GOTTLIEB
[_Had started up and grasped the axe when the shooting was heard; deathly
pale, almost beside himself with excitement._] An' am I to lie to heel
like a dog still?
A GIRL
[_Calls from the entry-room._] Father Hilse, father Hilse! get away from
the window. A bullet's just flown in at ours upstairs.
[_Disappears._
MIELCHEN
[_Puts her head in at the window, laughing._] Gran'father, gran'father,
they've shot with their guns. Two or three's been knocked down, an' one
of 'em's turnin' round and round like a top, an' one's twistin' hisself
like a sparrow when its head's bein' pulled of. An' oh, if you saw all
the blood that came pourin'--!
[_Disappears._
A WEAVER'S WIFE
Yes, there's two or three'll never get up again.
AN OLD WEAVER
[_In the entry-room._] Look out! They're goin' to make a rush on the
soldiers.
A SECOND WEAVER
[_Wildly._] Look, look, look at the women! skirts up, an' spittin' in the
soldiers' faces already!
A WEAVER'S WIFE
[_Calls in._] Gottlieb, look at your wife. She's more pluck in her than
you. She's jumpin' about in front o' the bay'nets as if she was dancin'
to music.
[_Four men carry a wounded rioter through the entry-room. Silence,
which is broken by some one saying in a distinct voice,_ "It's weaver
Ulbrich." _Once more silence for a few seconds, when the same voice
is heard again:_ "It's all over with him; he's got a bullet in his
ear." _The men are heard climbing the wooden stair. Sudden shouting
outside:_ "Hurrah, hurrah!"
VOICES IN THE ENTRY-ROOM
"Where did they get the stones from?"--"Yes, it's time you were
off!"--"From the new road."--"Ta-ta, soldiers!"--"It's rainin'
paving-stones."
[_Shrieks of terror and loud roaring outside, taken up by those in
the entry-room. There is a cry of fear, and the house door is shut
with a bang._
VOICES IN THE ENTRY-ROOM
"They're loadin' again."--"They'll fire another volley this
minute."--"Father Hilse, get away from that window."
GOTTLIEB
[_Clutches the axe._] What! is we mad dogs? Is we to eat powder an' shot
now instead o' bread? [_Hesitating an instant to the old man._] Would you
have me sit here an' see my wife shot? Never! [_As he rushes out._] Look
out! I'm coming!
OLD HILSE
Gottlieb, Gottlieb!
MOTHER HILSE
Where's Gottlieb gone?
OLD HILSE
He's gone to the devil.
VOICES FROM THE ENTRY-ROOM
Go away from the window, father Hilse.
OLD HILSE
Not I! Not if you all goes crazy together! [_To MOTHER HILSE, with rapt
excitement._] My heavenly Father has placed me here. Isn't that so,
mother? Here we'll sit, an' do our bounden duty--ay, though the snow was
to go on fire.
[_He begins to weave._
[_Rattle of another volley. OLD HILSE, mortally wounded, starts to
his feet and then falls forward over the loom. At the same moment
loud shouting of_ "Hurrah!" _is heard. The people who till now have
been standing in the entry-room dash out, joining in the cry. The old
woman repeatedly asks:_ "Father, father, what's wrong with you?" _The
continued shouting dies away gradually in the distance. MIELCHEN
comes rushing in._
MIELCHEN
Gran'father, gran'father, they're drivin' the soldiers out o' the
village; they've got into Dittrich's house, an' they're doin' what they
did at Dreissiger's. Gran'father! [_The child grows frightened, notices
that something has happened, puts her finger in her mouth, and goes up
cautiously to the dead man._] Gran'father!
MOTHER HILSE
Come now, father, can't you say something? You're frightenin' me.
THE END
THE BEAVER COAT
A THIEVES' COMEDY
LIST OF CHARACTERS
VON WEHRHAHN, _Justice._
KRUEGER, _Capitalist in a small way._
DR. FLEISCHER.
PHILIP, _his son._
MOTES.
MRS. MOTES.
MRS. WOLFF, _Washerwoman._
JULIUS WOLFF, _her husband._
LEONTINE, ADELAIDE, _her daughters._
WULKOW, _Lighterman._
GLASENAPP, _Clerk in the Justice's court._
MITTELDORF, _Constable._
Scene of the action: anywhere in the neighbourhood of Berlin.
