Minna Von Barnhelm Part 3

MAJ. T.

And then!!!!!

JUST.

To take your revenge... No, the fellow is beneath your notice!

MAJ. T.

But to commission you to avenge me? That was my intention from the first. He should not have seen me again, but have received the amount of his bill from your hands. I know that you can throw down a handful of money with a tolerably contemptuous mien.

JUST.

Oh! a pretty sort of revenge!

MAJ. T.

Which, however, we must defer. I have not one h.e.l.ler of ready money, and I know not where to raise any.

JUST.

No money! What is that purse then with five hundred thalers' worth of louis d'ors, which the Landlord found in your desk?

MAJ. T.

That is money given into my charge.

JUST.

Not the hundred pistoles which your old sergeant brought you four or five weeks back?

MAJ. T.

The same. Paul Werner's; right.

JUST.

And you have not used them yet? Yet, sir, you may do what you please with them. I will answer for it that!!!!!

MAJ. T.

Indeed!

JUST.

Werner heard from me, how they had treated your claims upon the War Office. He heard!!!!!

MAJ. T.

That I should certainly be a beggar soon, if I was not one already. I am much obliged to you, Just. And the news induced Werner to offer to share his little all with me. I am very glad that I guessed this.

Listen, Just; let me have your account, directly, too; we must part.

JUST.

How! what!

MAJ. T.

Not a word. There is someone coming.

SCENE V.

Lady _in mourning_, Major von Tellheim, Just

LADY.

I ask your pardon, sir.

MAJ. T.

Whom do you seek, Madam?

LADY.

The worthy gentleman with whom I have the honour of speaking. You do not know me again. I am the widow of your late captain.

MAJ. T.

Good heavens, Madam, how you are changed!

LADY.

I have just risen from a sick bed, to which grief on the loss of my husband brought me. I am troubling you at a very early hour, Major von Tellheim, but I am going into the country, where a kind, but also unfortunate friend, has for the present offered me an asylum.

MAJ. T. (to Just).

Leave us.

SCENE VI.

Lady, Major von Tellheim

MAJ. T.

Speak freely, Madam! You must not be ashamed of your bad fortune before me. Can I serve you in any way?

LADY.

Major!!!!!

MAJ. T.

I pity you, Madam! How can I serve you? You know your husband was my friend; my friend, I say, and I have always been sparing of this t.i.tle.

LADY.

Who knows better than I do how worthy you were of his friends.h.i.+p how worthy he was of yours? You would have been in his last thoughts, your name would have been the last sound on his dying lips, had not natural affection, stronger than friends.h.i.+p, demanded this sad prerogative for his unfortunate son, and his unhappy wife.

MAJ. T.

Cease, Madam! I could willingly weep with you; but I have no tears to-day. Spare me! You come to me at a time when I might easily be misled to murmur against Providence. Oh! honest Marloff! Quick, Madam, what have you to request? If it is in my power to a.s.sist you, if it is in my power!!!!!

LADY.

I cannot depart without fulfilling his last wishes. He recollected, shortly before his death, that he was dying a debtor to you, and he conjured me to discharge his debt with the first ready money I should have. I have sold his carriage, and come to redeem his note.

MAJ. T.

What, Madam! Is that your object in coming?

LADY.

It is. Permit me to count out the money to you.

MAJ. T.