The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I Part 127

A little girl. So I gotta go to the public registry an' make the announcement.

MRS. WOLFF

I thought you'd be out on the ca.n.a.l by this time.

WULKOW

An' I wouldn't mind it one little bit if I was! An' so I _would_ be, if it depended on me. Didn't I go an' starts out the very minute? But when I come to the locks there wasn't no gettin' farther. I waited an' waited for the Spree to open up. Two days an' nights I lay there till this thing with my wife came along. There wasn't no use howlin' then. I had to come back.

MRS. WOLFF

So your boat is down by the bridge again?

WULKOW

That's where it is. I ain't got no other place, has I?

MRS. WOLFF

Well, don't come to me, if ...

WULKOW

I hope they ain't caught on to nothin', at least.

MRS. WOLFF

Go to the shop an' get three cents' worth o' thread.

ADELAIDE

I'll go for that when we get home.

MRS. WOLFF

Do's I tell you an' don't answer back.

ADELAIDE

Aw, I ain't no baby no more.

[_Exit._

MRS. WOLFF

[_Eagerly._] An' so you lay there by the locks?

WULKOW

Two whole days, as I been tellin' you.

MRS. WOLFF

Well, you ain't much good for this kind o' thing. You're a fine feller to go an' put on that coat in bright daylight!

WULKOW

Put it on? Me?

MRS. WOLFF

Yes, you put it on, an' in bright daylight, so's the whole place c'n know straight off what a fine fur coat you got.

WULKOW

Aw, that was 'way out in the middle o' the--

MRS. WOLFF

It was a quarter of a hour from our house. My girl saw you sittin' there.

She had to go an' row Dr. Fleischer out an' he went an' had his suspicion that minute.

WULKOW

I don't know nothin' about that. That ain't none o' my business.

[_Some one is heard approaching._

MRS. WOLFF

s.h.!.+ You want to be on the lookout now, that's all.

GLASENAPP

[_Enters hurriedly with an attempt to imitate the manner of the justice.

He asks WULKOW condescendingly:_] What business have you?

WEHRHAHN

[_Still without._] What do you want, girl? You're looking for me? Come in, then. [_WEHRHAHN permits ADELAIDE to precede him and then enters._] I have very little time to-day. Ah, yes, aren't you Mrs. Wolff's little girl? Well, then, sit down. What have you there?

ADELAIDE

I got a package ...

WEHRHAHN

Wait a moment first ... [_To WULKOW._] What do you want?