
HELEN
Nothing, nothing …
LOTH
But there must be something.
HELEN
You seemed so cold … Oh, I have such foolish fancies….
LOTH
How are things going upstairs?
HELEN
The doctor is quarreling with the midwife.
LOTH
Isn't it going to end soon?
HELEN
How do I know? But when it ends, when it ends—then….
LOTH
What then?… Tell me, please, what were you going to say?
HELEN
Then we ought soon to go away from here. At once! Oh, right away!
LOTH
If you think that would really be best, Nellie—
HELEN
It is! it is! We mustn't wait! It's the best thing—for you and for me. If you don't take me soon, you'll just leave me quite, and then, and then … It would just be all over with me.
LOTH
How distrustful you are, Nellie.
HELEN
Don't say that, dearest. Anybody would trust you, would just have to trust you!… When I am your own, oh, then … then, you surely wouldn't leave me. [As if beside herself.] I beseech you! Don't go away! Only don't leave me! Don't—go, Alfred! If you go away without me, I would just have to die, just have to die!
LOTH
But you are strange!… And you say you're not distrustful! Or perhaps they're worrying you, torturing you terribly here—more than ever … At all events we'll leave this very night. I am ready. And so, as soon as you are—we can go.
HELEN
[Falling around his neck with a cry of joyous gratitude.] Dear—dearest!
[She kisses him madly and hurries out.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG comes in through the middle door and catches a glimpse of HELEN disappearing into the conservatory.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Who was that?—Ah, yes! [To himself.] Poor thing!
[He sits down beside the table with a sigh, finds his old cigar, throws it aside, takes a new cigar from the case and starts to knock it gently against the edge of the table. Thoughtfully he looks away across it.
LOTH
[Watching him.] That's just the way you used to loosen every cigar before smoking it eight years ago.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
It's possible—[When he has lit and begun to smoke the cigar.] Listen to me!
LOTH
Yes; what is it?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I take it that, so soon as the affair is over, you'll come along with me.
LOTH
Can't be done. I'm sorry.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Once in a while, you know, one does feel like talking oneself out thoroughly.
LOTH
I feel that need quite as much, as you do. But you can see from just that how utterly out of my power it is to go …
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
But suppose I give you my emphatic and, in a way, solemn assurance that there is a specific, an extremely important matter that I'd like—no, that I must discuss with you to-night, Loth!
LOTH
Queer! You don't expect me to take that in deadly earnest. Surely not!—You've waited to discuss that matter so many years and now it can't wait one more day? You know me—I'm not pretending.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So I am right! Well, well …
[He gets up and walks about.
LOTH
What are you right about?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[_Standing still before LOTH and looking straight into his eyes.] So there is really something between you and Helen Krause?
LOTH
Who said—?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
How in the world did you fall in with this family?
LOTH
How do you know that, Schimmel?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
It wasn't so hard to guess.
LOTH
Well then, for heaven's sake, don't say a word, because …
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So you're quite regularly betrothed?
LOTH
Call it that. At all events, we're agreed.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
But what I want to know is: how did you fall in with this particular family?
LOTH
Hoffmann's an old college friend of mine. Then, too, he was a member—though only a corresponding one—of my colonisation society.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I heard about that business at Zuerich.—So he was associated with you. That explains the wretched half-and-half creature that he is.
LOTH
That describes him, no doubt.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
He isn't even that, really.—But, look here, Loth! Is that your honest intention? I mean this thing with the Krause girl.
LOTH
Of course it is! Can you doubt it? You don't think me such a scoundrel—?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Very well! Don't exert yourself! You've probably changed in all this long time. And why not? It needn't be entirely a disadvantage. A little bit of humour couldn't harm you. I don't see why one must look at all things in that damnably serious way.
LOTH
I take things more seriously than ever. [He gets up and walks up and down with SCHIMMELPFENNIG, always keeping slightly behind the latter.] You can't possibly know, and I can't possibly explain to you, what this thing means to me.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Hm!
LOTH
Man, you have no notion of the condition I'm in. One doesn't know it by simply longing for it. If one did, one would simply go mad with yearning.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Let the devil try to understand how you fellows come by this senseless yearning.
