My husband is very easy-going. He has no ambition. They had bothered him dreadfully at their committee-meetings about things he didn't understand--at least he said he didn't. The truth is, it probably bored him.
Brachtmann.
But how about his fanatical devotion to the party? If we are all monomaniacs on that subject, he is certainly the worst. He felt more keenly than any of us what the party lost in losing your brother (to Baron Ludwig)--he realised our need of Völkerlingk's efficiency and energy. He saw what a great power was lying idle. Doesn't that explain his action?
Baron Ludwig.
I needn't tell you, Herr von Brachtmann, how pleasant it is to hear my brother praised. I quite realise how much you need him at this particular moment with the debate on the civil code pending, and the serious questions likely to come up in connection with it. (To Beata.) But that Kellinghausen should have consented to withdraw, even in such an emergency-- I have so often heard him say, Countess, that it was the duty of a landed proprietor to represent the district in which his property lay. He said it was the only justification of a representative government.
Beata.
But you know you, all say that!
Prince.
My dear Countess, the revolutionary spirit has entered into our traditions, and the modern idea of making a revolution is to gird at existing institutions. Why deprive us of such an innocent amusement?
Baron Ludwig.