THE FIRST ACT
_A small, blue-tinted kitchen with low ceiling; a window at the left;
at the right a door of rough boards leading out into the open; in the
rear mall an empty casing from which the door has been lifted.--In
the left corner a flat oven, above which hang kitchen utensils in a
wooden frame; in the right corner oars and other boating implements.
Rough, stubby pieces of hewn wood lie in a heap under the window. An
old kitchen bench, several stools, etc.--Through the empty casing in
the rear a second room is visible. In it stands a high, neatly, made
bed; above it hang cheap photographs in still cheaper frames, small
chromolithographs, etc. A chair of soft mood stands with its back
against the bed.--It is winter and moonlight. On the oven a
tallow-candle is burning in a candle-stick of tin. LEONTINE WOLFF has
fallen asleep on a stool by the oven and rests her head and arms on
it. She is a pretty, fair girl of seventeen in the working garb of a
domestic servant. A woolen shawl is tied over her cotton jacket.--For
several seconds there is silence. Then someone is heard trying to
unlock the door from without. But the key is in the lock and a
knocking follows._
MRS. WOLFF
[_Unseen, from without._] Adelaide! Adelaide! [_There is no answer and a
loud knocking is heard at the window._] Are you goin' to open or not?
LEONTINE
[_Drowsily._] No, no, I'm not goin' to be abused that way!
MRS. WOLFF
Open, girl, or I'll come in through the window!
[_She raps violently at the panes._
LEONTINE
[_Waking up._] Oh, it's you, mama! I'm coming now!
[_She unlocks the door from within._
MRS. WOLFF
[_Without laying down a sack which she carries over her shoulder._] What
are _you_ doin' here?
LEONTINE
[_Sleepily._] Evenin', mama.
MRS. WOLFF
How did you get in here, eh?
LEONTINE
Well, wasn't the key lyin' on the goat shed?
MRS. WOLFF
But what do you want here at home?
LEONTINE
[_Awkwardly affected and aggrieved._] So you don't want me to come no
more at all?
MRS. WOLFF
Aw, you just go ahead and put on that way! I'm so fond o' that! [_She
lets the sack drop from her shoulder._] You don't know nothin', I
s'ppose, about how late it's gettin'? You hurry and go back to your
mistress.
LEONTINE
It matters a whole lot, don't it, if I get back there a little too late?
MRS. WOLFF
You want to be lookin' out, y'understand? You see to it that you go, or
you'll catch it!
LEONTINE
[_Tearfully and defiantly._] I ain't goin' back to them people no more,
mama!
MRS. WOLFF
[_Astonished._] Not goin'?... [_Ironically._] Oh, no! That's somethin'
quite new!
LEONTINE
Well, I don't _have_ to let myself be abused that way!
MRS. WOLFF
[_Busy extracting a piece of venison from the sack._] So the Kruegers
abuse you, do they? Aw, the poor child that you are!--Don't you come
round me with such fool talk! A wench like a dragoon...! Here, lend a
hand with this sack, at the bottom. You can't act more like a fool, eh?
You won't get no good out o' me that way! You can't learn lazyin' around,
here, at all. [_They hang up the venison on the door._] Now I tell you
for the last time....
LEONTINE
I ain't goin' back to them people, I tell you. I'd jump in the river
first!
MRS. WOLFF
See that you don't catch a cold doin' it.
LEONTINE
I'll jump in the river!
MRS. WOLFF
Go ahead. Let me know about it and I'll give you a shove so you don't
miss it.
LEONTINE
[_Screaming._] Do I have to stand for that, that I gotta drag in two
loads o' wood at night!
MRS. WOLFF
[_In mock astonishment._] Well, now, that's pretty awful, ain't it? You
gotta drag in wood? Such people, I tell you!
LEONTINE
... An' I gets twenty crowns for the whole year. I'm to get my hands
frost-bitten for that, am I? An' not enough potatoes and herring to go
round!
MRS. WOLFF
You needn't go fussin' about that, you silly girl. Here's the key; go,
cut yourself some bread. An' when you've had enough, go your way,
y'understand? The plum butter's in the top cupboard.
LEONTINE
[_Takes a large loaf of bread from a drawer and cuts some slices._] An'
Juste gets forty crowns a year from the Schulze's an'....
MRS. WOLFF
Don't you try to be goin' too fast.--You ain't goin' to stay with them
people always; you ain't hired out to 'em forever.--Leave 'em on the
first of April, for all I care.--But up to then, you sticks to your
place.--Now that you got your Christmas present in your pocket, you want
to run away, do you? That's no way. I have dealin's with them people, an'
I ain't goin' to have that kind o' thing held against me.
