The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann, Volume I

by Gerhart Hauptmann

THE FOURTH ACT

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.

FIELITZ

[Who has been minding the clock while the others have been laughing.] Somebody's been pokin' around here again.

LANGHEINRICH

You c'n bet on that. I s'ppose that's what's happened. You'd better watch out more.

[Renewed laughter.

FIELITZ

All I say is: let me catch some one at it! An' I won't care what happens neither!

LANGHEINRICH

That's right! That's the way! Don't you care who it is, neither. I think it was Leontine.

MRS. FIELITZ

The girl ain't been near that there clock!

LANGHEINRICH

Oh, oh!

FIELITZ

Somethin's goin' to happen some day. I don't take no jokes o' that kind.

EDE

You gotta save that to put it in the shop.

LANGHEINRICH

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!

FIELITZ

Firebrands! Pack o' thieves! Laugh if you wants to! You can't never get the better o' me!

LANGHEINRICH

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!

MRS. FIELITZ

Can't you leave the man in peace!

FIELITZ

You just go in my room; there you c'n see letters an' contracts lyin' around—packages an' heaps o' them!

EDE

[Looks into the adjoining room.] I don't see nothin'.

LANGHEINRICH

Tear up the floorin': you'll find the docyments hidden there. People has got to have their business secrets!

FIELITZ

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

Come, Fielitz, let them be! Don't lose your temper. You know as
Langheinrich has got to have his joke! That's the way the man is made.

LANGHEINRICH

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

Are you goin' to put it up yourself?

LANGHEINRICH

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.

LEONTINE

You better let Schmarowski do that himself.

EDE

Schmarowski ain't afraid o' anything shaky.

LANGHEINRICH

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!

FIELITZ

I'd like to make a inquiry: who is it that built that there new house?

LANGHEINRICH

Well, who did?

FIELITZ

Me! An' not Schmarowski.

EDE

Well, that's certain! We all knows that, Mr. Fielitz.

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

Oh, Lord, Fielitz! Can't you let that be? Has you got to tell them old stories all over again?

FIELITZ

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!

MRS. FIELITZ

Schmarowski says there ain't goin' to be no speech makin'.

FIELITZ

You can't go an' tie up my tongue, an' Schmarowski can't do it neither!

[He withdraws into the adjoining little room.

LANGHEINRICH

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!

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

LANGHEINRICH

Schmarowski got a drubbin' yesterday.

EDE

Last night, yes, after the people's meetin'.

MRS. FIELITZ

Maybe he went an' gave it to 'em a bit too hot.

LANGHEINRICH

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

He oughtn't to be so hot, I think.

LANGHEINRICH

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!

MRS. FIELITZ

You got reason to be satisfied with him, I'm thinkin'. Look at the noise in your workshop with four journeymen …

LANGHEINRICH

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

I wonder if Rauchhaupt will be comin' in to-day?

LEONTINE

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!

MRS. FIELITZ

They says as he's been talkin' around a lot.

LEONTINE

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

It might ha' been Constable Schulze, too.

LEONTINE

Or that assistant teacher Lehnert—if you want to go on guessin'!

MRS. FIELITZ

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!

LEONTINE

[Who has been sewing at her machine for a moment.] Look, mama, I found this here!

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

LEONTINE

That thing was the Missis' spine supporter.

MRS. FIELITZ

She was a poor, wretched crittur: strappin' herself an' tyin' herself an' squeezin' herself, an' yet she couldn't get rid o' her hump.

LEONTINE

Well, why did she have to be so vain!

MRS. FIELITZ

Don't grudge her her rest. She's deserved it.

LEONTINE

They says that her ghost keeps rappin' up in the top attic where
Langheinrich sleeps.

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

LEONTINE

Why did she have to go an' marry Langheinrich?

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

LEONTINE

I must say, though, that if he's unfaithful to me that way….

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

FIELITZ

'Tain't possible you'll do that much! Don't go an' hurt yourself now.

MRS. FIELITZ

[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.

FIELITZ

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?

LEONTINE

It's likely. He's got a screw loose.

[Exit.

FIELITZ

You just wait!

MRS. FIELITZ

Langheinrich was just jokin'?

FIELITZ

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!

MRS. FIELITZ

Well, o' course. There ain't nobody doubts that.

FIELITZ

I just want you to wait two years an' see who it'll be that has made the most money: Schmarowski, Langheinrich or me!

