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?
PAULINE
[_Seeming to notice for the first time the fantastic strangeness of the
place in which she finds herself. Frightened and genuinely perturbed._]
Mother o' God, what kind o' place is this?
MRS. JOHN
Whoever c'n that be?
BRUNO
'Tain't the manager, Jette! More like it's a spout what's drippin'!
MRS. JOHN
Miss, you be so kind an' go for two minutes, if you don' mind, up into
this here loft. Maybe somebody's comin' that just wants some information.
_In her growing terror PAULINE does as she is asked to do. She
clambers up the stairs to the loft, the trap door being open. MRS.
JOHN has taken up a position in which she can, at need, hide PAULINE
from anyone entering the room. PAULINE disappears: MRS. JOHN and
BRUNO remain alone._
BRUNO
What business has you with that pious mug?
MRS. JOHN
That ain't none o' your business, y'understan'?
BRUNO
I was just axin' 'cause you was so careful that nobody should see her.
Otherwise I don't know's I gives a damn.
MRS. JOHN
An' you ain't supposed to!
BRUNO
Much obliged. Maybe I better toddle along, then.
MRS. JOHN
D'you know what you owes me, you scamp?
BRUNO
[_Carelessly._] What are you gettin' excited for? What is I doin' to you?
What d'you want? I gotta go to my gal now. I'm sleepy. Las' night I slept
under a lot o' bushes in the park. An' anyhow, I'm cleaned out--[_He
turns his trowsers pockets inside out._] An' in consequence o' that I
gotta go an' earn somethin'.
MRS. JOHN
Here you stays! Don't you dare move! If you do you c'n whine like a
whipped purp an' you'll never be gettin' so much as a penny outa me no
more--that's what you won't! Bruno, you're goin' ways you hadn't ought
to.
BRUNO
Aw, what d'you think? Is I goin' to be a dam' fool? D'you think I ain'
goin' when I gets a good livin' offa Hulda? [_He pulls out a dirty
card-case._] Not so much as a measly pawn ticket has I got. Tell me what
you want an' then lemme go!
MRS. JOHN
What I wants? Of you? What're you good for anyhow? You ain't good for
nothin' excep' for your sister who ain't right in her head to feel sorry
for you, you loafer an' scamp!
BRUNO
Maybe you _ain'_ right in your head sometimes!
MRS. JOHN
Our father, he used to say when you was no more'n five an' six years old
an' used to do rowdy things, that we couldn't never be proud o' you an'
that I might as well let you go hang. An' my husband what's a reel honest
decent man ... why, you can't be seen alongside of a good man like him.
BRUNO
Sure, I knows all that there, Jette. But things ain' that easy to
straighten out. I knows all right I was born with a kind o' a twist in my
back, even if nobody don't see it. No, I wasn't born in no castle. Well,
I gotta do what I c'n do with my twist. All right. What d'you want?
'Tain't for the rats you're keepin' me. You wanta hush up somethin' wi'
that whore!
MRS. JOHN
[_Shaking her hand under BRUNO'S nose._] You give away one word o' this
an' I'll kill you, I'll make a corpse o' you!
BRUNO
Well now, looka here! I'm goin', y'understan'? [_He mounts the stairs._]
Maybe someday I'll be droppin' into good luck without knowin' it.
_He disappears through the trap-door, MRS. JOHN hurriedly blows out
the lamp and taps her way to the door of the library. She enters it
but does--not wholly close the door behind her.--The noise that BRUNO
actually heard was that of a key being turned in a rusty keyhole. A
light step is now heard approaching the door. For a moment the street
noises of Berlin as well as the yelling of children in the outer
halls had been audible. Strains of a hurdy-gurdy from the
yard.--WALBURGA HASSENREUTER enters with hesitating and embarrassed
steps. The girl is not yet sixteen and is pretty and innocent of
appearance. Sunshade, light-coloured summer dress, not coming below
the ankle._
WALBURGA
[_Halts, listens, then says nervously:_] Papa!--Isn't any one up here
yet? Papa! Papa! [_She listens long and intently and then says:_] Why,
what an odour of coal oil there is here! [_She finds matches, lights one,
is about to light the lamp and burns her fingers against the hot
chimney._] Ouch! Why, dear me! Who is here?
[_She has cried out and is about to run away._
_MRS. JOHN reappears._
MRS. JOHN
Well, Miss Walburga, who's goin' to go an' kick up a row like that! You
c'n be reel quiet. 'Tain't nobody but me!
WALBURGA
Dear me, but I've had an awful fright, Mrs. John.