LOTH
You're not safe against an attack yourself yet.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I'd like to see that!
LOTH
You talk as a blind man would of colour.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I wouldn't give a farthing for that bit of intoxication. Ridiculous! And to build a life-long union on such a foundation. I'd rather trust a heap of shifting sand.
LOTH
Intoxication! Pshaw! To call it that is simply to show your utter blindness to it. Intoxication is fleeting. I've had such spells, I admit. This happens to be something different.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Hm!
LOTH
I'm perfectly sober all through it. Do you imagine that I surround my darling with a kind of a—well, how shall I put it—a kind of an aureole? Not In the least. She lias her faults; she isn't remarkably beautiful, at least—well, she's certainly not exactly homely either. Judging her quite objectively—of course it's entirely a matter of taste—I haven't seen such a sweet girl before in my life. So when you talk of mere intoxication—nonsense! I am as sober as possible. But, my friend, this is the remarkable thing: I simply can't imagine myself without her any longer. It seems to me like an amalgam, as when two metals are so intimately welded together that you can't say any longer, here's the one, there's the other. And it all seems so utterly inevitable. In short—maybe I'm talking rot—or what I say may seem rot to you, but so much is certain: a man who doesn't know that is a kind of cool-blooded fishy creature. That's the kind of creature I was up till now, and that's the kind of wretched thing you are still.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
That's a very complete set of symptoms. Queer how you fellows always slide up to the very ears into the particular things that you've long ago rejected theoretically—like yourself into marriage. As long as I've known you, you've struggled with this unhappy mania for marriage.
LOTH
It's instinct with me, sheer instinct. God knows, I can wriggle all I please—there it is.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
When all's said and done one can fight down even an instinct.
LOTH
Certainly, if there's a good reason, why not?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Is there any good reason for marrying?
LOTH
I should say there is. It has a purpose; it has for me! You don't know how I've succeeded in struggling along hitherto. I don't want to grow sentimental. Perhaps I didn't feel it quite so keenly either; perhaps I wasn't so clearly conscious of it as I am now, that in all my endeavour I had taken on something desolate, something machine-like. No spirit, no fire, no life! Heaven knows whether I had any faith left! And all that has come back to me to-day—with such strange fullness, such primal energy, such joy … Pshaw, what's the use … You don't understand.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The various things you fellows need to keep you going—faith, love, hope. I consider all that trash. The thing is simply this: humanity lies in its death throes and we're merely trying to make the agony as bearable as we can by administering narcotics.
LOTH
Is that your latest point of view?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
It's five or six years old by this time and I see no reason to change it.
LOTH
I congratulate you on it.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Thank you.
A long pause ensues.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[After several disquieted and unsuccessful beginnings.] The trouble is just this. I feel that I'm responsible … I absolutely owe you an elucidation. I don't believe that you will be able to marry Helen Krause.
LOTH
[Frigidly.] Oh, is that what you think?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Yes, that's my opinion. There are obstacles present which just you would …
LOTH
Look here! Don't for heaven's sake have any scruples on that account. The conditions, as a matter of fact, aren't so complicated as all that. At bottom they're really terribly simple.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Simply terrible, you'd better say.
LOTH
I was referring simply to the obstacles.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So was I, very largely. But take it all in all, I can't imagine that you really know the conditions as they are.
LOTH
Please, Schimmel, express yourself more clearly.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
You must absolutely have dropped the chief demand which you used to make in regard to marriage, although you did give me to understand that you laid as much weight as ever on the propagation of a race sound in mind and body.
LOTH
Dropped my demand…? Dropped it? But why should I?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I see. Then there's nothing else left me but to … Then you don't know the conditions here. You do not know, for instance, that Hoffmann had a son who perished through alcoholism at the age of three.
LOTH
Wha … what d'you say?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I'm sorry, Loth, but I've got to tell you. You can do afterward as you please. But the thing was no joke. They were visiting here just as they are now. They sent for me—half an hour too late. The little fellow had bled to death long before I arrived.
