[_Throws off his overcoat and stands with his decorations displayed._]
You probably couldn't help noticing that His Serenity had had a most excellent breakfast. Aha! We had breakfast together! We attended an exquisite little stag party given by Prince Ruprecht out in Potsdam. I don't deny, therefore, that a turn for good may take place in the miserable fate of your friend.
ALICE RuTTERBUSCH
Sweetheart, you look like a statesman, like an ambassador!
HASSENREUTER
Ah, don't you know this breast covered with high and exalted decorations?
Klarchen and Egmont! Here you can drink your fill! [_They embrace each other anew._] _Carpe diem!_ Enjoy the passing hour! Ah, my little Miss Simplicity, champagne is not recorded at present on the repertory of your old manager, inspirer and friend. [_He opens a wooden case and draws forth a bottle of wine._] But this old cloister vintage isn't to be sneezed at either! [_He pulls the cork. At the same moment the door bell rings._] What? Sh! I wonder who has the monstrous impudence to ring here on Sunday afternoon? [_The bell rings with increased violence._] Confound it all--the fellow must be a lunatic. Little girl, suppose you withdraw into the library. [_ALICE hurries into the library. The ringing is repeated. He hurries to the door._] Either be patient or go to the devil.
[_He is heard opening the door._] Who? What? "It is I, Miss Walburga."
What? I am not Miss Walburga. I am not the daughter. I am the father. Oh, it's you, Mr. Spitta! Your very humble servant. I'm only her father--only her father! What is it that you want?
_HASSENREUTER reappears in the passage accompanied by ERICH SPITTA, a young man of twenty-one, spectacled, with keen and not undistinguished features, SPITTA passes as a student of theology and is correspondingly dressed. He does not hold himself erect and his development shows the influence of over-study and underfeeding._
HASSENREUTER
Did you intend to give my daughter one of your private lessons here in my storeroom?
SPITTA
I was riding past on the tram-car and I really thought I had seen Miss Walburga hurry into the doorway downstairs.
HASSENREUTER
No possibility of such a thing, my dear Spitta. At this moment my daughter Walburga is attending a ritualistic service with her mother in the Anglican church.
SPITTA
Then perhaps you'll forgive my intrusion. I took the liberty of coming upstairs because I thought that Miss Walburga might not find it unpleasant or useless to have an escort home through this neighbourhood.
HASSENREUTER
Very good! Very excellent! But she isn't here. I regret it. I'm here myself by the merest chance--on account of the mail. And in addition, I have other pressing engagements. Can I do anything else for you?
_SPITTA polishes his glasses and betrays signs of embarrassment._
SPITTA
One doesn't grow used to the darkness at once.
HASSENREUTER
Perhaps you stand in need of the tuition due you. Sorry, but unfortunately I have the habit of going out with only some small change in my waistcoat pocket. So I must ask you to have patience until I am at home again.
SPITTA
Not the least hurry in the world.
HASSENREUTER
Yes, it's easy for you to say that. I'm like a hunted animal, my dear fellow ...
SPITTA
And yet I would like to beg for a minute of your precious time. I can't but look upon this unexpected meeting as a kind of providential arrangement. In short: may I put a question to you?
HASSENREUTER
[_With his eyes on his watch, which he has just been winding._] One minute exactly. By the watch, my good fellow!
SPITTA
Both my question and your answer need hardly take that long.
HASSENREUTER
Well, then!
SPITTA
Have I any talent for the stage?
HASSENREUTER
For the love of God, man! Have you gone mad?--Forgive me, my dear fellow, if a case like this excites me to the point of being discourteous. You have certainly given the lie to the saying: _natura non facit saltus_ by the unnatural leap that you've taken. I must first get my breath after that! And now let's put an end to this at once. Believe me, if we were both to discuss the question now we wouldn't come to any conclusion in two or three weeks, or rather, let us say years.--You are a theologian by profession, my good fellow, and you were born in a parsonage. You have all the necessary connections and a smooth road to a comfortable way of life ahead of you. How did you hit upon such a notion as this?
SPITTA
That's a long story of the inner life, Mr. Hassenreuter, of difficult spiritual struggles--a story which, until this moment, has been an absolute secret and known only to myself. But my good fortune led me into your house and from that moment on I felt that I was drawing nearer and nearer to the true aim of my life.
HASSENREUTER
[_Wildly impatient._] That's very creditable to me; that does honour to my family and myself! [_He puts his hands on SPITTA'S shoulders._] And yet I must make it in the form of an urgent request that, at this moment, you refrain from a further discussion of the question. My affairs cannot wait.
SPITTA
Then I will only add the expression of my absolutely firm decision.
HASSENREUTER
But, my dear Spitta, who has put these mad notions into year head? I've taken real pleasure in the thought of you. I've really been quietly envying you the peaceful personage that was to be yours. I've attached no special significance to certain literary ambitions that one is likely to pick up in the metropolis. That's a mere phase, I thought, and will be quite passing in his case! And now you want to become an actor? God help you, were I your father! I'd lock you up on bread and water and not let you out again until the very memory of this folly was gone. _Dixi!_ And now, good-bye, my dear man.
SPITTA
I'm afraid that locking me op or resorting to force of any kind would not help in my case at all.
HASSENREUTER