The tap room in WERMELSKIRCH'S public house. A flat, whitewashed room with a door leading to the inner rooms of the house on the left. The rear wall of this room is broken, toward its middle. The opening leads to a second, smaller, oblong room. On the right wall of this second room there is a glass door leading out into the open and, farther forward, a window. On the rear wall of the main room the bar is situated, filled with square whisky-bottles, glasses, etc. The beer is also on draught there. Highly varnished tables and chairs of cherry wood are scattered about the room. A red curtain divides the two rooms. In the oblong rear room are also chairs and tables and, in the extreme background, a billiard table. Lithographs, representing mainly hunting scenes, are hung on the walls.

WERMELSKIRCH, in a dressing gown and smoking a long pipe, sits on the left, himself playing the piano. Three members of the voluntary fire-corps play billiards. In the foreground to the right HAUFFE sits brooding over a glass of whisky. He is noticeably shabby. MRS. WERMELSKIRCH, a gipsy-like, slovenly old woman, is rinsing glasses behind the bar. FRANZISKA is crouching on a window ledge at the right playing with a kitten. The waiter GEORGE is standing at the bar over a glass of beer. He has an elegant spring suit on, as well as patent-leather shoes, kid-gloves and a top-hat set far back on his head.

WERMELSKIRCH

[Plays and sings.]

"When I was prince in realms Arcadian,
I lived in splendour and in wealth."

GEORGE

[Who has accompanied the music by dancing gestures.] Go on, go on with, that!

WERMELSKIRCH

[Coughing affectedly.] Can't be done! Quite hoarse! Anyhow … pshaw!… I'll try again.

"When I was prince …." [He coughs.]

"When I was prince in realms Arcadian,
I lived in splen … I lived in splen … "!

The devil take it!

GEORGE

Aw, why don't you go on? That was quite right! That was fine!

WERMELSKIRCH

I see myself trying! It's all over with me!

GEORGE

I don't understand you! That's the finest kind o' chamber music!

WERMELSKIRCH

[Laughing.] Chamber music!

GEORGE

Well, maybe not! I don't know the differences so well. Hallo, Miss
Franziska, what are you laughin' at?

FRANZISKA

I'm laughing at your beautiful patent-leather boots.

GEORGE

Go right ahead! You don't expect me to go barefoot. Give that man over there a glass of beer. How would you like a bit o' cordial, Miss Franziska? You're right, my boots is pretty fine ones. They cost me twenty crowns. Why not? I c'n stand the expense; I'm able to do it! In the "Sword" hotel a man c'n at least earn somethin'. To be sure, while I was at the "Star" I couldn't ha' bought no boots like this.

WERMELSKIRCH

So you like it better at the "Sword"?

GEORGE

I should say so! A boss like I got now, a reel good fellow—I never had before long's I've been in the business. We're like old friends—like brothers. I could say most anythin' to him!

WERMELSKIRCH

Well, that's very different from Siebenhaar.

FRANZISKA laughs out.

GEORGE

An' that just shows you: Pride goeth before a fall. Two or three weeks an' he'll be under the hammer. Then I c'n buy myself his gold watch.

WERMELSKIRCH

You'd better buy the whole house!

GEORGE

Not just now. You got to wait for the proper time to do a thing like that. An' anyhow, it's sold. Your health, gentlemen!… Your health, gentlemen! When you're through, I'll order more! What's the name o' the man that bought the house? Exner? Eh? He's goin' to bottle the spring water an' export it. He's goin' to rent out the hotel.—I'd rent it this minute if I had the money.

HAUFFE

Why don't you go to Henschel? He'll give it to you.

GEORGE

That wouldn't be as much out o' the question as you thinks.

HAUFFE

No, that a fac'! You're on pretty good terms with the wife!

[FRANZISKA laughs aloud.]

GEORGE

Well, why shouldn't I be. That there woman's not half bad. I tell you, a fellow that knows how, c'n make the women feed out o' his hand!

HAUFFE

Well, if you know enough to make Mrs. Henschel feed out o' your hand, you must know your business pretty well. I'll say that for you.