_LOTH drinks in the DOCTOR'S words with every evidence of profound and terrible emotion.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The silly little chap grabbed for the vinegar bottle, thinking his beloved rum was in it. The bottle fell and the child tumbled on the broken glass. Down here, you see, the vena saphena, was completely severed.
LOTH
Whose, whose child was that?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The child of Hoffmann and of the same woman who again, up there … And she drinks too, drinks to the point of unconsciousness, drinks whatever she can get hold of!
LOTH
So it's not, it's not inherited from Hoffmann?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Not at all. That's the tragic aspect of the man! He suffers under it as much as he is capable of suffering. To be sure, he knew that he was marrying into a family of dipsomaniacs. The old farmer simply spends his life in the tavern.
LOTH
Then, to be sure—I understand many things—No, everything, rather … everything! [After a heavy silence.] Then her life here, Helen's life, is a … how shall I express it? I have no words for it; it's …
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Utterly horrible. I can judge of that. And I understood from the beginning how you should cling to her. But, as I said …
LOTH
It's enough. I understand … But doesn't…? Couldn't one perhaps persuade Hoffmann to do something? She ought to be removed from all this foulness.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Hoffmann?
LOTH
Yes, Hoffmann.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
You don't know him. I don't believe that he has ruined her already, but he has ruined her reputation even now.
LOTH
[Flaring up.] If that's true, I'll murder…! D'you really believe that? Do you think Hoffmann capable…?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Of anything! I think him capable of anything that might contribute to his own pleasure.
LOTH
Then she is—the purest creature that ever breathed …
LOTH slowly takes up his hat and cane and hangs his mallet over his shoulder.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
What do you think of doing, Loth?
LOTH
… I mustn't meet her …
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So you're determined?
LOTH
Determined to what?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
To break the connection.
LOTH
How is it possible for me to be other than determined?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I may add, as a physician, that cases are known in which such inherited evils have been suppressed. And of course you would give your children a rational up-bringing.
LOTH
Such cases may be known.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
And the chances are not so small but that …
LOTH
That kind of thing can't help me, Schimmel. There are just three possibilities in this affair: Either I marry her and then … no, that way out simply doesn't exist. Or—the traditional bullet. Of course, that would mean rest, at least. But we haven't reached that point yet awhile; can't indulge in that luxury just yet. And so: live! fight!—Farther, farther! [His glance falls on the table and he observes the writing-materials that have been placed there by EDWARD. He sits down, hesitates and says:] And yet…?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I promise you that I'll represent the situation to her as clearly as possible.
LOTH
Yes, yes! You see—I can't do differently. [He writes, places his paper in an envelope and addresses it. Then he arises and shakes hands with SCHIMMELPFENNIG.] For the rest—I depend on you.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
You're coming over to my house, aren't, you? Let my coachman drive you right over.
LOTH
Look here! Oughtn't one to try, at least, to get her out of the power of this … this person? … As things are she is sure to become his victim.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
My dear, good fellow! I'm sorry for you. But shall I give you a bit of advice? Don't rob her of the—little that you still leave her.
LOTH
[With a deep sigh.] Maybe you're right—perhaps certainly.
Hasty steps are heard descending the stairs. In the next moment HOFFMANN rushes in.
HOFFMANN
Doctor, I beg you, for heaven's sake … she is fainting … the pains have stopped … won't you at last …
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I'm coming up. [To LOTH significantly.] We'll see each other later. Mr. Hoffmann, I must request you … any interference or disturbance might prove fatal … I would much prefer to have you stay here.
HOFFMANN
You ask a great deal, but … well!
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
No more than is right.
[He goes.
HOFFMANN remains behind.
HOFFMANN
[Observing LOTH.] I'm just trembling in every limb from the excitement. Tell me, are you leaving?
LOTH
Yes.
HOFFMANN
Now in the middle of the night?
LOTH
I'm only going as far as Schimmelpfennig's.
HOFFMANN
Ah, yes. Well … as things have shaped themselves, it's of course no pleasure staying with us any longer … So, good luck!
LOTH
I thank you for your hospitality.
HOFFMANN
And how about that plan of yours?
LOTH
What plan?