MRS. FIELITZ

I don't see what grudge you got against Langheinrich? He went an' took us into his house….

FIELITZ

He did that 'cause he's got his reason an' 'cause he wants a high rent.

MRS. FIELITZ

You better be glad he is the way he is.

FIELITZ

On account o' that bit o' business with the fuse? You go right ahead an' let him trample on you.

MRS. FIELITZ

What was that there about a fuse?

FIELITZ

That business? What d'you s'ppose? Dr. Boxer talked about it too.

MRS. FIELITZ

I don't know nothin' about them affairs o' yours.

FIELITZ

Mother, I got a good conscience.

MRS. FIELITZ

You c'n go an' put it in a glass case.

FIELITZ

Mother, I ain't sayin' nothin' else right now …

MRS. FIELITZ

That's all foolishness!

FIELITZ

All right.

MRS. FIELITZ

Schmarowski was here. How's that now with, the mortgage?

FIELITZ

You mean that my mortgage is now the fourth?

MRS. FIELITZ

Anybody knows that a buildin' like that costs money.

FIELITZ

Schmarowski is sinkin' all his money in bricks an' mortar.

MRS. FIELITZ

Nonsense!

FIELITZ

It's a fac'! That thing has taken hold o' him like a sickness.

MRS. FIELITZ

Main thing is that you agrees. Don't you?

FIELITZ

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.

SCHMAROWSKI

Mornin', Mrs. Fielitz. How are you now? Did you get over that slight cold?

MRS. FIELITZ

Thank you kindly; I gets along. Take a seat.

SCHMAROWSKI

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.

FIELITZ

Mornin'. I'm here too, you know.

SCHMAROWSKI

Good mornin'. Didn't notice you at all. I have my head so full these days …

FIELITZ

Me too.

SCHMAROWSKI

Certainly. Don't doubt it! Have you anything to say to me? If so, go ahead, please!

FIELITZ

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.

SCHMAROWSKI

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

The man acts as if he didn't have his right mind no more.

SCHMAROWSKI

But you're gettin' along all right.

MRS. FIELITZ

Tolerable. Oh, yes. Only I can't hardly stand the hammerin' no more. I wish we was out o' this here house!

SCHMAROWSKI

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

SCHMAROWSKI

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!

MRS. FIELITZ

But Fielitz ain't willin'.

SCHMAROWSKI

Mr. Fielitz will have to be!

MRS. FIELITZ

He's still thinkin' about that corner shop o' his. Can't you keep a bit o' space for it?

SCHMAROWSKI

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…!

MRS. FIELITZ

I'll see to it. Don't bother.

SCHMAROWSKI

Very well. An' now there's something else. Have you heard anything from
Rauchhaupt again?

MRS. FIELITZ

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 …

SCHMAROWSKI

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

An' here I got two savin's bank books.

SCHMAROWSKI

Thank you. Just what I need. There are times when a man can't be sparin' o' money …

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

[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.

LEONTINE

Mama! Mama! He's downstairs again. That fool of a Rauchhaupt is down there.

MRS. FIELITZ

[Frightened.] Who?

LEONTINE

Rauchhaupt. He's comin' in right behind me.

[She places the bottles and glasses on the table.

MRS. FIELITZ

[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.

RAUCHHAUPT

Is I disturbing you, Mrs. Fielitz?

MRS. FIELITZ

No, you ain't disturbin' me.

RAUCHHAUPT

Is I disturbin' anybody else then?

MRS. FIELITZ

I don't know about that. It depends.

RAUCHHAUPT

[Enters. His appearance is not quite so neglected as formerly.] My congratulations. I'm comin' in to see if things is goin' right again.

MRS. FIELITZ

[With forced joviality.] You got a fine instinct for them things, Rauchhaupt.

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

What kind o' thing was that?

RAUCHHAUPT

About that time, you know! They says that he said somethin' to
Langheinrich that time an' Langheinrich said somethin' to him, too.

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

RAUCHHAUPT

The world don't stop movin'.

MRS. FIELITZ

No, it don't. That's so.

LEONTINE

Wouldn't you like for me to stay here now?

RAUCHHAUPT

Yon better be goin' an' buy some silk stockin's.

MRS. FIELITZ

What's the meanin' o' that?

RAUCHHAUPT

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.

LEONTINE

People like us don't hardly have enough to buy cotton, ones.

[Exit.

MRS. FIELITZ

I wonder what people will say about Adelaide in the end?

RAUCHHAUPT

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?