FABIG enters, the cord of his pack around his shoulders. He sits down modestly in a corner.

GEORGE

Well, there you are; that's what I'm tellin' you! There's pretty few that could come up to me that way. But a man has to be on the lookout, or he'd get a good beatin' an' that's all!

WERMELSKIRCH

Well, you're not through with it yet yourself. [SIEBENHAAR enters from the left.] Where Henschel strikes down the grass stops growing. Your servant, Mr. Siebenhaar!

SIEBENHAAR

[Somewhat pale.] Good morning!

GEORGE

I think I'll play a game o' billiards.

[He takes up his glass and disappears behind the curtain in the rear.

SIEBENHAAR

[Sitting down at a table near the piano.] Weren't you just singing, Mr. Wermelskirch? Don't let me interrupt you, please.

WERMELSKIRCH

What? I? Singing? That's hardly possible! You know how deeply this business affects me. But if you say so it must be true. Permit me to sit down by you. Bring me a glass of beer, too, Franziska!

SIEBENHAAR

When one considers that you were completely hoarse three or four years ago, you must admit that you've recuperated remarkably.

WERMELSKIRCH

You're quite right. But what good does it do me? I've half way crawled out of the slough. But who knows what'll happen now?

FRANZISKA

[Places a glass of beer before SIEBENHAAR; to WERMELSKIRCH:] I'll bring yours at once.

SIEBENHAAR

[Having drunk.] What do you mean by that, exactly?

WERMELSKIRCH

I don't know that I can tell you very exactly what I do mean. But I feel something in my bones. I believe there'll be a change in the weather. Jesting aside—I have all kinds of omens that are familiar to an old actor. When the waters here began to do me so much good, I knew certainly that ten horses couldn't drag me away. And it wasn't a month before my road company had gone to smash. Now I suppose I'll have to wander on in the same old way again—who knows whither?

SIEBENHAAR

Who knows whither? That's the way of the world. As for me—I'm not sorry!

WERMELSKIRCH

Ah, but you're a man in the prime of life. The world has a place for a man like you everywhere. It's different with an old fellow like me. If I lose my means of making a living, I mean, if I'm given notice, what is there left me, I'd like to know? I might actually get me a hurdy-gurdy and Franziska could go about and collect the pennies.

FRANZISKA

That wouldn't embarrass me a bit, papa!

WERMELSKIRCH

Not if it were to rain gold pieces!

FRANZISKA

And, anyhow, papa, how you always talk! You could go back on the stage!

WERMELSKIRCH

Not even at a monkey-show, girlie!

SIEBENHAAR

Did Mr. Exner intimate anything to you? According to what he told me he meant to leave everything pretty much as it is.

WERMELSKIRCH

Well, I hardly belong to what could be summed up as "everything."

MRS. WERMELSKIRCH

[Approaching the table in great excitement.] I must say, Mr. Siebenhaar, I must say … And you can take my word for it! I'm an old woman of fifty and I've seen a good deal of the world, but the way we've been treated here—that's really—I don't know what to call it—but it's just vulgar malice, the lowest kind of scheming, pure meanness. You can take my word for that!

WERMELSKIRCH

Oh, mother, are you starting in too? You'd better withdraw, if you don't mind, and retire behind your barricade!

MRS. WERMELSKIRCH

I'd like to know what our little Fanny did to that woman!

FRANZISKA

Oh, never mind, mama!

MRS. WERMELSKIRCH

On the contrary! Are we to put up with everything? Isn't one to offer any resistance if that woman robs us of our very bread—if she spreads slander about our daughter? [To SIEBENHAAR.] Did the child ever offend you in any way?

WERMELSKIRCH

Mama, mama! Come along now, mama, and rest a while. So! You spoke your part very well indeed. You can repeat it to-night.

[He leads her behind the bar where her sobbing is heard for some time after.

WERMELSKIRCH

[Having resumed his seat.] She's quite right at bottom. I've heard all kinds of rumours too, to the effect that Henschel will rent the barroom. And, of course, his wife is behind that!