MRS. JOHN
Well, then I advise you to be gettin' out o' here to-day--on Sunday?
WALBURGA
[_Laying her hand over her heart._] Why, my heart is almost standing
still yet, Mrs. John.
MRS. JOHN
What's the matter, Miss Walburga? What's frightenin' you? You oughta know
that from your pa that Sunday an' week day I gotta be workin' aroun' here
with them boxes an' cases, dustin' an' tryin' to get rid o' the moths!
An' then, after two or three weeks, when I've gone over the twelve or
eighteen hundred theayter rags that're lyin' here--then I gotta start all
over again.
WALBURGA
I was frightened because the chimney of the lamp was still quite hot to
the touch.
MRS. JOHN
That's right. That there lamp was burnin' 'an' I put it out jus' a minute
ago. [_She lifts up the chimney._] It don't burn me; my hands is hard.
[_She lights the wick._] Well, now we has light. Now I lit it again.
What's the danger here? I don' see nothin'.
WALBURGA
But you do look like a ghost, Mrs. John.
MRS. JOHN
How do you say I looks?
WALBURGA
Oh, it just seems so when one comes out of the vivid sunlight into the
darkness, into these musty holes. It seems as though one were surrounded
by ghosts.
MRS. JOHN
Well, you little ghost, why did you come up here? Is you alone or has you
got somebody with you? Maybe papa'll be comin' in yet?
WALBURGA
No, papa has been granted an important audience out in Potsdam to-day.
MRS. JOHN
All right! What're you lookin' for here then?
WALBURGA
I? Oh, I just came out for a walk!
MRS. JOHN
Well, then I advise you to be gettin out o' here again. No sun don't
shine into your papa's lumber-room.
WALBURGA
You look so grey! You had better go out into the sunlight yourself!
MRS. JOHN
Oh, the sunlight's just for fine folks! All I needs is a couple o' pounds
o' dust an' dirt on my lungs.--You just go along, missie! I gotta get to
work. I don' need nothin' else. I jus' lives on mildew an' insec'-powder.
[_She coughs._
WALBURGA
[_Nervously._] You needn't tell papa that I was up here.
MRS. JOHN
Me? Ain't I got somethin' better to do'n that?
WALBURGA
[_With assumed carelessness._] And if Mr. Spitta were to ask after me....
MRS. JOHN
Who?
WALBURGA
The young gentleman who gives us private lessons at home....
MRS. JOHN
Well, s'posin'?
WALBURGA
Then be so kind as to tell him that I've been here but left again at
once.
MRS. JOHN
So I'm to tell Mr. Spitta but not papa?
WALBURGA
[_Involuntarily._] Oh, for heaven's sake, no!
MRS. JOHN
Well, you jus' wait an' see! You jus' look out! There's many a one has
looked like you an' has come from your part o' the city an'--has gone to
the dogs in the ditch in Dragoner street or, even, behind Swedish
hangin's in Barnim street.
WALBURGA
Surely you don't mean to insinuate, Mrs. John, and surely you don't
believe that there's anything unpermitted or improper in my relations
with Mr. Spitta?
MRS. JOHN
[_In extreme fright._] Shut up!--Somebody's put the key into the keyhole.
WALBURGA
Blow out the lamp!
[_MRS. JOHN blows out the lamp quickly._
WALBURGA
Papa!
MRS. JOHN
Miss! Up into the loft with you!
_MRS. JOHN and WALBURGA both disappear through the trap-door, which
closes behind them._
_Two gentlemen, the manager HARRO HASSENREUTER and the court actor
NATHANAEL JETTEL, appear in the frame of the outer door. The manager
is of middle height, clean shaven, fifty years old. He takes long
steps and shows a lively temperament in his whole demeanour. The cut
of his face is noble, his eyes have a vivid, adventurous expression.
His behaviour is somewhat noisy, which accords with his thoroughly
fiery nature. He wears a light overcoat, a top-hat thrust back on his
head, full dress suit and patent leather boots. The overcoat, which
is unbuttoned, reveals the decorations which almost cover his
chest--JETTEL wears a suit of flannels under a very light spring
overcoat. In his left hand he holds a straw hat and an elegant cane;
he wears tan shoes. He also is clean shaven and over fifty years old.
HASSENREUTER
[_Calls:_] John! Mrs. John!--Well, now you see my catacombs, my dear
fellow! _Sic transit gloria mundi!_ Here I've stored everything--_mutatis
mutandis_--that was left of my whole theatrical glory--trash, trash! Old
rags! Old tatters!--John! John! She's been here, for the lamp chimney is
still quite hot! [_He strikes a match and lights the lamp._] _Fiat lux,
pereat mundus!_ Now you can get a good view of my paradise of moths and
rats and fleas!
