If he would only go to sleep—that fellow!
[Leaning across the table, secretly to FREI.]
There in the Dell, you say?—And are you quite sure, Frei, that nothing will be punished any longer?
FREI.
Superstition, I tell you! If you do something, and they hang you, you may call me a rascal for the rest of your life. Look here! What formerly was called fidelity and honesty, that's a tale with which old grannies used to humbug us. And a fellow that keeps his word is a scoundrel; such a one I would not trust as far as the door. The common people are essentially honest, because they are the common people. You ought to hear those gentlemen over there talk; there was a professor among them; he ought to know.
LINDENSCHMIED (leads him aside).
But what about conscience? And about the hereafter?
FREI.
All superstition! Nothing else, let me tell you.