HAUFFE

An' who else'd be back of it I'd like to know? If there's anythin' low happenin' in the village nowadays, you don't has to go an ax who's back of it! That Henschel woman's got the devil in her!

FABIG

An' she's had her eye on the barroom this long time.

SIEBENHAAR

[To HAUFFE.] One hardly ever sees you any longer, Hauffe? Where did you land?

HAUFFE

Where d'you suppose? In misery an' hunger' An' who gave me the shove? That damned crittur of a woman! Who else'd do it, I'd like to know! I never had no trouble with Henschel!

FABIG

His wife has the breeches on—that's all!

HAUFFE

I wasn't quick enough for her no more. I'm not as young as I was—that's a fac'! An' I don't go hangin' aroun' no woman's apron strings neither. An' that there is what she wants. That's what you got to do with her! She's a hot one—you might say—she don't never get enough.—But as for workin': I c'n work! Them young fellers that she hires—they're that stinkin' lazy…. I could do as much as any three of 'em.

SIEBENHAAR

One feels sorry for old Henschel.

HAUFFE

If he's satisfied, I don't care. But he ought to know why my bones is stiff! They didn't get stiff with lazyin' aroun', an' if that man has a chest full o' money to-day, he knows who it is that helped him earn a good lot of it!

SIEBENHAAR

I recall very well that you even worked for Wilhelm Henschel's father.

HAUFFE

Well, who else but me! That's the way it is! An' I fed Wilhelm's horses eighteen years an' more—hitched 'em up an' unhitched 'em—went on trips summer an' winter. I drove 's far's Freiburg an' 's far's Breslau: I had to drive 'way to Bromberg. Many a night I had to sleep in the waggon. I got my ears an' my hands frost bitten: I got chilblains on both feet big as pears. An' now he puts me out! Now I c'n go!

FABIG

That's all the woman's doin's: he's a good man.

HAUFFE

Why did he go an' load hisself with that wench! Now he can look out for hisself! An' he couldn't hardly wait to do it decent. His first wife—she wasn't hardly cold when he ran to get married to this one!

SIEBENHAAR

Well, no one knew her, of course.

FABIG

I knew her well enough. O Lord—that I did! If he'd ha' axed me, I could ha' told him! If he wanted to send Gustel after her mother, there wasn't no surer way for him to take: all he had to do was to make Hanne the child's step-mother.

HAUFFE

Ah yes, yes … well, well … I'm not sayin' nothin' more. There's many a one has shaken his head about that! But that'll be comin' home to him some day. First people just wondered; now they'd believe anythin' of him.

SIEBENHAAR

That's undoubtedly mere idle talk.

The horse dealer WALTHER enters in riding boots, hunting jacket and cap. His whip is in his hand. He sits down at one of the tables and beckons FRANZISKA to bring him beer.

HAUFFE

You c'n say that. Maybe it's true. But if the dead was to come back an' was to say their say—'tis old Mrs. Henschel that could tell you a thing or two. She couldn't live an' she didn't want to live! An' what's the main thing—she wasn't to live!

SIEBENHAAR

Hauffe, you'd better take care! If Henschel were to get wind of that …

HAUFFE

I wouldn't have to take care if he did! I'd say that to anyone's face.
Old Mrs. Henschel—she was meant to die! If they pisened her, I couldn't
say; I wasn't on the spot. But that thing didn't happen no natural way.
She was a well woman; she might ha' lived thirty years.

SIEBENHAAR drinks and rises.

WALTHER

I c'n bear witness that she was well. She was my own sister an' I ought to know. She was in the way an' had to go.

SIEBENHAAR leaves quietly.

WERMELSKIRCH

Would you like a little snuff, gentlemen? [Softly and confidentially.] And don't you think, gentlemen, that you're going a little far? It seems so to me. I wish you would watch the man. He sat here till quite late yesterday. The man sighed so pitifully—there was no one else here—that I really felt very sorry for him.

HAUFFE

'Tis his bad conscience that's botherin' him!

WALTHER

Don't talk to me about Henschel! I'm sick o' hearin' about him. He an' me—we're through with each other this long time.