JETTEL
You received my card, didn't you, my dear manager?
HASSENREUTER
Mrs. John!--I'll see if she is in the loft up there. [_He mounts the
stairs and rattles at the trap-door._] Locked! And of course the wretched
creature has the key tied to her apron. [_He beats enragedly against the
trap-door with his fist._] John! John!
JETTEL
[_Somewhat impatient._] Can't we manage without this Mrs. John?
HASSENREUTER
What? Do you think that I, in my dress suit and with all my decorations,
just back from His Highness, can go through my three hundred boxes and
cases just to rout out the wretched rags that you are pleased to need for
your engagement here?
JETTEL
I beg your pardon. But I'm not wont to appear in rags on my tours.
HASSENREUTER
Man alive, then play in your drawers for all I care! It wouldn't worry
me! Only don't quite forget who's standing before you. Because the court
actor Jettel is pleased to emit a whistle--well, that's no reason why the
manager Harro Hassenreuter should begin to dance. Confound it, because
some comedian wants a shabby turban or two old boots, is that any reason
why a _pater familias_ like myself must give up his only spare time at
home on Sunday afternoon? I suppose you expect me to creep about on all
fours into the corners here? No, my good fellow, for that kind of thing
you'll have to look elsewhere!
JETTEL
[_Quite calmly._] Would you mind telling me, if possible, who has been
treading on your corns?
HASSENREUTER
My boy, it's scarcely an hour since I had my legs under the same table
with a prince; _post hoc, ergo propter hoc!_--On your account I got into
a confounded bus and drove out to this, confounded bole, and so ... if
you don't know how to value my kindness, you can get out!
JETTEL
You made an appointment with use for four o'clock. Then you let me wait
one solid hour in this horrible tenement, in these lovely halls with
their filthy brats! Well, I waited and didn't address the slightest
reproach to you. And now you have the good taste and the good manners to
use me as a kind of a cuspidor!
HASSENREUTER
My boy ...
JETTEL
The devil! I'm not your boy! You seem to be kind of a clown that I ought
to force to turn sommersaults for pennies!
[_Highly indignant, he picks up his hat and cane and goes._
HASSENREUTER
[_Starts, breaks out into boisterous laughter and then calls out after
JETTEL:_] Don't make yourself ridiculous! And, anyhow, I'm not a
costumer!
_The slamming of the outer door is heard._
HASSENREUTER
[_Pulls out his watch._] The confounded idiot! The damned mutton
head.--It's a blessing the ridiculous ass went! [_He puts the match back
into his pocket, pulls it out again at once and listens. He walks
restlessly to and fro, then stops, gases into his top-hat, which contains
a mirror, and combs his hair carefully. He walks over to the middle door
and opens a few of the letters that lie heaped up there. At the same time
he sings in a trilling voice:_
"O Strassburg, O Strassburg,
Thou beautiful old town."
_Once more he looks at his watch. Suddenly the doorbell at his head
rings._] On the minute! Ah, but these little girls can be punctual when
they really care about it! [_He hurries out into the hall and is heard to
extend a loud and merry welcome to someone. The trumpet notes of his
voice are soon accompanied by the bell-like tones of a woman's speaking.
Very soon he reappears, at his side an elegant young lady, ALICE
RÜTTERBUSCH._]--Alice! My little Alice! Come here where I can see you,
little girl! Come here into the light! I must see whether you're the same
infinitely delightful, mad little Alice that you were in the great days
of my career in Alsace? Girl, it was I who taught you to walk! I held
your leading strings for your first steps. I taught you how to talk,
girl! The things you said! I hope you haven't forgotten!
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
Now, look here! You don't believe that I'm an ungrateful girl?
HASSENREUTER
[_Draws up her veil._] Why, girlie, you've grown younger instead of
older.
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
[_Flushed with delight._] Well, a person would just have to be like
everything to say that you had changed to your disadvantage! But, do you
know--it's awful dark up here really and--Harro, maybe you wouldn't mind
opening a window a little--oh, the air's a bit heavy, too,
HASSENREUTER
"Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill"
"But mice and rats and such small deer
Have been Tom's food for seven long year."
In all seriousness I have passed through dark and difficult times! In
spite of the fact that I preferred not to write you of it, I have no
doubt that you are informed.
