The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - novelonlinefull.com
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[_Hums very softly._] "Thou in my heart art lying ..."
LOTH
But now you must confess too.
HELEN
Anything you like.
LOTH
Confess now! Am I the first?
HELEN
No.
LOTH
Who?
HELEN
[_Laughing out in the fullness of her joy._] w.i.l.l.y Kahl!
LOTH
[_Laughing._] Who else?
HELEN
Oh, no, there's no one else really. You must believe me ... Truly there wasn't. Why should I tell you a falsehood?
LOTH
So there _was_ someone else?
HELEN
[_Pa.s.sionately._] Oh, please, please, please, don't ask me now.
[_She hides her face in her hands and weeps apparently without any reason._
LOTH
But ... but Nellie! I'm not insistent; I don't want to ...
HELEN
Later ... I'll tell you later ... not now!
LOTH
As I said before, dearest.
HELEN
There was some one--I want you to know--whom I ... because ... because among wicked people he seemed the least wicked. Oh, it is so different now. [_Weeping against LOTH'S neck: stormily._] Ah, if I only didn't have to leave you at all any more! Oh, if I could only go away with you right here on the spot!
LOTH
I suppose you have a very unhappy time in the house here?
HELEN
Oh, dear!--It's just frightful--the things that happen here. It's a life like--that ... like that of the beasts of the field--Oh, I would have died without you. I shudder to think of it!
LOTH
I believe it would calm you, dearest, if you would tell me everything quite openly.
HELEN
Yes, to be sure. But I don't think I can bear to. Not now, at least, not yet. And I'm really afraid to.
LOTH
You were at boarding-school, weren't you?
HELEN
My mother decided that I be sent--on her death-bed.
LOTH
Was your sister there with you?
HELEN
No, she was always at home ... And so when, four years ago, I came back from school, I found a father--who ... a step-mother--who ... a sister ... guess, can't you guess what I mean!
LOTH
I suppose your step-mother is quarrelsome? Perhaps jealous? unloving?
HELEN
My father...?