WERMELSKIRCH

No, no, Mr. Siebenhaar is right. One ought to feel sorry for him.

WALTHER

He c'n think about it what he pleases. I don't care. But what I ought to think about Henschel—there's nobody that need tell me nothin' about that!

HENSCHEL and the smith HILDEBRANT enter at the right. HENSCHEL is carrying little BERTHA, more neatly dressed than formerly, on his arm. A little pause of embarrassment falls upon the men.

WERMELSKIRCH

Welcome, Mr. Henschel.

HENSCHEL

Good mornin', all of ye.

FRANZISKA

Well, Berthel, how are you?

HENSCHEL

Say thank you! Well, can't you talk?—We gets along. A body has to be satisfied. Good mornin', brother. [He stretches out his hand carelessly to WALTHER who takes it in the same fashion.] How are you? How's everythin'?

WALTHER

I gets along as usual. 'Twouldn't be bad if it was better! You're a reg'lar nurse girl nowadays!

HENSCHEL

True, true! 'Tis almost that!

WALTHER

You're hardly ever seen without the girl. Can't you leave her with her mother?

HENSCHEL

She's always scourin' an' workin'. The little thing is just in her way! [He sits down on a bench along the wall near the bar, not far from his brother-in-law. He keeps the little girl on his lap. HILDEBRANT sits down opposite him.] How is it, Hildebrant, what shall we have? I think we've earned a bumper o' beer? Two of 'em, then, an two glasses o' brandy.

HILDEBRANT

That son of a—actually broke my skin!

HENSCHEL

Nothin' but a foal neither an' has the strength o'—… Good mornin',
Hauffe.

HAUFFE

Mornin'.

HENSCHEL

He's a bit surly. Let's not bother him.

FABIG

Mr. Henschel, won't you buy something o' me? A needle box for the wife, maybe, or a pretty little comb to stick in the hair! [All laugh.] George, the waiter, he bought one too.

HENSCHEL

[Laughing good-naturedly with the others.] Don't you come botherin' me with your trash! [To WERMELSKIRCH.] Give him a measure o' beer!—'Tis a quaint little chap he is. Who is it?

HILDEBRANT

'Tis Fabig from Quolsdorf, I think—the most mischievous little scamp in the county.

HENSCHEL

Well, I got a little native from Quolsdorf here too.

FABIG

[To BERTHA.] We're good old friends, eh?

BERTHA

[To FABIG.] Why don't you dive me some nuts?

FABIG

Aha, she knows who I is! I'll look an' see if I c'n find some!

BERTHA

Outside in the waggon!

FABIG

No, they're here in my pocket! [He gives them to the child.] You see, you don't get out o' the pubs. Long ago your grandfather took you along; now you got to go about with Henschel.

HENSCHEL

[To BERTHA.] Tell him to attend to his bit o' trash! Tell him you're bein' looked out for! Tell him that!

GEORGE comes vivaciously out of the billiard room.

GEORGE

[Without noticing HENSCHEL.] Well,—I never saw the likes o' that! That there feller c'n eat glass like anythin'. Put it down on the reckoning, Miss Franziska: a lot o' beer! There's five o' us!

FRANZISKA

[Has taken BERTHA on her arm. She goes with the child behind the bar.] Bertha won't permit it; I can't do it now!

GEORGE

Good heavens, Mr. Henschel, there you are too!

HENSCHEL

[Without noticing GEORGE, to HILDEBRANT.] Your health, Hildebrant!

[They clink their glasses and drink.

FABIG

[To GEORGE who, a little taken aback, lights his cigar at one of the tables.] Tell me this, mister George, you're a kind of a wizard, eh?

GEORGE

Well, I do declare! What makes you think so?

FABIG

'Cause a while ago, you was gone like a light that's blown out.

GEORGE

Well, what's the use o' huntin' for disagreeable things. Siebenhaar an' me—we can't agree, that's all.

FABIG

[With the gesture of boxing another's ears.] People do say that somethin' happened.—[Passing by, to HAUFFE.] Did you win in the lottery? eh?

HAUFFE

You damned vermin!

