The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume Ii Part 86

That's a feller I wouldn't like to meet in the _Tiergarten_. Not by night an' not by day neither.

MRS. JOHN

If I sets Bruno on anyone an' he gets at him, G.o.d help him!

PAULINE

Good-bye. I don't like this here place. If you wants to see me again, Mrs. John, I'd rather meet you at a bench on the _Kreuzberg_.

MRS. JOHN

Pauline, I brought up Bruno with sorrow and trouble by day an' by night.

An' I'll be twenty times better to your child. So when it's born, Pauline, I'll take it, an' I swears to you by my father an' mother what died in the Lord an' what I goes to visit the graves of out in Rudersdorf one Sunday a year an' puts candles on 'em an' don' let n.o.body keep me back--I swears to you that little crittur'll live on the fat o' the land just like a born prince nor a born princess couldn't be treated no better.

PAULINE

I'm goin' and with my last penny I'm goin' to buy vitriol--I don' care who it hits! An' I'll throw it in the face o' the wench that he goes with ... I don' care who it hits ... right in the middle o' the mug. I don'

care! It c'n burn up his fine-lookin' phiz! I don' care! It c'n burn off his beard an' burn out his eyes if he goes with other women! What did he do? Cheated me! Ruined me! Took my money! Robbed me o' my honour! That's what the d.a.m.n' dog did--seduced me an' lied to me an' left me an' kicked me out into the world! I don' care who it hits! I wants him to be blind!

I wants the stuff to burn his nose offa his face! I wants it to burn him offa the earth!

MRS. JOHN

Pauline, as I hopes to be happy hereafter, I tells you, from the minute where that there little one is born ... it's goin' to be treated like ...

well, I don' know what!... as if it was born to be put in silks an' in satins. All you gotta do is to have some confidence--that's what! You just say: Yes. I got it all figgered out. It c'n be done, it c'n be done--that's what I tells you! An' no doctor an' no police an' no landlady don't has to know nothin'. An' then, first of all, you gets paid a hundred an' twenty crowns what I saved scrubbin' an' charrin' here for manager Ha.s.senreuter.

PAULINE

I might strangle it when it's born, rather 'n sell it!

MRS. JOHN

Who's talkin' about sellin'?

PAULINE

Look at the frights an' the misery I've stood from October las' to this very day. My intended gives me the go; my landlady puts me out! They gives me notice at a lodgin's. What does I do that I has to be despised an' cursed an' kicked aroun'?

MRS. JOHN

That's what I says. That's cause the devil is still gettin' the better of our Lord Jesus.

_Unnoticed and busy with the trap as before BRUNO has quietly re-entered by the door._

BRUNO

[_With a strange intonation, sharply and yet carelessly._] Lamps!

PAULINE

That feller scares me. Lemme go!

MRS. JOHN

[_Makes violently for BRUNO._] Is you goin' to go where you belongs? I told you I'd call you!

BRUNO

[_In the same tone as before._] Well, Jette, I jus' said: Lamps!

MRS. JOHN

Are you crazy? What's the meanin' o' that--lamps?

BRUNO

Ain't that a ringin' o' the front bell?

MRS. JOHN

[_Is frightened, listens and restrains PAULINE, who makes a motion to go._] Sh, Miss, wait! Just wait one little minute!

[_BRUNO continues whittling as the two women stop to listen._

MRS. JOHN

[_Softly and in a frightened tone to BRUNO._] I don't hear nothin'!

BRUNO

You ol' dried up piece! You better go an' get another pair o' ears!

MRS. JOHN

That'd be the first time in all the three months that the manager'd be comin' in when it's Sunday.

BRUNO

If that there theayter feller comes, he c'n engage me right on the spot.

MRS. JOHN

[_Violently._] Don' talk rot!

BRUNO

[_Grinning at PAULINE._] Maybe you don' believe it, Miss, but I went an'

took the clown's hoss at Schumann's circus aroun' the ring three times.

Them's the kind o' things I does. An' is I goin' to be scared?