The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume Ii Part 117

MRS. JOHN

[_In timid suspense._] Well ...?

JOHN

Oh, never mind! Nothin! There was nothin' to it.

MRS. JOHN [_As before._] What did he say?

JOHN

What d'you think he said? But if you're bound to know--'tain't no use talkin' o' such things Sunday mornin'--he axed me after Bruno again.

MRS. JOHN

[_Pale and speaking hastily._] What do they say Bruno has done again?

JOHN

Nothin'. Here, come'n drink a little coffee, Jette, an' don' get excited!

It ain't your fault that you got a brother like that. We don't has to concern ourselves about other people.

MRS. JOHN

I'd like to know what an old fool like that what spies aroun' all day long has always gotta be talkin' about Bruno.

JOHN

Jette, don' bother me about Bruno--You see ...aw, what's the use ...

might as well keep still!... But if I was goin' to tell you the truth, I'd say that it wouldn't surprise me if some day Bruno'd come to a pretty bad end right out in the yard o' the gaol, too--a quick end. [_MRS. JOHN sits down heavily beside the table. She grows grey in the face and breathes with difficulty._] Maybe not! Maybe not! Don't take it to heart so right off!--How's the sister?

MRS. JOHN

I don' know.

JOHN

Why, I thought you was out there visitin' her?

MRS. JOHN

[_Looks at him absently._] Where was I?

JOHN

Well, you see, Jette, that's the way it is with you women! You're jus'

shakin', but oh no--you don' want to go to no doctor! An' it'll end maybe, by your havin' to take to your bed. That's what comes o'

neglectin' nature.

MRS. JOHN

[_Throwing her arms about JOHN'S neck._] Paul, you're goin' to leave me!

For G.o.d's sake, tell me right out that it's so! Don' fool me aroun' an'

cheat me! Tell me right out!

JOHN

What's the matter with you to-day, Henrietta?

MRS. JOHN

[_Pulling herself together._] Don' attend to my fool talk. I ain't had no rest all night--that's it. An' then I got up reel early, an' anyhow, it ain't nothin' but that I'm a bit weak yet.

JOHN

Then you better lie down flat on your back an' rest a little. [_MRS. JOHN throws herself on the sofa and stares at the ceiling._] Maybe you'd better comb yourself a bit afterwards, Jette!--It musta been mighty dusty on the train for you to be jus' covered all over with sand the way you are! [_MRS. JOHN does not answer but continues staring at the ceiling._]

I must go an' bring that there little feller into the light a bit.

[_He goes behind the part.i.tion._

MRS. JOHN

How long has we been married, Paul?

JOHN

[_Plays with the rattle behind the part.i.tion. Then answers_:] That was in eighteen hundred and seventy-two, jus' as I came back from the war.

MRS. JOHN

Then you came to father, didn't you? An' you a.s.soomed a grand position an' you had the Iron Cross on the left side o' your chest.

JOHN

[_Appears, swinging the rattle and carrying the child on its pillow. He speaks merrily._] That's so, mother. An' I got it yet. If you want to see it, I'll pin it on.

MRS. JOHN

[_Still stretched out on the sofa._] An' then you came to me an' you said that I wasn't to be so busy all the time ... goin' up an' down, runnin'

upstairs an' downstairs ... that I was to be a bit more easy-goin'.

JOHN

An' I'm still sayin' that same thing to-day.

MRS. JOHN

An' then you tickled me with your moustache an' kissed me right behind my left ear! An' then ...