HELEN, MARTHA, _KRAUSE'S daughters by his first marriage._

HOFFMANN, _Engineer, MARTHA'S husband._

WILHELM KAHL, _MRS. KRAUSE'S nephew._

MRS. SPILLER, _MRS. KRAUSE'S companion._

ALFRED LOTH.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG.

BEIPST, _Workingman on KRAUSE'S farm._

GUSTE, LIESE, MARIE _Maid-servants on KRAUSE'S farm._

BAER, _called "Hopping Baer."_

EDWARD, _HOFFMANN'S servant._

MIELE, _MRS. KRAUSE'S housemaid._

THE COACHMAN'S WIFE.

GOLISCH, _a Cowherd._

A PACKET POST CARRIER.

THE FIRST ACT

_The room is low: the floor is covered with excellent rugs. Modern luxury seems grafted upon the bareness of the peasant. On the wall, behind the dining-table, hangs a picture which represents a waggon with four horses driven by a carter in a blue blouse._

_MIELE, a vigorous peasant girl with a red, rather slow-witted face, opens the middle door and permits ALFRED LOTH to enter. LOTH is of middle height, broad-shouldered, thick-set, decided but somewhat awkward in his movements. His hair is blond, his eyes blue, his small moustache thin and very light; his whole face is bony and has an equably serious expression. His clothes are neat but nothing less than fashionable: light summer overcoat, a wallet hanging from the shoulder; cane._

MIELE

Come in, please. I'll call Mr. Hoffmann right off. Won't you take a seat?

[_The gla.s.s-door that leads to the conservatory is violently thrust open, and a peasant woman, her face bluish red with rage, bursts in.

She is not much better dressed than a washerwoman: naked, red arms, blue cotton-skirt and bodice, red dotted kerchief. She is in the early forties; her face is hard, sensual, malignant. The whole figure is, otherwise, well preserved._

MRS. KRAUSE

[_Screams._] The hussies!... That's right!... The vicious critters!...

Out with you! We don't give nothin'!... [_Half to MIELE, half to LOTH._]

He can work, he's got arms. Get out! You don't get nothin' here!

LOTH

But Mrs.... Surely you will ... my name is Loth ... I am ... I'd like to ... I haven't the slightest in....

MIELE

He wants to speak to Mr. Hoffmann.

MRS. KRAUSE

Oho! beggin' from my son-in-law. We know that kind o' thing! He ain't got nothin'; everything he's got he gets from us. Nothin' is his'n.

[_The door to the right is opened and HOFFMANN thrusts his head in._

HOFFMANN

Mother, I must really beg of you! [_He enters and turns to LOTH._] What can I ... Alfred! Old man! Well, I'll be blessed. You? That certainly is ... well, that certainly is a great notion!

[_HOFFMANN is thirty-three years old, slender, tall, thin. In his dress he affects the latest fashion, his hair is carefully tended; he wears costly rings, diamond-studs in his shirt-front and charms on his watch chain. His hair and moustache are black; the latter is luxurious and is most scrupulously cared for. His face is pointed, bird-like, the expression blurred, the eyes dark, lively, at times restless._

LOTH

It's by the merest accident, you know ...

HOFFMANN

[_Excited._] Nothing pleasanter could have ... Do take your things off, first of all! [_He tries to help him off with his wallet._]--Nothing pleasanter or more unexpected could possibly--[_he has relieved LOTH of his hat and cane and places both on a chair near the door_]--could possibly have happened to me just now--[_coming back_]--no, decidedly, nothing.

LOTH

[_Taking off his wallet himself._] It's by the merest chance that I've come upon you.

[_He places his wallet on the table in the foreground._

HOFFMANN

Sit down. You must be tired. Do sit down--please! D'you remember when you used to come to see me you had a way of throwing yourself full-length on the sofa so that the springs groaned. Sometimes they broke, too. Very well, then, old fellow. Do as you used to do.

[_MRS. KRAUSE'S face has taken on an expression of great astonishment. She has withdrawn. LOTH sits down on one of the chairs that stand around the table in the foreground._

HOFFMANN

Won't you drink something? Whatever you say? Beer? Wine? Brandy? Coffee?

Tea? Everything's in the house.

[_HELEN comes reading from the conservatory. Her tall form, somewhat too plump, the arrangement of her blond, unusually luxuriant hair, the expression of her face, her modern gown, her gestures--in brief, her whole appearance cannot quite hide the peasant's daughter._

HELEN