The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume Ii Part 36

What?--Hanne is to come!

_MRS. HENSCHEL enters suddenly and quickly, just as she has come from her work and still drying her hands._

MRS. HENSCHEL

What're you roarin' about so?

HENSCHEL

'Tis well that you're here.--This man here says--

MRS. HENSCHEL

[_Makes a movement as if to go._] d.a.m.ned rot that it ...

HENSCHEL

You're to stay here!

MRS. HENSCHEL

Are you all drunk together? What're you thinkin' of, anyhow? D'you think I'm goin' to stay here an' play monkey tricks for you?

[_She is about to go._

HENSCHEL

Hanne, I advise you ... This man here says ...

MRS. HENSCHEL

Aw, he c'n say what he wants to, for all I cares!

HENSCHEL

He says that you deceive me before my face an' behind my back!

MRS. HENSCHEL

What? What? What? What?

HENSCHEL

That's what he says! Is he goin' to dare to say that? An' that ... my wife ...

MRS. HENSCHEL

Me? Lies! d.a.m.ned lies!

[_She throws her ap.r.o.n over her face and rushes out._

HENSCHEL

That I ... that my wife ... that we together ... that our Gustel ... 'Tis well! 'Tis well!

[_He releases WALTHER'S hand and lets his head sink, moaning, on the table._

WALTHER

I won't be made out a liar here.

THE CURTAIN FALLS.

THE FIFTH ACT

_The same room as in the first three acts. It is night, but the moonlight throws a moderate brightness into the room. It is empty.

Several days have pa.s.sed since the occurrences in the fourth act._

_A candle is lit in the small adjoining room; at the end of a few seconds HENSCHEL enters, carrying the candle in a candlestick of tin.

He wears leathern breeches but his feet are cased in bedroom slippers. Slowly he approaches the table, gazes hesitatingly first backward, then toward the window, finally puts the candlestick on the table and sits down by the window. He leans his chin on his hand and stares at the moon._

MRS. HENSCHEL

[_Invisible, from the adjoining chamber, calls:_] Husband! Husband! What are you doin' out there?--the same mortal foolishness all the time!

--[_She looks in, but half-clad._] Where are you? Come 'n go to bed! 'Tis time to sleep! To-morrow you won't be able to go out again! You'll be lyin' like a sack o' meal and everythin' 'll go upside down in the yard.

[_She comes out, half-clad as she is, and approaches HENSCHEL hesitatingly and fearfully._] What are you doin', eh?

HENSCHEL

--Me?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Why are you sittin' there an' not sayin' a word?

HENSCHEL

I'm lookin' at the clouds.

MRS. HENSCHEL

Oh, no, my goodness; it's enough to confuse a person's head! What's to be seen up there, I'd like to know! The same worry, night after night.

There's no rest in the world for n.o.body no more. What are you starin' at?