The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - LightNovelsOnl.com
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LANGHEINRICH
Nothin' broke loose here? What's all this about? Easy now, easy! Howdy do, Mr. Schmarowski? How are you? Have you come to visit your mother-in-law?
SCHMAROWSKI
I have business here!--And before I forget it, I should like to say: Have the goodness to be more careful.
DR. BOXER
Who is this amusing gentleman, Langheinrich?
EDE
That's Mrs. Wolff's son-in-law.
SCHMAROWSKI
I'll have no dealings with you at all.
EDE
Naw, you better not.
SCHMAROWSKI
Not with you--[_Turning to DR. BOXER._] But if you don't know who I am, you can get information from Baron von Wehrhahn, the Right Reverend Bishop, the Baroness Bielschewski and the Countess Strach.
DR. BOXER
You want me to go around and get information from all those people?
SCHMAROWSKI
That's what you're to do--just that an' nothing else. Then maybe you can be more careful in future an' look people over before you talk.
LANGHEINRICH
What's gotten into you to-day? You're so dam' touchy!
SCHMAROWSKI
[_To DR. BOXER, who has glanced at EDE and LANGHEINRICH alternately with serene laughter._] You just be so good an' be more careful: we ain't so soft. We don't take jokes so easy, especially not from the race to which you ...
LANGHEINRICH
Hold on, Mr. Schmarowski! That's enough! Nothin' like that here. That's enough an' too much, Mr. Schmarowski. You just see about gettin' along on your way now.
SCHMAROWSKI
Do you know where I am going straight from here?
LANGHEINRICH
You c'n go straight ahead to the Lord hisself! You c'n go where you want to, Schmarowski; only, don't be keepin' me from my work. We ain't got no time to lose here!--Ede, put that axle in!
_SCHMAROWSKI exit, enraged._
EDE
Good-bye!
DR. BOXER
So that was Mr. Schmarowski, the envied pillar of the church? Why, he's a poisonous little devil!
LANGHEINRICH
Yes, you're right there! Pois'nous is what he is. So you didn't, know him, Dr. Boxer? Well, then you've seen him now--nothin' but a little, sly, venomous pup! But you ought to go an' watch him when he gets in with that pious crowd. Then he lets his ears hang, so 'umble his own mother wouldn't hardly know him, like as if he was sayin': I ain't goin' to live more'n two weeks at--most an' then I'm goin' to heaven to be with Jesus.
Yes! Likely! There's another place where he's goin'. But that won't be soon. He ain't thinkin' of it much yet. An' in the meantime he rolls his eyes upward 'cause somethin' might be hangin' round that he c'n make a profit on.
EDE
Well, you c'n look out now! Yon ain't goin' to get no work on the new inst.i.tution.
LANGHEINRICH
I know that. Can't be helped. Things is as they is. Can't hold' my tongue at things like that. I won't learn that in a lifetime.
DR. BOXER
Have you many of that kind hereabouts now?
LANGHEINRICH
So, so. Enough to last for the winter.
_RAUCHHAUPT has come out of the little gate. He faces the wind, shades his eyes with his hand and peers around._
RAUCHHAUPT
Lord A'mighty! Well, well! Things is goin' the queerest way to-day! When is they comin' back--them Fielitzes?
LANGHEINRICH
That ain't goin' to be so very soon to-day. They've gone to buy a seven-day clock, a regulator. What are you upset about to-day?
RAUCHHAUPT
Wha'? Fielitz goin' to buy that kind of a clock? I don't believe's he c'n survive that. [_Calls._] Gustav!
