The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I Part 34

MRS. SPILLER

[_Approaching._] The madame is willing to increase your wages, if you....

[_Whispering suddenly._] What d'ye care, girl! She just gits kinder rough now an' then.

MARIE

[_Furiously._] She c'n keep her dirty money to herself!--[_Tearfully._]

I'd rather starve! [_She follows GOLISCH, who has preceded her with the wheelbarrow._] Naw, just to think of it!--It's enough to make you....

[_She disappears, as does MRS. SPILLER._

_Through the great gate comes BAER called HOPPING BAER. He is a lank fellow with a vulture's neck and goitre. His feet and head are bare.

His breeches, badly ravelled at the bottom, scarcely reach below the knee. The top of his head is bald. Such hair as he has, brown, dusty, and clotted, hangs down over his shoulders. His gait is ostrich-like.

By a cord he draws behind him a child's toy waggon full of sand. His face is beardless. His whole appearance shows him to be a G.o.d-forsaken peasant lad in the twenties._

BAER

[_With a strangely bleating voice._] Sa--a--and! Sa--a--and!

_He crosses the yard and disappears between the house and the stables. HOFFMANN and HELEN come from the house. HELEN is pale and carries an empty gla.s.s in her hand._

HOFFMANN

[_To HELEN._] Entertain him a bit! You understand? Don't let him go. I should hate to have him.--Injured vanity like that!... Good-bye!... Oh, maybe I oughtn't to go at all? How is Martha doing?--I've got a queer kind of feeling as if pretty soon.... Nonsense!--Good-bye! ... awful hurry!... [_Calls out._] Franz! Give the horses their heads!

[_Leaves rapidly through the main gate._

_HELEN goes to the pump, fills her gla.s.s and empties it at one draught. She empties half of another gla.s.s. She then sets the gla.s.s on the pump and then strolls slowly, looking backward from time to time, through the gate-may. BAER emerges from between the house and the stables and stops with his waggon before the house door, where MIELE takes some sand from him. In the meantime KAHL has become visible at the right, beyond the dividing fence. He is in conversation with MRS. SPILLER, who is on the hither side of the fence and therefore close to the entrance of the yard. As the conversation proceeds, both walk slowly along the fence._

MRS. SPILLER

[_Mildly agonised._] Ah yes--m--Mr. Kahl! I have--m--many a time thought of--m--you when ... when our--m--dear Miss Helen ... She is so to--m--speak betrothed to you and so--m--ah! I--m--must say ... in my time...!

KAHL

[_Mounts a rustic bench under the oak-tree and fastens a bird trap to the lowest branch._] When is th-that b-beast of a doctor goin' to git out o'

here? Ha?

MRS. SPILLER

Ah, Mr. Kahl! I don't--m--think so very soon.--Ah, Mr. Kahl, I--m--have, so to speak, come--m--down in the world, but I--m--know--m--what refinement is. In this respect, Mr. Kahl, I--must say--dear Miss Helen isn't--m--acting quite right toward you. No--m--in that respect, so to speak--m--I've never had anything with which to--m--reproach myself--m--my conscience, dear Mr. Kahl, is as pure in that--m--respect--so to speak, as new-fallen snow.

_BAER has finished the sale of his sand and, at this moment, pa.s.ses by KAHL in order to leave the yard._

KAHL

[_Discovers BAER and calls out._] Heres hopping Baer! Hop a bit!

_BAER takes a, huge leap._

KAHL

[_Bellowing with laughter._] Here, hopping Baer! Hop again!

MRS. SPILLER

Well--m--Mr. Kahl, what I want to say is--m--I have the best--m--intentions toward you. You ought to observe very--m--carefully.

Something--m--is going on between our young lady and--m--

KAHL

If I could j-jist git my d-dogs on that son of a--... Jist once!

MRS. SPILLER

[_Mysteriously._] And I'm afraid you--m--don't know what kind of an individual that--m--is. Oh, I am so--m--truly sorry for our dear young lady. The wife of the bailiff--she has it straight from the office, I think. He is said to be a--m--really dangerous person. The woman said her husband had--m--orders, just think! actually--m--to keep his eye on him.

_LOTH comes from the house and looks about._

MRS. SPILLER

You see, now he is going--m--after our young lady. Oh, it's _too_ sad--m--for anything.

KAHL

Aw! You wait an' see!

[_Exit._

_MRS. SPILLER goes to the door of the house. In pa.s.sing LOTH she makes a deep bow. Then she disappears into the house._

_LOTH disappears slowly through the gateway. The coachman's wife, an emaciated, worried, starved woman, emerges from between the house and the stables. She carries a large pot hidden under her ap.r.o.n and slinks off toward the cow-shed, looking about fearfully at every moment. She disappears into the door of the stable. The two MAIDS, each before her a wheel-barrow laden with clover, enter by the gate.

BEIPST, his pipe in his mouth and his scythe across his shoulder, follows them, LIESE has wheeled her barrow in front of the left, AUGUSTE hers in front of the right door of the barn, and both begin to carry great armfuls of clover into the building._

LIESE

[_Coming back out of the stable._] Guste! D'ye know, Marie is gone.

AUGUSTE

Aw, don' tell me!

LIESE

Go in there'n ask the coachman's wife. She's gittin' her a drop o' milk.

BEIPST