LEONTINE
These bits o' rag that I got on here?
MRS. WOLFF
You're forgettin' the cash you got?
LEONTINE
Yes! Six shillin's. That was a whole lot!
MRS. WOLFF
Cash is cash! You needn't kick.
LEONTINE
But if I can go an' make more?
MRS. WOLFF
Yes, talkin'!
LEONTINE
No, sewin'! I can go in to Berlin and sew cloaks. Emily Stechow's been
doin' that ever since New Year.
MRS. WOLFF
Don't come tellin' me about that slattern! I'd like to get my hands on
her, that's all. I'd give that crittur a piece o' my mind! You'd like to
be promoted into her class, would you? To go sportin' all night with the
fellows? Just to be thinkin' o' that makes me feel that I'd like to beat
you so you can't hardly stand up.--Now papa's comin' an' you'd better
look out!
LEONTINE
If papa thrashes me, I'll run away. I'll see how I can get along!
MRS. WOLFF
Shut up now! Go an' feed the goats. They ain't been milked yet to-night
neither. An' give the rabbits a handful o' hay.
_LEONTINE tries to make her escape. In the door, however, she runs
into her father, but slips quickly by him with a perfunctory_
Evenin'.
_JULIUS WOLFF, the father, is a shipwright. A tall man, with dull
eyes and slothful gestures, about forty-three years old.--He places
two long oars, which he has brought in across his shoulder in a
corner and silently throws down his shipwright's tools._
MRS. WOLFF
Did you meet Emil?
JULIUS _growls._
MRS. WOLFF
Can't you talk? Yes or no? Is he goin' to come around, eh?
JULIUS
[_Irritated._] Go right ahead! Scream all you want to!
MRS. WOLFF
You're a fine, brave fellow, ain't you? An' all the while you forget to
shut the door.
JULIUS
[_Closes the door._] What's up again with Leontine?
MRS. WOLFF
Aw, nothin'.--What kind of a load did Emil have?
JULIUS
Bricks again. What d'you suppose he took in?--But what's up with that
girl again?
MRS. WOLFF
Did he have half a load or a whole load?
JULIUS
[_Flying into a rage._] What's up with the wench, I asks you?
MRS. WOLFF
[_Outdoing him in violence._] An' I want to know how big a load Emil
had--a half or a whole boat full?
JULIUS
That's right! Go on! The whole thing full.
MRS. WOLFF
Sst! Julius!
[_Suddenly frightened she shoots the window latch._
JULIUS
[_Scared and staring at her, is silent. After a few moments, softly._]
It's a young forester from Rixdorf.
MRS. WOLFF
Go an' creep under the bed, Julius. [_After a pause._] If only you wasn't
such an awful fool. You don't open your mouth but what you act like a
regular tramp. You don't understand nothin' o' such things, if you want
to know it. You let me look out for the girls. That ain't no part o' your
concern. That's a part of my concern. With boys that'd be a different
thing. I wouldn't so much as give you advice. But everybody's got their
own concerns.
JULIUS
Then don't let her come runnin' straight across my way.
MRS. WOLFF
I guess you want to beat her till she can't walk. Don't you take nothin'
like that into your head. Don't you think I'm goin' to allow anythin'
like that! I let her be beaten black an' blue? We c'n make our fortune
with that girl. I wish you had sense about some things!
JULIUS
Well, then let her go an' see how she gets along!
MRS. WOLFF
Nobody needn't be scared about that, Julius. I ain't sayin' but what
you'll live to see things. That girl will be livin' up on the first floor
some day and we'll be glad to have her condescend to know us. What is it
the doctor said to me? Your daughter, he says, is a handsome girl; she'd
make a stir on the stage.
JULIUS
Then let her see about gettin' there.
MRS. WOLFF
You got no education, Julius. Yon ain't got a trace of it. Lord, if it
hadn't been for me! What would ha' become o' those girls! I brought 'em
up to be educated, y'understand? Education is the main thing these days.
But things don't come off all of a sudden. One thing after another--step
by step. Now she's in service an' that'll learn her somethin'. Then
maybe, for my part, she can go into Berlin. She's much too young for the
stage yet.
