The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I Part 12

HOFFMANN

You go too far, Helen.

HELEN

I don't know. According to my feeling it's far more sensible to break windows, than to tether pigeons to a post and then shoot bullets into them.

HOFFMANN

Well, Helen, after all, you must consider ...

LOTH

[_Using his knife and fork with energy._] It is a shameful barbarity.

KAHL

Aw! _Them_ few pigeons!

MRS. SPILLER

[_To LOTH._] Mr. Kahl, you know, has m-more than two-hundred of them in his dove-cote.

LOTH

All hunting is barbarity.

HOFFMANN

But an ineradicable one. Just now, for instance, five hundred live foxes are wanted in the market, and all foresters in this neighbourhood and in other parts of Germany are busy snaring the animals.

LOTH

What are all those foxes wanted for?

HOFFMANN

They are sent to England, where they will enjoy the honour of being hunted from their very cages straight to death by members of the aristocracy.

LOTH

Mohammedan or Christian--a beast's a beast.

HOFFMANN

May I pa.s.s you some lobster, mother?

MRS. KRAUSE

I guess so. They're good this here season.

MRS. SPILLER

Madame has such a delicate palate.

MRS. KRAUSE

[_To LOTH._] I suppose you ain't ever et lobsters neither, Doctor?

LOTH

Yes, I have eaten lobsters now and then--in the North, by the sea, in Warnemuende, where I was born.

MRS. KRAUSE

[_To KAHL._] Times an' times a person don't know what _to_ eat no more.

Eh, William.

KAHL

Y-y're r-right there, cousin, G-G.o.d knows.

EDWARD

[_Is about to pour champagne into LOTH'S gla.s.s._] Champagne, sir.

LOTH

[_Covers his gla.s.s with his hand._] No, thank you.

HOFFMANN

Come now, don't be absurd.

HELEN

What? Don't you drink?

LOTH

No, Miss Krause.

HOFFMANN

Well, now, look here, old man. That is, you must admit, rather tiresome.

LOTH