FABIG

Yes, that's just what I am.

HENSCHEL

Is it true that you're working down at Nentwich's now?

HAUFFE

What business is it o' yours?

HENSCHEL

[Laughing and quite even-tempered.] Now look at that feller. He pricks like a weasel wherever you touches him.

WALTHER

I s'pose you'll be our host here pretty soon now?

HENSCHEL

[After he has glanced at him in astonishment.] That's the first ever I've heard of it!

WALTHER

Oh, I thought! I don't know exackly who 'twas that told me.

HENSCHEL

[Drinking: indifferently.] Whoever told you that must ha' been dreamin'!

[Pause.]

HILDEBRANT

In this here house everythin' is bein' turned upside down now. An' what I says is this: You'll be all sighin' to have Siebenhaar back some day.

HENSCHEL

[To HAUFFE.] You might go over to Landeshut. I got two coach horses standin' there. You might ride them in for me.

HAUFFE

The hell I will—that's what I'll do for you.

HENSCHEL

[Laughing and calmly.] Well, now you c'n sit there till you gets blue in the face. I won't concern myself that much about you!

HAUFFE

You c'n keep busy sweepin' before your own door.

HENSCHEL

'Tis well, 'tis well. We'll let that there be.

HAUFFE

You got filth enough in your own house!

HENSCHEL

Hauffe, I tell you right now: I wouldn't like to do it. But if you're goin' to start trouble here—I tell you that—I'll kick you out!

WERMELSKIRCH

Peace, gentlemen! I beg of you: peace!

HAUFFE

You're not the host here an' you can't kick nobody out! You has no more right to say anythin' here than me! I don't let you nor nobody tell me to hold my tongue. No, not you an' not your wife, no matter how you scheme, you two! That don't scare me an' don't bother me that much!

Without any show of anger, HENSCHEL grasps HAUFFE by the chest and pushes him, struggling in vain, toward the door. Just before reaching it he turns slightly, opens the door, puts HAUFFE out, and closes it again. During this scene the following colloquy takes place:

HAUFFE

Let go, I tell you! I just warn you: let go!

WERMELSKIRCH

Mr. Henschel, that won't do; I can't permit that!

HENSCHEL

I gave you fair warnin'! There's no help for you now.

HAUFFE

Are you goin' to choke me? Let go, I tell you! You're not the host here!

MRS. WERMELSKIRCH

[From behind the bar.] What's the meaning of this? That will never do, Ludwig! You can't permit yourself to be treated that way!

FABIG

[While HENSCHEL, holding HAUFFE, is rapidly approaching the door.] You might as well let it be. There's nothin' to be done. That there man—he's like an athlete. He'll bite his teeth into the edge of a table, and he'll lift the table up for you so steady, you won't notice a glass on it shakin'. If he went an' took the notion, I tell you, we'd all be flyin' out into the street different ways!

HAUFFE has been put out, HENSCHEL returns.

HENSCHEL

[Resuming his seat amid a general silence.] He wouldn't give no rest—he's that stubborn.

FIRST FIREMAN

[Who has come in out of the billiard room and drunk a glass of whisky at the bar.] I'd like to pay. A man had better go. In the end anybody might be flyin' out o' here, you know.

WERMELSKIRCH

Yon take another glass of beer. That would be the last straw. After all,
I am still master here.

WALTHER

If that's the way you're goin' to do, Henschel, when you stands behind the bar and runs this here place instead o' Wermelskirch—you won't keep many customers, I c'n tell you that!

HENSCHEL

Customers like that don't matter.

WALTHER

You won't be able to pick 'em out, though. Hauffe don't pay with counterfeit money neither.

HENSCHEL

He c'n pay anyway he wants to, for all I care. But I tell you again now: Don't start that there business over again. I won't be takin' this place at all. If I was goin' to take it, I ought to know better than anybody else. Well, then: if I'm ready to buy a pub some day—I'll let you know! Afterward you c'n give me your advice. An' if you don't like the place an' don't patronise it—well, then, Lord A'mighty, you don't has to!

