The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I Part 122

Motes, you mean?

MRS. WOLFF

I ain't namin' no names. You must ha' had some kind o' trouble with that feller.

FLEISCHER

I don't even a.s.sociate with him any longer.

MRS. WOLFF

Well, you see, that's just what I've been think-in'.

FLEISCHER

n.o.body could possibly blame me for that, Mrs. Wolff.

MRS. WOLFF

An' I ain't blamin' you for it.

FLEISCHER

It would be a fine thing, wouldn't it--to a.s.sociate with a swindler, a notorious swindler.

MRS. WOLFF

That man is a swindler; you're right there.

FLEISCHER

Now he moved over to Dreier's. That poor woman will have a hard time getting her rent. And whatever she has, she'll get rid of it. Why, a fellow like that--he's a regular gaol-bird.

MRS. WOLFF

Sometimes, you know, he'll say things ...

FLEISCHER

Is that so? About me? Well, I _am_ curious.

MRS. WOLFF

I believe you was heard to say somethin' bad about some high person, or somethin' like that.

FLEISCHER

H-m. You don't know anything definite, I dare say?

MRS. WOLFF

He's mighty thick with Wehrhahn, that's certain. But I tell you what. You go over to old mother Dreier. That old witch is beginnin' to smell a rat.

First they was as nice as can be to her; now they're eatin' her outta house and home!

FLEISCHER

Oh, pshaw! The whole thing is nonsense.

MRS. WOLFF

You c'n go to the Dreier woman. That don't do no harm. She c'n tell you a story ... He wanted to get her into givin' false witness.... That shows the kind o' man you gotta deal with.

FLEISCHER

Of course, I might go there. It can do no harm. But, in the end, the whole matter is indifferent to me. It would be the deuce of a world, if a fellow like that.... You just let him come!--Here, Philip, Philip! Where are you? We've got to go.

ADELAIDE'S VOICE

Oh, we're lookin' at such pretty pictures.

FLEISCHER

What do you think of that other business, anyhow?

MRS. WOLFF

What business?

FLEISCHER

Haven't you heard anything yet?

MRS. WOLFF [_Restlessly._] Well, what was I sayin'?... [_Impatiently._]

Hurry, Julius, an' go, so's you c'n get back in time for dinner. [_To FLEISCHER._] We killed' a rabbit for dinner to-day. Ain't you ready yet, Julius?

JULIUS

Well, give me a chanst to find my cap.

MRS. WOLFF

I can't stand seein' anybody just foolin' round that way, as if it didn't make no difference about to-day or to-morrow, I like to see things move along.

FLEISCHER

Why, last night, at Krueger's, they ...

MRS. WOLFF