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
But it wasn't extra friendly, you know, for you not to answer one little
word to the long, nice letter I wrote you.
HASSENREUTER
Ha, ha, ha! What's the use of answering a little girl's letter if one has
both hands full taking care of oneself and can't possibly be of the
slightest use to her? Pshaw! _E nihilo nihil fit!_ In the vernacular: You
can't get results out of nothing! Moth and dust! Dust and moths! And
that's all my efforts for German culture in the west profited me!
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
So you didn't turn over your collection of properties to manager Kunz.
HASSENREUTER
"O Strassburg, O Strassburg,
Thou beautiful old town!"
No, little one, I didn't leave my properties in Strassburg! This
ex-waiter, ex-innkeeper and lessee of disreputable dance halls, this
idiot, this imbecile who succeeded me, didn't happen to want my stuff.
No, I didn't leave my collection of properties there, but what I did have
to leave there was forty thousand crowns of hard-earned money left me
from my old touring days as an actor, and, in addition, fifty thousand
crowns which formed the dowry of my excellent wife. However, it was a
piece of good luck, after all, that I kept the properties. Ha, ha, ha!
These fellows here ... [_he touches one of the mailed figures_] ...
surely you remember them?
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
Could I forget my pasteboard knights?
HASSENREUTER
Very well, then: it was these pasteboard knights and all the other trash
that surrounds them, that actually, after his hegira, kept the old
rag-picker and costumer, Harro Eberhard Hassenreuter, above water. But
let's speak of cheerful things: I saw with pleasure in the paper that his
Excellency has engaged you for Berlin.
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
I don't care a great deal about it! I'd rather play for you, and you must
promise me, whenever you undertake the management of a theatre again--you
will promise, won't you?--that you'll let me break my contract right
away? [_The MANAGER laughs heartily._] I had to be annoyed quite enough
for three long years by the barn-stormers of the provinces. Berlin I
don't like, and a court theatre least of all. Lord, what people and what
a profession it is! You know I belong to your collection--I've always
belonged to it!
[_She stands up primly among the pasteboard knights._
HASSENREUTER
Ha, ha, ha, ha! Well then, come to my arms, faithful knight!
[_He opens his arms wide, she flies into them, and they now salute
each other with long, continuous kisses._
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
Go on, Harro. Now tell me. How is your wife?
HASSENREUTER
Teresa gets along very well except that she gets fatter every day in
spite of sorrow and worries.--Girl, girl, how fragrant you are! [_He
presses her to him._] Do you know that you're a devilish dangerous
person?
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
D'you think I'm an idiot? Of course I'm dangerous!
HASSENREUTER
Well, I'll be ...!
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
Why, do you think if I didn't know it was dangerous, dangerous for us
both, I'd make an appointment with you out here in this lovely
neighbourhood, under this stuffy roof? By the way, though, since I'm
always bound to have the queerest luck if ever I do go a bit on
questionable ways, whom should I meet on the stairs but Nathanael Jettel?
I almost ran into the gentleman's arms! He'll take good care that my
visiting you doesn't remain our secret.
HASSENREUTER
I must have made a mistake in writing down the date. The fellow insists
on asserting--ha, ha, ha!--that I made an engagement with him for this
very afternoon.
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
And that wasn't the only person I met on the six flights. And as for the
dear little children that roll about on the stairs here! What they called
out after me was unparliamentary to a degree--such vulgarities as I've
never heard from such little beggars in my life.
HASSENREUTER
[_Laughs, then speaks seriously._] Ah, yes! But one gets accustomed to
that. You could never write down all the life that sweeps down these
stairs with its soiled petticoats--the life that cringes and creeps,
moans, sighs, sweats, cries out, curses, mutters, hammers, planes, jeers,
steals, drives its dark trades up and down these stairs--the sinister
creatures that hide here, playing their zither, grinding their
accordions, sticking in need and hunger and misery, leading their vicious
lives--no, it's beyond one's power of recording. And your old manager,
last but not least, runs, groans, sighs, sweats, cries out and curses
with the best of them. Ha, ha, ha, girlie! I've had a pretty wretched
time.
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
Oh, by the way, d'you know whom I ran into just as I was making for the
railroad station at the Zoological Garden? The good old Prince
Statthalter! And straight off, cool as a cucumber--that's my way you
know--I tripped along next to him for twenty minutes and got him absorbed
in a conversation. And then something happened, Harro, upon my honour,
just as I'm going to tell you--literally and truly: Suddenly on the
bridle-path His Majesty came riding along with a great suite. I thought
I'd sink into the earth with embarrassment. And His Majesty laughed right
out and threatened his Serenity playfully with his finger. But I was
delighted, you may believe me. The main thing comes now, however. Just
think! His Serenity asked me whether I'd be glad to go back to Strassburg
if the manager Hassenreuter were to assume direction of the theatre there
again. Well, you may know that I almost jumped for joy!