HOFFMANN
I mean that essay of yours, that economic description of our district. I ought to say … in fact, as a friend, I would beg of you as insistently as possible …
LOTH
Don't worry about that any more. I'll be far away from here by to-morrow.
HOFFMANN
That is really—
[He interrupts himself.
LOTH
Kind of you, you were going to say.
HOFFMANN
Oh, I don't know. Well, in a certain respect, yes! And anyhow you must forgive me; I'm so frightfully upset. Just count on me. Old friends are always the best! Good-bye, good-bye.
[He leaves through the middle door.
LOTH
[Before going to the door, turns around once more with a long glance as if to imprint the whole room on his memory. Then to himself:] I suppose I can go now …
[After a last glance he leaves.
The room remains empty for some seconds. The sound of muffled voices and the noise of footfalls is heard. Then HOFFMANN appears. As soon as he has closed the door behind him, he takes out his note-book and runs over some account with exaggerated calm. He interrupts himself, listens, becomes restless again, advances to the door and listens there. Suddenly some one runs down the stair and HELEN bursts in.
HELEN
[Still without.] Brother! [At the door.] Brother!
HOFFMANN
What's the matter?
HELEN
Be brave: still-born!
HOFFMANN
O my God!
[He rushes out.
HELEN alone.
She looks about her and calls softly: Alfred! Alfred! As she receives no answer, she calls out again more quickly: Alfred! Alfred! She has hurried to the door of the conservatory through which she gazes anxiously. She goes into the conservatory, but reappears shortly. Alfred! Her disquiet increases. She peers out of the window. Alfred! She opens the window and mounts a chair that stands before it. At this moment there resounds clearly from the yard the shouting of the drunken farmer, her father, who is coming home from the inn, Hay-hee! Ain' I a han'some feller? Ain' I got a fine-lookin' wife? Ain' I got a couple o' han'some gals? Hay-hee! HELEN utters a short cry and runs, like a hunted creature, toward the middle door. From there she discovers the letter which LOTH has left lying on thee table. She runs to it, tears it open, feverishly takes in the contents, of which she audibly utters separate words. "Insuperable!" … "Never again." … She lets the letter fall and sways. It's over! She steadies herself, holds her head with both hands and cries out in brief and piercing despair. It's over! She rushes out through the—middle door. The farmer's voice without, drawing nearer. Hay-hee! Ain' the farm mine? Ain' I got a han'some wife? Ain' I a han'some feller? HELEN, still seeking LOTH half-madly, comes from the conservatory and meets EDWARD, who has come to fetch something from HOFFMANN'S room. She addresses him: Edward! He answers: Yes, Miss Krause. She continues: I'd like to … like to … Dr. Loth … EDWARD answers: Dr. Loth drove away in Dr. Schimmelpfennig's carriage. He disappears into HOFFMANN'S room. True! HELEN cries out and holds herself erect with difficulty. In the next moment a desperate energy takes hold of her. She runs to the foreground and seizes the hunting knife with its belt which is fastened to the stag's antlers above the sofa. She hides the weapon and stays quietly in the dark foreground until EDWARD, coming from HOFFMANN'S room, has disappeared through the middle door. The farmer's voice resounds more clearly from moment to moment. Hay-hee! Ain' I a han'some feller? At this sound, as at a signal, HELEN starts and runs, in her turn, into HOFFMANN'S room. The main room is empty but one continues to hear the farmer's voice: Ain' I got the finest teeth? Ain' I got a fine farm? MIELE comes through the middle door and looks searchingly about. She calls: Miss Helen! Miss Helen! Meanwhile the farmer's voice: The money 'sh mi-ine! Without further hesitation MIELE has disappeared into HOFFMANN'S room, the door of which she leaves open. In the next moment she rushes out with every sign of insane terror. Screaming she spins around twice—thrice—screaming she flies through the middle door. Her uninterrupted screaming, softening as it recedes, is audible for several seconds. Last there is heard the opening and resonant slamming of the heavy house door, the tread of the farmer stumbling about in the hall, and his coarse, nasal, thick-tongued drunkard's voice echoes through the room: Hay-hee! Ain' I got a couple o' han'some gals?
