A small watering place. Time, the present. Stage directions with reference to the actors.
A drawing room in a watering place; furnished as above.
Door in the middle, with a view out on the sea; side doors right and left; by the side door on the left the button of an electric bell; on the right of the door in the center a table, with a decanter of water and a glass. On the left of the door in the center a what-not; on the right a fireplace in front; on the right a round table and armchairs; on the left a sofa, a square table, a settee; on the table a small pedestal with a draped figure—pampers, books, armchairs. Only the items of furniture which are introduced into the action are referred to in the above plan. The rest of the scenery remains unaffected. It is summer, and the daytime.
SCENE I
[ADOLF sits on the settee on the left of the square table; his stick is propped up near him.]
Adolf. And it’s you I’ve got to thank for all this.
Gustav.[Walks up and down on the right, smoking a cigar.] Oh, nonsense.
Adolf. Indeed, I have. Why, the first day after my wife went away, I lay on my sofa like a cripple and gave myself up to my depression; it was as though she had taken my crutches, and I couldn’t move from the spot.
A few days went by, and I cheered up and began to pull myself together. The delirious nightmares which my brain had produced, went away. My head became cooler and cooler. A thought which I once had came to the surface again. My desire to work, my impulse to create, woke up. My eye got back again its capacity for sound, sharp observation. You came, old man.
Gustav. Yes, you were in pretty low water, old man, when I came across you, and you went about on crutches. Of course, that doesn’t prove that it was simply my presence that helped so much to your recovery; you needed quiet, and you wanted masculine companionship.