The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I Part 165

That's the way! That whole crowd don't deserve no better. Not Wehrhahn an' not Friderici. An' anyhow, it was a good thing, Mrs. Fielitz. It was done just in the nick o' time! Now he's gone an' broken with them fellers, an' everybody knows it. There ain't no goin' back now. Now he belongs to us, Mrs. Fielitz, an' I never would ha' thought it of him!

MRS. FIELITZ

You got reason to be satisfied with him, I'm thinkin'. Look at the noise in your workshop with four journeymen ...

LANGHEINRICH

That's true, too, an' I'm not denyin' it. He put money in circulation. I couldn't make friends with Pastor Friderici's collection plate. Couldn't do it. Now everything's arranged.--Now I want you to keep your eyes open at the window when I gets up to the top o' the steeple. I'll wave an'

sing out an'--jump down!

_LANGHEINRICH and EDE exeunt with the weather vane. A brief silence._

MRS. FIELITZ

I wonder if Rauchhaupt will be comin' in to-day?

LEONTINE

I don't see, mother, why you're so frightened all the time. Rauchhaupt ain't nothin' but an old fool. Let him come all he pleases an' jabber away! Let him, mother. n.o.body don't pay no attention to his nonsense!

MRS. FIELITZ

They says as he's been talkin' around a lot.

LEONTINE

Well, let him! I got letters too. Here's one of 'em again, mother. [_She throws down a letter in its envelope._] But I don't worry about that. An'

anyhow it's only that a.s.sistant at the railroad.

MRS. FIELITZ

It might ha' been Constable Schulze, too.

LEONTINE

Or that a.s.sistant teacher Lehnert--if you want to go on guessin'!

MRS. FIELITZ

Well, let 'em! Them fellers is jealous--an' envious o' Schmarowski an'

his new house! They'd like to go an' lay somethin' at our door. But no!

'Tain't so simple as that!

LEONTINE

[_Who has been sewing at her machine for a moment._] Look, mama, I found this here!

MRS. FIELITZ

Hurry now, hurry! Don't go an' lose time now. That dress has got to be ready by two. Adelaide has been sendin' over again!--The one thing you ought to do is to go down to the cellar an' get that couple o' bottles o'

wine, so's we can drink their health when they come up! You c'n see, they'll soon be through.

LEONTINE

That thing was the Missis' spine supporter.

MRS. FIELITZ

She was a poor, wretched crittur: strappin' herself an' tyin' herself an'

squeezin' herself, an' yet she couldn't get rid o' her hump.

LEONTINE

Well, why did she have to be so vain!

MRS. FIELITZ

Don't grudge her her rest. She's deserved it.

LEONTINE

They says that her ghost keeps rappin' up in the top attic where Langheinrich sleeps.

MRS. FIELITZ

Let her be! Let her be! Don't talk no more. Maybe he was a bit rough with her for all she brought money to him. She had to sew an' sew an' earn money.... No wonder she can't find no rest.

LEONTINE

Why did she have to go an' marry Langheinrich?

MRS. FIELITZ

Let them old stories be! I don't like to hear about 'em. My head's full enough o' trouble without 'em. I don't know what's wrong with me anyhow.

A body sees ghosts enough now an' then without thinkin' o' the past.

LEONTINE

I must say, though, that if he's unfaithful to me that way....

MRS. FIELITZ

Langheinrich? Let him go an' be. When it comes to that, there ain't no man that's any good. If there was to be a single one whom you could go an' depend on when it comes to that--it'd be somethin' new to me.--Main thing is to be at your post. The man ain't bad. He means reel well. Be savin'. You know how careful he is! An' take care o' his bit o' clothes an' be good to his little girl. He don't object to your boy. [_FIELITZ re-enters clad in his long, black Sunday coat._] You can't go to that dinner lookin' like that. Come here an' I'll sew on that there b.u.t.ton.

FIELITZ

'Tain't possible you'll do that much! Don't go an' hurt yourself now.

MRS. FIELITZ