Erdgeist (Earth-Spirit) Part 15

SCHWARZ. Who was here?

SCHoN. Her father.

SCHWARZ. Here--in my house?

SCHoN. He squeezed by me as I came in. And there are the two gla.s.ses still.

SCHWARZ. She says he died in the madhouse.

SCHoN. Let her feel she's in authority--! She craves nothing but the compulsion to unconditional obedience. With Dr. Goll she was in heaven, and with him there was no joking.

SCHWARZ. (Shaking his head.) She said she had never loved--

SCHoN. But you, make a beginning with yourself. Pull yourself together!

SCHWARZ. She has sworn--!

SCHoN. You can't demand a sense of duty in her before you know your own task.

SCHWARZ. By her mother's grave!

SCHoN. She never knew her mother, let alone the grave. Her mother hasn't got a grave.

SCHWARZ. I don't fit in society. (He is in desperation.)

SCHoN. What's the matter?

SCHWARZ. Pain--horrible pain!

SCHoN. (Gets up, steps back; after a pause.) Guard her for yourself: she's yours. The moment is decisive. To-morrow she may be lost to you.

SCHWARZ. (Pointing to his breast.) Here, here.

SCHoN. You have married half-- (Reflecting.) She is lost to you if you let this moment slip!

SCHWARZ. If I could weep! Oh, if I could cry out!

SCHoN. (With a hand on his shoulder.) You're suffering--

SCHWARZ. (Getting up, apparently quiet.) You are right, quite right.

SCHoN. (Gripping his hand.) Where are you going?

SCHWARZ. To speak with her.

SCHoN. Right! (Accompanies him to the door, left. Coming back.) That was tough work. (After a pause, looking right.) He had taken her into the studio before though? (A fearful groan, left. He hurries to the door and finds it locked.) Open! Open the door!

LULU. (Stepping thru the hangings, right.) What's--

SCHoN. Open it!

LULU. (Comes down the steps.) That is horrible.

SCHoN. Have you an ax in the kitchen?

LULU. He'll open it right off--

SCHoN. I can't kick it down.

LULU. When he's had his cry out.

SCHoN. (Kicking the door.) Open! (To Lulu.) Bring me an ax.

LULU. Send for the doctor--

SCHoN. You are not yourself.

LULU. It serves you right. (Bell rings in the corridor. Schon and Lulu stare at each other. Then Schon slips up-stage and stands in the doorway.)

SCHoN. I mustn't let myself be seen here.

LULU. Perhaps it's the art-dealer. (The bell rings again.)

SCHoN. But if we don't answer it--

LULU. (Steals toward the door; but Schon holds her.) --

SCHoN. Stop. It sometimes happens that one is not just at hand-- (He goes out on tip-toes. Lulu turns back to the locked door and listens.

Schon returns with Alva.) Please be quiet.

ALVA. (Very excited.) A revolution has broken out in Paris!

SCHoN. Be quiet.

ALVA. (To Lulu.) You're as pale as death.

SCHoN. (Rattling at the door.) Walter! Walter! (A death-rattle heard behind the door.)

LULU. G.o.d pity you.

SCHoN. Haven't you brought an ax?

LULU. If there's one there-- (Goes slowly out, upper left.)

ALVA. He's just keeping us in suspense.

SCHoN. A revolution has broken out in Paris?

ALVA. In the editors' room they're beating their heads against the wall. No one knows what he ought to write. (The bell rings in the corridor.)