HOFFMANN
You go too far, Helen.
HELEN
I don't know. According to my feeling it's far more sensible to break windows, than to tether pigeons to a post and then shoot bullets into them.
HOFFMANN
Well, Helen, after all, you must consider ...
LOTH
[_Using his knife and fork with energy._] It is a shameful barbarity.
KAHL
Aw! _Them_ few pigeons!
MRS. SPILLER
[_To LOTH._] Mr. Kahl, you know, has m-more than two-hundred of them in his dove-cote.
LOTH
All hunting is barbarity.
HOFFMANN
But an ineradicable one. Just now, for instance, five hundred live foxes are wanted in the market, and all foresters in this neighbourhood and in other parts of Germany are busy snaring the animals.
LOTH
What are all those foxes wanted for?
HOFFMANN
They are sent to England, where they will enjoy the honour of being hunted from their very cages straight to death by members of the aristocracy.
LOTH
Mohammedan or Christian--a beast's a beast.
HOFFMANN
May I pass you some lobster, mother?
MRS. KRAUSE
I guess so. They're good this here season.
MRS. SPILLER
Madame has such a delicate palate.
MRS. KRAUSE
[_To LOTH._] I suppose you ain't ever et lobsters neither, Doctor?
LOTH
Yes, I have eaten lobsters now and then--in the North, by the sea, in Warnemuende, where I was born.
MRS. KRAUSE
[_To KAHL._] Times an' times a person don't know what _to_ eat no more.
Eh, William.
KAHL
Y-y're r-right there, cousin, G-God knows.
EDWARD
[_Is about to pour champagne into LOTH'S glass._] Champagne, sir.
LOTH
[_Covers his glass with his hand._] No, thank you.
HOFFMANN
Come now, don't be absurd.
HELEN
What? Don't you drink?
LOTH
No, Miss Krause.
HOFFMANN
Well, now, look here, old man. That is, you must admit, rather tiresome.
LOTH