The FIREMAN goes out slamming the door angrily behind him.

WALTHER

I s'pose it's just as well to go….

[He prepares to pay his score.

WERMELSKIRCH

Mr. Henschel, surely that isn't right of you. You drive my customers out.

HENSCHEL

Well, my goodness! Now tell me: If that man runs out, what has I to do with it? For my part he can stay here till mornin'.

WALTHER

[Pocketing his money again.] You got no right to put anybody out o' here. You're not the host.

HENSCHEL

Anythin' else you know?

WALTHER

People knows a good deal. Only they rather keep still. Wermelskirch knows that best of all!

WERMELSKIRCH

Why I exactly? Now, look here, that's …

HENSCHEL

[Firmly and collectedly.] What is't you know? Out with it! One o' you knows one thing an' another another, an' altogether you don't know that much!

[Pause.]

WALTHER

[In a changed tone.] If you were only the same man you used to be! But God only knows what's gotten into you! In those days you had a standin' among men. People came from far an' wide to get your advice. An' what you said, that was—you might say—almost like the law o' the land. 'Twas like Amen in church. An' now there's no gettin' along with you!

HENSCHEL

Go right ahead with your preachin'.

WALTHER

Very well, I s'pose you're noticin' it all yourself. Formerly, you had nothin' but friends. Nowadays nobody comes to you no more; an' even if they did want to come they stay away on account o' your wife. Twenty years Hauffe served you faithful. Then, suddenly, he don't suit your wife, an' you take him by the scruff an' put him out. What's the meanin' o' that! That woman has but to look at you an' you're jumpin' at her beck, instead o' goin' an' takin' a stout rope an' knockin' the wickedness out o' her!

HENSCHEL

If you don't keep still this minute—I'll take you by the scruff too.

GEORGE

[To HENSCHEL.] Don't forget yourself, whatever you do, Mr. Henschel! That man don't know no better, you see.

[Exit rapidly into the billiard room.

WALTHER

I believe, Henschel, if a man comes nowadays an' tells you the truth, you're capable o' flingin' him against the wall. But a feller like that, a worthless windbag like George—he c'n lie to you day an' night. Your wife an' he—they c'n compete with each other makin' a fool o' you! If you want to be cheated—all right! But if you got a pair o' eyes left in your head, open 'em once an' look around you an' look at that there feller good an' hard. Them two deceive you in broad daylight!

HENSCHEL

[About to hurl himself upon WALTHER, masters his rage.] What did you say—eh? Nothin'! Aw, it's all right.

[Pause.]

FABIG

It's reg'lar April weather this day. Now the sun shines an' now it blows again.

HAUFFE'S VOICE

[From without.] I'll pay you back for this! You watch out! You c'n let it be now! We'll meet again: we'll meet at court—that's where.

WALTHER

[Finishes his glass.] Good-bye. I'm meanin' well by you, Henschel.

HENSCHEL

[Lays his hand about WALTHER'S wrist.] You stay here! Y' understan'?

WALTHER

What is I to do here?

HENSCHEL

You'll see for yourself. All I says is: You stay! [To FRANZISKA.] Go down an' tell my wife she's to come up!

FRANZISKA goes.

WERMELSKIRCH

But, dear Mr. Henschel, I beg you, for heaven's sake, don't cause a scandal here! The police will be coming at me next, and then …

HENSCHEL

[In an outburst of towering, withering rage—bluish-red of face.] I'll beat you all to death if Hanne don't come here—now!!!

WALTHER

[In helpless perplexity.] Wilhelm, Wilhelm, don' go an' commit some foolishness now! I wish I hadn't said nothin'. An' it didn't mean nothin'. You know yourself how people will talk!

HILDEBRANT

Wilhelm, you're a good man. Come to your senses! My God, how you look!
Think, man, think! Why, you fairly roared! What's the matter with you?
That must ha' been heard all over the house!

HENSCHEL

Anybody c'n hear me now that wants to. But you stay here an' Hanne is to come here.

WALTHER

Why should I be stayin' here? I don't know what for! Your affairs—they don't concern me a bit. I don't mingle in 'em an' I don't want to!

