Mother Earth No. 2, April 1906 Part 8

RITA: Bertha, when the Count comes--now I am really sick.

BERTHA (_nods_): Very well. (_She leaves._)

RITA (_calls after her_): And where is the coffee? I shall famish.

BERTHA (_outside_): Immediately.

FRIEDRICH: The--the Count--did you say?

RITA: Yes, quite a fine fellow otherwise, but--would not fit in now. I wanted to say: I am pa.s.sionately fond of electric bells. You know they have a fabulous charm for me. One only needs to touch them softly, ever so softly, with the small finger, and still cause a terrible noise.

Fine--is it not? You wanted to talk about serious matters. It seems so to me.

FRIEDRICH: Yes. And I beg of you, Miss Erna----

RITA: Erna?

FRIEDRICH: Erna!

RITA: Oh, well!

FRIEDRICH (_continuing_): I beg of you; be really and truly serious.

Yes? Listen to what I have to say to you. Be a.s.sured that it comes from an honest, warm heart. During the years in which I have not seen you, I have grown to be a serious man--perhaps, too serious for my age--but my feelings for you have remained young, quite young. Do you hear me, Erna?

RITA (_leaning back in the rocking chair, with a sigh_): I hear.

FRIEDRICH: And you know, Erna, how I have always loved you from my earliest youth, yes, even sooner than I myself suspected. You know that, yes?

(_Rita is silent and does not look at him_.)

FRIEDRICH: When I was still a foolish schoolboy I already called you my betrothed, and I could not but think otherwise than that I would some day call you my wife. You certainly know that, don't you?

RITA (_reserved_): Yes, I know it.

FRIEDRICH: Well, then you ought to be able to understand what dreadful feelings overcame me when I discovered, sooner than you or the world, the affection of my father for you. That was--no, you cannot grasp it.

RITA (_looks at him searchingly_): Sooner than I and all the world?

FRIEDRICH: Oh, a great deal sooner ... that was.... That time was the beginning of the hardest innermost struggles for me. What was I to do?

(_He sighs deeply_.) Ah, Miss Erna, we people are really----

RITA: Yes, yes.

FRIEDRICH: We are dreadfully shallow-minded. How seldom one of us can really live as he would like to. Must we not always and forever consider others--and our surroundings?

RITA: Must?

FRIEDRICH: Well, yes, we do so, at least. And when it is our own father!

For, look here, Erna, I never would have been able to oppose my father!

I was used, as you well know, from childhood to always look up to my father with the greatest respect. He used to be severe, my father, proud and inaccessible, but--if I may be permitted to say so, he was an excellent man.

RITA: Well?

FRIEDRICH (_eagerly_): Yes, indeed! You must remember that it was he alone who established our business by means of his powerful energy and untiring diligence. Only now I myself have undertaken the management of the establishment. I am able to see what an immense work he has accomplished.

RITA (_simply_): Yes, he was an able business man.

FRIEDRICH: In every respect! Ability personified, and he had grown to be fifty-two years of age and was still, still--how shall I say?

RITA: Still able.

FRIEDRICH: Well, yes; I mean a vigorous man in his best years. For fifteen years he had been a widower, he had worked, worked unceasingly, and then--the house was well established--he could think of placing some of the work upon younger shoulders. He could think of enjoying his life once more.

RITA (_softly_): That is----

FRIEDRICH (_continuing_): And he thought he had found, in you, the one who would bring back to him youth and the joy of life.

RITA (_irritated_): Yes, but then you ought to--(_Breaks off._) Oh, it is not worth while.

FRIEDRICH: How? I should have been man enough to say: No, I forbid it; that is a folly of age. I, your son, forbid it. I demand her for myself.

The young fortune is meant for me--not for you?----No, Erna, I could not do that. I could not do that.

RITA: No.

FRIEDRICH: I, the young clerk, with no future before me!

RITA: No!

FRIEDRICH: My entire training and my conceptions urged me to consider it my duty to simply stand aside and stifle my affection, as I did--as I already told you even before any other person had an idea of the intentions of my father. I gradually grew away from you.

RITA (_amused_): Gradually--yes, I recollect. You suddenly became formal. Indeed, very nice!

FRIEDRICH: I thought----

(_Bertha comes with the coffee and serves._)

RITA: Will you take a cup with me?

FRIEDRICH (_thoughtlessly_): I thought----(_Correcting himself_) pardon me! I thank you!

RITA: I hope it will not disturb you if I drink my coffee while you continue.

FRIEDRICH: Please (_embarra.s.sed_). I thought it a proper thing. I hoped that my cold and distant att.i.tude would check a possible existing affection for me.

RITA: Possible existing affection! Fie! Now you are beginning to lie!

(_She jumps up and walks nervously through the room._) As though you had not positively known that! (_Stepping in front of him_) Or what did you take me for when I kissed you?

FRIEDRICH (_very much frightened, also rises_): O, Erna, I always----