Major.
Have you had pity on me?... Or on your mother? or on--on.... Just look, look about you ... All that was made for you!... All that was waiting for you.... For two centuries we Drosses have struggled and scraped together and fought with death and devil merely for you.... The house of Drosse was resting on your two shoulders, my son.... And you have let it fall into the mire, and now you would like to be pitied!
Fritz.
Dear father, listen.... Since you have known it, I am quite calm.... What you say is all very true, but I cannot bear the responsibility alone. Listen; when I came to you that time, on account of Agnes, my whole heart was attached to her. So far as I was concerned, other men's wives could go to the devil.
Major.
Did I drive you, then, after other men's wives?
Fritz.
Yes, father, otherwise what does that mean: "Get some experience, ripen, do as your father and grandfather did"?... In the regiment, they still call you the wild Drosse, and tales are still told of your former love adventures.... They tell some such stories even of a late date.... For my part, I had not the least taste for such diversions. I used to see in every woman who did not belong to me, a sort of holy thing.... That may have been a green way of looking at it, but you would have allowed it; and with Agnes, I should have quietly----
Major.
Stop! Have pity! Stop!