The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume Ii Part 33

HILDEBRANT

In this here house everythin' is bein' turned upside down now. An' what I says is this: You'll be all sighin' to have Siebenhaar back some day.

HENSCHEL

[_To HAUFFE._] You might go over to Landeshut. I got two coach horses standin' there. You might ride them in for me.

HAUFFE

The h.e.l.l I will--that's what I'll do for you.

HENSCHEL

[_Laughing and calmly._] Well, now you c'n sit there till you gets blue in the face. I won't concern myself that much about you!

HAUFFE

You c'n keep busy sweepin' before your own door.

HENSCHEL

'Tis well, 'tis well. We'll let that there be.

HAUFFE

You got filth enough in your own house!

HENSCHEL

Hauffe, I tell you right now: I wouldn't like to do it. But if you're goin' to start trouble here--I tell you that--I'll kick you out!

WERMELSKIRCH

Peace, gentlemen! I beg of you: peace!

HAUFFE

You're not the host here an' you can't kick n.o.body out! You has no more right to say anythin' here than me! I don't let you nor n.o.body tell me to hold my tongue. No, not you an' not your wife, no matter how you scheme, you two! That don't scare me an' don't bother me that much!

_Without any show of anger, HENSCHEL grasps HAUFFE by the chest and pushes him, struggling in vain, toward the door. Just before reaching it he turns slightly, opens the door, puts HAUFFE out, and closes it again. During this scene the following colloquy takes place:_

HAUFFE

Let go, I tell you! I just warn you: let go!

WERMELSKIRCH

Mr. Henschel, that won't do; I can't permit that!

HENSCHEL

I gave you fair warnin'! There's no help for you now.

HAUFFE

Are you goin' to choke me? Let go, I tell you! You're not the host here!

MRS. WERMELSKIRCH

[_From behind the bar._] What's the meaning of this? That will never do, Ludwig! You can't permit yourself to be treated that way!

FABIG

[_While HENSCHEL, holding HAUFFE, is rapidly approaching the door._] You might as well let it be. There's nothin' to be done. That there man--he's like an athlete. He'll bite his teeth into the edge of a table, and he'll lift the table up for you so steady, you won't notice a gla.s.s on it shakin'. If he went an' took the notion, I tell you, we'd all be flyin'

out into the street different ways!

_HAUFFE has been put out, HENSCHEL returns._

HENSCHEL

[_Resuming his seat amid a general silence._] He wouldn't give no rest--he's that stubborn.

FIRST FIREMAN

[_Who has come in out of the billiard room and drunk a gla.s.s of whisky at the bar._] I'd like to pay. A man had better go. In the end anybody might be flyin' out o' here, you know.

WERMELSKIRCH

Yon take another gla.s.s of beer. That would be the last straw. After all, I am still master here.

WALTHER

If that's the way you're goin' to do, Henschel, when you stands behind the bar and runs this here place instead o' Wermelskirch--you won't keep many customers, I c'n tell you that!

HENSCHEL

Customers like that don't matter.

WALTHER

You won't be able to pick 'em out, though. Hauffe don't pay with counterfeit money neither.

HENSCHEL

He c'n pay anyway he wants to, for all I care. But I tell you again now: Don't start that there business over again. I won't be takin' this place at all. If I was goin' to take it, I ought to know better than anybody else. Well, then: if I'm ready to buy a pub some day--I'll let you know!

Afterward you c'n give me your advice. An' if you don't like the place an' don't patronise it--well, then, Lord A'mighty, you don't has to!

_The FIREMAN goes out slamming the door angrily behind him._