MRS. FIELITZ

You needn't come to me with your rot an' your gossip.

RAUCHHAUPT

Anyhow, what I was goin' to tell you is this: I'm on a new scent!

MRS. FIELITZ

What kind of a scent is that you're on?

RAUCHHAUPT

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!

MRS. FIELITZ

[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!

RAUCHHAUPT

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

I'd give the matter a rest if I was you. Nothin' ain't goin' to come out.

RAUCHHAUPT

How much you bet, Missis? I'll take you up.

MRS. FIELITZ

If nothin' didn't come out at first …

RAUCHHAUPT

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

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!

RAUCHHAUPT

Why don't you go an' sue me, Mrs. Fielitz?

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!

RAUCHHAUPT

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!

FIELITZ

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….

RAUCHHAUPT

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

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 …

RAUCHHAUPT

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

RAUCHHAUPT

Mrs. Fielitz, I'm a peaceable man, but that there … I'm peaceable,
Missis. I never liked bein' a constable, but …

MRS. FIELITZ

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?

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

That's another thing. Why does we care what people think?

RAUCHHAUPT

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

Is it reely true what people says about it?

RAUCHHAUPT

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

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.

DR. BOXER

You're having a very jolly time here, Mrs. Fielitz.

MRS. FIELITZ

Just to-day. It's an exception; that it is!

EDE

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.

LEONTINE

I can't bear to look at things like that even.

EDE

Let him fall! He won't fall nowhere but on his feet; he's just like a cat.

DR. BOXER

[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!

MRS. FIELITZ

You c'n leave the man be, Doctor. People has put him up to things.
Otherwise he's the best feller in the world.

DR. BOXER

Very well, then! And beyond that, Mrs. Fielitz, how do you feel?

MRS. FIELITZ

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!

DR. BOXER

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!

MRS. FIELITZ

Rauchhaupt—well, o' course. Why not?

RAUCHHAUPT

An' I won't go givin' nothin' away yet.

MRS. FIELITZ

And you, Doctor?

DR. BOXER

[Quickly.] Heaven forbid! Not I?

MRS. FIELITZ

An' why not? Do you bear him a grudge about anythin'?

DR. BOXER

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

An' give up such a good practice?

DR. BOXER

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.

MRS. FIELITZ

You ain't very practical, that's true.

DR. BOXER

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?

LEONTINE

Mother, look, look who the workin'men is raisin' up! The workin'men is raisin' him up!

MRS. FIELITZ

Who?

[She rises convulsively and stares out.

LEONTINE

Don't you see who it is?

RAUCHHAUPT

Schmarowski.

EDE

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.

DR. BOXER

Well, of course, Ede, naturally you will!

FIELITZ enters highly excited.

FIELITZ

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!

DR. BOXER

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?

MRS. FIELITZ

[Pants swiftly and convulsively, throws her hands high up as if in joy, and cries out half in rapture, half in terror:] Julius!

LEONTINE

Mama! Mama!

EDE

She's gone to sleep.

LEONTINE

[Appealing to the DOCTOR.] Mother is swingin' her arms around so!

DR. BOXER

Who? Where? Mrs. Fielitz?

LEONTINE

Look! Look!

EDE

[Laughing.] Is she tryin' to catch sparrows in the air?

DR. BOXER has turned from FIELITZ to MRS. FIELITZ.

DR. BOXER

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.

LEONTINE

What is it? Mother won't answer at all!

RAUCHHAUPT

I believe they're goin' to end by comin' over here!

DR. BOXER

What is it, Mrs. Fielitz? What are you trying to do? Why do you move your hands about in that way?

MRS. FIELITZ

[Reaching out strangely with both hands.] You reaches … you reaches … always this way …

DR. BOXER

After what?

MRS. FIELITZ

[As before.] You always reaches out after … somethin' …

[Her arms drop and she falls silent.

LEONTINE

[To DR. BOXER.] Is she sleepin'?

DR. BOXER

[Seriously.] Yes, she has fallen asleep. But keep all those people back now.

RAUCHHAUPT

The whole crowd is comin' over here.

DR. BOXER

[Emphatically.] Keep them back! Ede! Turn them back at once!

EDE runs out.

LEONTINE

Doctor, what's happened to mother?

DR. BOXER

Your mother has …

LEONTINE

What, what?

DR. BOXER

[Significantly.] Has fallen asleep.

LEONTINE'S

[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…?

DR. BOXER

[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.