[_During MRS. WOLFF'S speech repeated knocking has been heard. Now
ADELAIDE'S voice comes in._ Mama! Mama! Please, do open! _MRS. WOLFF
opens the door, ADELAIDE comes in. She is a somewhat overgrown
schoolgirl of fourteen with a pretty, child-like face. The expression
of her eyes, however, betrays premature corruption._
Why didn't you open the door, mama? I nearly got my hands and feet
frozen!
MRS. WOLFF
Don't stand there jabberin' nonsense. Light a fire in the oven and you'll
soon be warm. Where've you been all this long time, anyhow?
ADELAIDE
Why, didn't I have to go and fetch the boots for father?
MRS. WOLFF
An' you staid out two hours doin' it!
ADELAIDE
Well, I didn't start to go till seven.
MRS. WOLFF
Oh, you went at seven, did you? It's half past ten now. You don't know
that, eh? So you've been gone three hours an' a half. That ain't much.
Oh, no. Well now you just listen good to what I've got to tell you. If
you go an' stay that long again, and specially with that lousy cobbler of
a Fielitz--then watch out an' see! That's all I says.
ADELAIDE
Oh, I guess I ain't to do nothin' except just mope around at home.
MRS. WOLFF
Now you keep still an' don't let me hear no more.
ADELAIDE
An' even if I do go over to Fielitz's sometime....
MRS. WOLFF
Are you goin' to keep still, I'd like to know? You teach me to know
Fielitz! He needn't be putting on's far as I know. He's got another trade
exceptin' just repairin' shoes. When a man's been twice in the
penitentiary....
ADELAIDE
That ain't true at all.... That's all just a set o' lies. He told me all
about it himself, mama!
MRS. WOLFF
As if the whole village didn't know, you fool girl! That man! I know what
he is. He's a pi--
ADELAIDE
Oh, but he's friends even with the justice!
MRS WOLFF
I don't doubt it. He's a spy. And what's more, he's a _dee_nouncer!
ADELAIDE
What's that--a _dee_nouncer?
JULIUS
[_From the next room, into which he has gone._] I'm just waitin' to hear
two words more.
[_ADELAIDE turns pale and at once and silently she sets about
building a fire in the oven._
_LEONTINE comes in._
MRS. WOLFF
[_Has opened the stag. She takes out the heart, liver, etc, and hands
them to LEONTINE._] There, hurry, wash that off. An' keep still, or
somethin'll happen yet.
[_LEONTINE, obviously intimidated, goes at her task. The girls
whisper together._
MRS. WOLFF
Say, Julius. What are you doin' in there? I guess you'll go an' forget
again. Didn't I tell you this mornin' about the board that's come loose?
JULIUS
What kind o' board?
MRS. WOLFF
You don't know, eh? Behind there, by the goat-shed. The wind loosened it
las' night. You better get out there an' drive a few nails in,
y'understand?
JULIUS
Aw, to-morrow mornin'll be another day, too.
MRS. WOLFF
Oh, no. Don't take to thinkin' that way. We ain't goin' to make that kind
of a start--not we. [_JULIUS comes into the room growling._] There, take,
the hammer! Here's your nails! Now hurry an' get it done.
JULIUS
You're a bit off' your head.
MRS. WOLFF
[_Calling out after him._] When Wulkow comes what d'you want me to ask?
JULIUS
About twelve shillin's sure.
[_Exit._
MRS. WOLFF
[_Contemptuously._] Aw, twelve shillin's. [_A pause._] Now you just hurry
so that papa gets his supper.
[_A brief pause._
ADELAIDE
[_Looking at the stag._] What's that anyhow, mama?
MRS. WOLFF
A stork.
[_Both girls laugh._
ADELAIDE
A stork, eh? A stork ain't got horns. I know what that is--that's a stag!
MRS. WOLFF
Well, if you know why d'you go an' ask?
LEONTINE
Did papa shoot it, mama?
MRS. WOLFF
That's right! Go and scream it through the village: Papa's shot a stag!
ADELAIDE
I'll take mighty good care not to. That'd mean the cop!
LEONTINE
Aw, I ain't scared o' policeman Schulz. He chucked me under the chin
onct.
MRS. WOLFF
He c'n come anyhow. We ain't doin' nothin' wrong. If a stag's full o'
lead and lays there dyin' an' nobody finds it, what happens? The ravens
eat it. Well now, if the ravens eat it or we eat it, it's goin' to be
eaten anyhow. [_A brief pause._] Well now, tell me: You was axed to carry
wood in?
