The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I Part 168

I'll see to it. Don't bother.

SCHMAROWSKI

Very well. An' now there's something else. Have you heard anything from Rauchhaupt again?

MRS. FIELITZ

Yes, I hears that he don't want to hold his tongue an' that he goes about holdin' us up to contempt. That's the same thing like with Wehrhahn. I never did nothin' but kindnesses to Rauchhaupt. An' now he comes here day in an' day out an' makes a body sick an' sore with his old stories that never was nowhere but in his head. Maybe ... my goodness ... a man like that ... he c'n go an' keep on an' on, till, in the end ... well, well ...

SCHMAROWSKI

Don't be afraid, Mrs. Fielitz. Things don't go no further now that the noise is quieted down.--By the way, I see that the carpenters are a.s.semblin'. I got to go over there an' rattle off my bit o' speech. It's just this: if Rauchhaupt should come in again, you just question him carefully a little. There's a new affair bein' started. Got a political side to it. Immense piece o' business. 'Course I got my finger in that pie, as I has in all the others now. We'd like to get Rauchhaupt's land ... He bought it for a song in the old days. If we c'n get it--the whole of it an' not parcelled--there'd be a cool million in it.

MRS. FIELITZ

An' here I got two savin's bank books.

SCHMAROWSKI

Thank you. Just what I need. There are times when a man can't be sparin'

o' money ...

MRS. FIELITZ

The girl is comin'. Hurry an' slip 'em into your pocket.

_SCHMAROWSKI hastily puts the bankbooks into his pocket, nods to MRS.

FIELITZ and withdraws rapidly._

MRS. FIELITZ

[_Half rising from her chair and looking anxiously out through the window._] If only they don't go' an' make trouble this day. There's a great crowd o' people standin' around.

_LEONTINE returns with the three bottles of wine and the gla.s.ses._

LEONTINE

Mama! Mama! He's downstairs again. That fool of a Rauchhaupt is down there.

MRS. FIELITZ

[_Frightened._] Who?

LEONTINE

Rauchhaupt. He's comin' in right behind me.

[_She places the bottles and gla.s.ses on the table._

MRS. FIELITZ

[_With sudden determination._] Let him! He c'n come up for all I cares.

I'll tell him the reel truth for onct.

[_RAUCHHAUPT puts his head in at the door._

RAUCHHAUPT

Is I disturbing you, Mrs. Fielitz?

MRS. FIELITZ

No, you ain't disturbin' me.

RAUCHHAUPT

Is I disturbin' anybody else then?

MRS. FIELITZ

I don't know about that. It depends.

RAUCHHAUPT

[_Enters. His appearance is not quite so neglected as formerly._] My congratulations. I'm comin' in to see if things is goin' right again.

MRS. FIELITZ

[_With forced joviality._] You got a fine instinct for them things, Rauchhaupt.

RAUCHHAUPT

[_Staring at her, emphatically._] That I has, certainly! That I has!--I just met Dr. Boxer, too. He's goin' to come up and see you in a minute, too. An' I axed him about a certain matter, too.

MRS. FIELITZ

What kind o' thing was that?

RAUCHHAUPT

About that time, you know! They says that he said somethin' to Langheinrich that time an' Langheinrich said somethin' to him, too.

MRS. FIELITZ

I ain't concerned with them affairs o' yours. Leontine! Go an' get a piece o' sausage so that they c'n have a bite o' food when they comes over afterwards.

RAUCHHAUPT

The world don't stop movin'.