(A parlor in a summer hotel on the sea-shore. The rear wall has a door
opening on a veranda, beyond which is seen a landscape. To the right of
the door stands a table with newspapers on it. There is a chair on the
left side of the stage. To the right of the table stands a sofa. A door
on the right leads to an adjoining room.)
(ADOLPH and GUSTAV, the latter seated on the sofa by the table to the
right.)
ADOLPH. [At work on a wax figure on a miniature modelling stand; his
crutches are placed beside him]--and for all this I have to thank you!
GUSTAV. [Smoking a cigar] Oh, nonsense!
ADOLPH. Why, certainly! During the first days after my wife had gone,
I lay helpless on a sofa and did nothing but long for her. It was as if
she had taken away my crutches with her, so that I couldn't move from
the spot. When I had slept a couple of days, I seemed to come to, and
began to pull myself together. My head calmed down after having been
working feverishly. Old thoughts from days gone by bobbed up again.
The desire to work and the instinct for creation came back. My eyes
recovered their faculty of quick and straight vision--and then you
showed up.
GUSTAV. I admit you were in a miserable condition when I first met you,
and you had to use your crutches when you walked, but this is not to say
that my presence has been the cause of your recovery. You needed a rest,
and you had a craving for masculine company.
ADOLPH. Oh, that's true enough, like everything you say. Once I used to
have men for friends, but I thought them superfluous after I married,
and I felt quite satisfied with the one I had chosen. Later I was
drawn into new circles and made a lot of acquaintances, but my wife
was jealous of them--she wanted to keep me to herself: worse still--she
wanted also to keep my friends to herself. And so I was left alone with
my own jealousy.
GUSTAV. Yes, you have a strong tendency toward that kind of disease.
ADOLPH. I was afraid of losing her--and I tried to prevent it. There
is nothing strange in that. But I was never afraid that she might be
deceiving me--
GUSTAV. No, that's what married men are never afraid of.
ADOLPH. Yes, isn't it queer? What I really feared was that her friends
would get such an influence over her that they would begin to exercise
some kind of indirect power over me--and THAT is something I couldn't
bear.
GUSTAV. So your ideas don't agree--yours and your wife's?
ADOLPH. Seeing that you have heard so much already, I may as well tell
you everything. My wife has an independent nature--what are you smiling
at?