LEONTINE
Yes, in this frost! Two loads o' regular clumps! An' that when a person
is tired as a dog, at half past nine in the evenin'!
MRS. WOLFF
An' now I suppose that wood is lyin' there in the street?
LEONTINE
It's lyin' in front o' the garden gate. That's all I know.
MRS. WOLFF
Well now, but supposin' somebody goes and steals that wood? What's goin'
to happen in the mornin' then?
LEONTINE
I ain't goin' there no more!
MRS. WOLFF
Are those clumps green or dry?
LEONTINE
They're fine, dry ones! [_She yawns again and again._] Oh, mama, I'm that
tired! I've just had to work myself to pieces.
[_She sits down with every sign of utter exhaustion._
MRS. WOLFF
[_After a brief silence._] You c'n stay at home tonight for all I care.
I've thought it all out a bit different. An' to-morrow mornin' we c'n
see.
LEONTINE
I've just got as thin as can be, mama! My clothes is just hangin' on to
me.
MRS. WOLFF
You hurry now and go in to bed or papa'll raise a row yet. He ain't got
no understandin' for things like that.
ADELAIDE
Papa always speaks so uneducated!
MRS. WOLFF
Well, he didn't learn to have no education. An' that'd be just the same
thing with you if I hadn't brought you up to be educated. [_Holding a
saucepan over the oven: to LEONTINE:_] Come now, put it in! [_LEONTINE
places the pieces of washed venison into the sauce-pan._] So, now go to
bed.
LEONTINE
[_Goes into the next room. While she is still visible, she says:_] Oh,
mama, Motes has moved away from Krueger.
MRS. WOLFF
I guess he didn't pay no rent.
LEONTINE
It was just like pullin' a tooth every time, Mr. Krueger says, but he
paid. Anyhow, he says, he had to kick him out. He's such a lyin'
loudmouthed fellow, and always so high and mighty toward Mr. Krueger.
MRS. WOLFF
If I had been in Mr. Krueger's place I wouldn't ha' kept him that long.
LEONTINE
Because Mr. Krueger used to be a carpenter onct, that's why Motes always
acts so contemptuous. And then, too, he quarrelled with Dr. Fleischer.
MRS. WOLFF
Well, anybody that'll quarrel with _him_...! I ain't sayin' anythin', but
them people wouldn't harm a fly!
LEONTINE
They won't let him come to the Fleischers no more.
MRS. WOLFF
If you could get a chanct to work for them people some day!
LEONTINE
They treat the girls like they was their own children.
MRS. WOLFF
And his brother in Berlin, he's cashier in a theatre.
WULKOW
[_Has knocked at the door repeatedly and now calls out in a hoarse
voice._] Ain't you goin' to have the kindness to let me in.
MRS. WOLFF
Well, I should say! Why not! Walk right in!
WULKOW
[_Comes in. He is a lighterman on the Spree river, near sixty years old,
bent, with a greyish-yellow beard that frames his head from ear to ear
but leaves his weather-beaten face free._] I wish you a very good
evenin'.
MRS. WOLFF
Look at him comin' along again to take in a woman a little bit.
WULKOW
I've give up tryin' that this long while!
MRS. WOLFF
Maybe, but that's the way it's goin' to be anyhow.
WULKOW
T'other way roun', you mean.
MRS. WOLFF
What'll it be next?--Here it's hangin'! A grand feller, eh?
WULKOW
I tell you, Julius ought to be lookin' out sharp. They's gettin' to be
pretty keen again.
MRS. WOLFF
What are you goin' to give us for it, that's the main thing. What's the
use o' jabberin'?
WULKOW
Well, I'm tellin' you. I'm straight from Gruenau. An' there I heard it
for certain. They shot Fritz Weber. They just about filled his breeches
with lead.
MRS. WOLFF
What are you goin' to give? That's the main thing.
WULKOW
[_Feeling the stag._] The trouble is I got four o' them bucks lyin' at
home now.
MRS. WOLFF
That ain't goin' to make your boat sink.
WULKOW
An' I don't want her to do that. That wouldn't be no joke. But what's the
good if I get stuck with the things here. I've gotta get 'em in to
Berlin. It's been hard enough work on the river all day, an' if it goes
on freezin' this way, there'll be no gettin' along to-morrow. Then I c'n
sit in the ice with my boat, an' then I've got these things for fun.