HENSCHEL

Then you should ha' thought before you spoke!

WALTHER

Everythin' else that's between us'll be settled in court. There we'll see who's in the right. I'll get hold o' my money; never fear! Maybe you're wife'll think it over once or twice before she goes an' perjures herself. The rest don't concern me. I tell you to let me go. I has no time. I has to go to Hartau, an' I can't be kept waitin' here.

SIEBENHAAR re-enters.

SIEBENHAAR

What's happened here?

WERMELSKIRCH

Goodness, gracious, I don't know! I don't know what Mr. Henschel wants!

HENSCHEL

[Who continues to imprison WALTHER'S wrist.] Hanne is to come here: that's all.

MRS. WERMELSKIRCH

[To SIEBENHAAR.] The men were drinking their beer quite peacefully. Suddenly Mr. Henschel came in and began a dispute as though he were master here.

SIEBENHAAR

[With a deprecating gesture.] All right; all right. [To HENSCHEL.] What's happened to you, Henschel?

HENSCHEL

Mr. Siebenhaar, it's no fault o' mine. I couldn't help things comin' about this way. You may think what you please, Mr. Siebenhaar. I give you my word—'twasn't my fault.

SIEBENHAAR

You needn't excuse yourself to me, Henschel. I know you're a man of peace.

HENSCHEL

Yes. I was in your father's service long ago, an' even if it looks that way a thousand times over—it wasn't my fault that this here has happened. I don't know myself what I has done. I never was quarrelsome—that's certain! But now things has come about …! They scratch an' they bite at me—all of 'em! An' now this man here has said things o' my wife that he's got to prove—prove!!—or God help him!

SIEBENHAAR

Why don't you let the people gossip?

HENSCHEL

Proofs! Proofs! Or God help him!

WALTHER

I can prove it an' I will. There are not many people in this room that don't know it as well as I. That there woman is on an evil way. 'Tis no fault o' mine, an' I wouldn't ha' mentioned it. But I'm not goin' to let you strike me. I'm no liar. I always speaks the truth! Ask it of anybody! Ask Mr. Siebenhaar here on his honour an' conscience! The sparrows is twitterin' it on every roof—an' worse things 'n that!

SIEBENHAAR

Think over what you're saying carefully, Walther.

WALTHER

He forces me to it! Why don't he let me go? Why is I to suffer for other people? You know it all as well as I? How did you used to stand with Henschel in other years when his first wife was alive? D'you think people don't know that? An' now you don't cross his threshold.

SIEBENHAAR

The relations between us are our private affair. And I will not permit remark or interference.

WALTHER

All right. But if first his wife dies, though she's as well as anybody, an' when Gustel goes an' dies eight weeks later, then, I'm thinkin' it's more'n a private affair!

HENSCHEL

What?—Hanne is to come!

MRS. HENSCHEL enters suddenly and quickly, just as she has come from her work and still drying her hands.

MRS. HENSCHEL

What're you roarin' about so?

HENSCHEL

'Tis well that you're here.—This man here says—

MRS. HENSCHEL

[Makes a movement as if to go.] Damned rot that it …

HENSCHEL

You're to stay here!

MRS. HENSCHEL

Are you all drunk together? What're you thinkin' of, anyhow? D'you think
I'm goin' to stay here an' play monkey tricks for you?

[She is about to go.

HENSCHEL

Hanne, I advise you … This man here says …

MRS. HENSCHEL

Aw, he c'n say what he wants to, for all I cares!

HENSCHEL

He says that you deceive me before my face an' behind my back!

MRS. HENSCHEL

What? What? What? What?

HENSCHEL

That's what he says! Is he goin' to dare to say that? An' that … my wife …

MRS. HENSCHEL

Me? Lies! Damned lies!

[She throws her apron over her face and rushes out.

HENSCHEL

That I … that my wife … that we together … that our Gustel … 'Tis well! 'Tis well!

[He releases WALTHER'S hand and lets his head sink, moaning, on the table.

WALTHER

I won't be made out a liar here.

THE CURTAIN FALLS.