The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume Ii Part 6

HENSCHEL

You hold your tongue! No one asked you! You poke your nose over your kneadin' board an' not into other folks' affairs! It takes somethin' to keep a hotel like this goin'. Two months in the year he makes money. The rest o' the time he has to do the best he can.

HAUFFE

An' he had to go an' build atop o' that!

MRS. HENSCHEL

An' 'twas that as got him in worse'n ever. He should ha' let it be.

HENSCHEL

Women don't understand nothin' o' such affairs. He had to build; he couldn't do no different. We gets more an' more people who come here for their health nowadays; there wasn't half so many formerly. But in those times they had money; now they wants everythin' for nothin'. Get the bottle. I'd like to drink a nip o' whiskey.

HAUFFE

[_Slowly clasping his knife and getting ready to rise._] Forty rooms, three big halls, an' nothin' in 'em excep' rats an' mice. How's he goin'

to raise the interest?

[_He rises._

_FRANZISKA WERMELSKIRCH peeps in. She is a pretty, lively girl of sixteen. She wears her long, dark hair open. Her costume is slightly eccentric: the skirts white and short, the bodice cut in triangular shape at the neck, the sash long and gay. Her arms are bare above the elbows. Around her neck she wears a coloured ribbon from which a crucifix hangs down._

FRANZISKA

[_Very vivaciously._] Wasn't Mr. Siebenhaar here just now? I wish you a pleasant meal, ladies and gentlemen! I merely took the liberty of asking whether Mr. Siebenhaar hadn't been here just now?

MRS. HENSCHEL

[_Gruffly._] We don't know nothin'. He wasn't with us!

FRANZISKA

No? I thought he was!

[_She puts her foot coquettishly on the bench and ties her shoe strings._

MRS. HENSCHEL

Mr. Siebenhaar here an' Mr. Siebenhaar there! What are you always wantin'

of the man?

FRANZISKA

I? nothing! But he's so fond of gooseliver. Mama happens to have some and so papa sent me to tell him so.--By the way, Mr. Henschel, do you know that you might drop in to see us again, too!

MRS. HENSCHEL

You just let father bide where he is! That'd be a fine way! He's not thinkin' about runnin' into taverns these days.

FRANZISKA

We're broaching a new keg to-day, though.

HENSCHEL

[_While HAUFFE grins and HANNE laughs._] Mother, you stick to your own affairs. If I should want to go an' drink a gla.s.s o' beer I wouldn't be askin' n.o.body's consent, you c'n be sure.

FRANZISKA

--How are you anyhow, Mrs. Henschel?

MRS. HENSCHEL

Oh, to-morrow I'll be gettin' me a sash too an' take to rope-dancin'.

FRANZISKA

I'll join you. I can do that splendidly. I always practice on the carriage shafts.

HENSCHEL

So that's the reason why all the shafts are bent!

FRANZISKA

Do you see, this is the way it's done; this is the way to balance oneself. [_Imitating the movements of a tight rope dancer, she prances out by the door._] Right leg! Left leg! _Au revoir!_

[_Exit._

HAUFFE

[_Taking down his lantern._] She'll go off her head pretty soon if she don't get no husband.

[_Exit._

MRS. HENSCHEL

If she had to lend a hand an' work good an' hard, she'd get over that foolishness.

HANNE

She's not allowed to come upstairs. Mrs. Siebenhaar won't have her.

MRS. HENSCHEL

An' she's right there. I wouldn't bear it neither.