HASSENREUTER
[_Throws off his overcoat and stands with his decorations displayed._]
You probably couldn't help noticing that His Serenity had had a most
excellent breakfast. Aha! We had breakfast together! We attended an
exquisite little stag party given by Prince Ruprecht out in Potsdam. I
don't deny, therefore, that a turn for good may take place in the
miserable fate of your friend.
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH
Sweetheart, you look like a statesman, like an ambassador!
HASSENREUTER
Ah, don't you know this breast covered with high and exalted decorations?
Klärchen and Egmont! Here you can drink your fill! [_They embrace each
other anew._] _Carpe diem!_ Enjoy the passing hour! Ah, my little Miss
Simplicity, champagne is not recorded at present on the repertory of your
old manager, inspirer and friend. [_He opens a wooden case and draws
forth a bottle of wine._] But this old cloister vintage isn't to be
sneezed at either! [_He pulls the cork. At the same moment the door bell
rings._] What? Sh! I wonder who has the monstrous impudence to ring here
on Sunday afternoon? [_The bell rings with increased violence._] Confound
it all--the fellow must be a lunatic. Little girl, suppose you withdraw
into the library. [_ALICE hurries into the library. The ringing is
repeated. He hurries to the door._] Either be patient or go to the devil.
[_He is heard opening the door._] Who? What? "It is I, Miss Walburga."
What? I am not Miss Walburga. I am not the daughter. I am the father. Oh,
it's you, Mr. Spitta! Your very humble servant. I'm only her father--only
her father! What is it that you want?
_HASSENREUTER reappears in the passage accompanied by ERICH SPITTA, a
young man of twenty-one, spectacled, with keen and not
undistinguished features, SPITTA passes as a student of theology and
is correspondingly dressed. He does not hold himself erect and his
development shows the influence of over-study and underfeeding._
HASSENREUTER
Did you intend to give my daughter one of your private lessons here in my
storeroom?
SPITTA
I was riding past on the tram-car and I really thought I had seen Miss
Walburga hurry into the doorway downstairs.
HASSENREUTER
No possibility of such a thing, my dear Spitta. At this moment my
daughter Walburga is attending a ritualistic service with her mother in
the Anglican church.
SPITTA
Then perhaps you'll forgive my intrusion. I took the liberty of coming
upstairs because I thought that Miss Walburga might not find it
unpleasant or useless to have an escort home through this neighbourhood.
HASSENREUTER
Very good! Very excellent! But she isn't here. I regret it. I'm here
myself by the merest chance--on account of the mail. And in addition, I
have other pressing engagements. Can I do anything else for you?
_SPITTA polishes his glasses and betrays signs of embarrassment._
SPITTA
One doesn't grow used to the darkness at once.
HASSENREUTER
Perhaps you stand in need of the tuition due you. Sorry, but
unfortunately I have the habit of going out with only some small change
in my waistcoat pocket. So I must ask you to have patience until I am at
home again.
SPITTA
Not the least hurry in the world.
HASSENREUTER
Yes, it's easy for you to say that. I'm like a hunted animal, my dear
fellow ...
SPITTA
And yet I would like to beg for a minute of your precious time. I can't
but look upon this unexpected meeting as a kind of providential
arrangement. In short: may I put a question to you?
HASSENREUTER
[_With his eyes on his watch, which he has just been winding._] One
minute exactly. By the watch, my good fellow!
SPITTA
Both my question and your answer need hardly take that long.
HASSENREUTER
Well, then!
SPITTA
Have I any talent for the stage?
HASSENREUTER
For the love of God, man! Have you gone mad?--Forgive me, my dear fellow,
if a case like this excites me to the point of being discourteous. You
have certainly given the lie to the saying: _natura non facit saltus_ by
the unnatural leap that you've taken. I must first get my breath after
that! And now let's put an end to this at once. Believe me, if we were
both to discuss the question now we wouldn't come to any conclusion in
two or three weeks, or rather, let us say years.--You are a theologian by
profession, my good fellow, and you were born in a parsonage. You have
all the necessary connections and a smooth road to a comfortable way of
life ahead of you. How did you hit upon such a notion as this?
SPITTA