MRS. WOLFF
[_Apparently changing her mind._] Girl, you run down to Schulze. Say
how-dee-do an' he's to come up a while, cause mother has somethin' to
sell.
WULKOW
Did I say as I wasn't goin' to buy it?
MRS. WOLFF
It's all the same to me who buys it.
WULKOW
Well, I'm willin' to.
MRS. WOLFF
Any one that don't want it can let it be.
WULKOW
I'll buy this feller! What's he worth?
MRS. WOLFF
[_Touching the venison._] This here piece weighs a good thirty pounds.
Every bit of it, I c'n tell you. Well, Adelaide! You was here. We could
hardly lift it up.
ADELAIDE
[_Who had not been present at all._] I pretty near sprained myself
liftin' it.
WULKOW
Thirteen shillin's will pay for it, then. An' I won't be makin' ten pence
on that bargain!
MRS. WOLFF
[_Acts amazed. She busies herself at the oven as though she had forgotten
WULKOW'S presence. Then, as though suddenly becoming aware of it again,
she says:_] I wish you a very pleasant trip.
WULKOW
Well. I can't give more than thirteen!
MRS. WOLFF
That's right. Let it alone.
WULKOW
I'm just buyin' it for the sake o' your custom. God strike me dead, but
it's as true as I'm standin' here. I don't make _that_ much with the
whole business. An' even if I was wantin' to say: fourteen, I'd be
puttin' up money, I'd be out one shillin'. But I ain't goin' to let that
stand between us. Just so you see my good intentions, I'll say
fourteen....
I can't give no more. I'm tellin' you facts.
MRS. WOLFF
That's all right! That's all right! We c'n get rid o' this stag. We won't
have to keep it till morning.
WULKOW
Yes, if only nobody don't see it hangin' here. Money wouldn't do no good
then.
MRS. WOLFF
This stag here, we found it dead.
WULKOW
Yes, in a trap. I believe you.
MRS. WOLFF
You needn't try to get around us that way. That ain't goin' to do _no_
good! You want to gobble up everythin' for nothin'! We works till we got
no breath. Hours an' hours soakin' in the snow, not to speak o' the risk,
there in the pitch dark. That's no joke, I tell you.
WULKOW
The only trouble is that I got four of 'em already. Or I'd say fifteen
shillin's quick enough.
MRS. WOLFF
No, Wulkow, we can't do business together today. You c'n be easy an' go a
door further. We just dragged ourselves across the lake ... a hairbreadth
an' we would've been stuck in the ice. We couldn't get forward an' we
couldn't get backward. You can't give away somethin' you got so hard.
WULKOW
Well, what do I get out of it all, I want to know! This here lighter
business ain't a natural thing. An' poachin', that's a bad job. If you
all get nabbed, I'd be the first one to fly in. I been worryin' along
these forty years. What've I got to-day? The rheumatiz--that's what! When
I get up o' mornin's early, I gotta whine like a puppy dog. Years an'
years I been wantin' to buy myself a fur-coat. That's what all doctors
has advised me to do, because I'm that sensitive. But I ain't been able
to buy me none. Not to this day. An' that's as true as I'm standin' here.
ADELAIDE
[_To her mother._] Did you hear what Leontine said?
WULKOW
But anyhow. Let it go. I'll say sixteen.
MRS. WOLFF
No, it's no good. Eighteen! [_To ADELAIDE._] What's that you was talkin'
about?
ADELAIDE
Mrs. Krueger has bought a fur-coat that cost pretty near a hundred
crowns. It's a beaver coat.
WULKOW
A beaver coat?
MRS. WOLFF
_Who_ bought it?
ADELAIDE
Why, Mrs. Krueger, I tell you, as a Christmas present for Mr. Krueger.
WULKOW
Is that girl in service with the Kruegers?
ADELAIDE
Not me, but my sister, I ain't goin' in service like that at all.
WULKOW
Well now, if I could have somethin' like that! That's the kind o' thing I
been tryin' to get hold of all this time. I'd gladly be givin' sixty
crowns for it. All this money that goes to doctors and druggists, I'd
much rather spend it for furs. I'd get some pleasure out of that at
least.
MRS. WOLFF
All you gotta do is to go there, Wulkow. Maybe Kruger'll make you a
present of the coat.
WULKOW
I don't suppose he'd do it kindly. But's I said: I'm interested in that
sort o' thing.
MRS. WOLFF
I believes you. I wouldn't mind havin' a thing like that myself.
WULKOW