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.