[_HOFFMANN shrugs his shoulders._

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

[_As before._] Could you not, perhaps, engage the interest of your sister-in-law for the task of bringing up this child?

HOFFMANN

If you knew, doctor, how many obstacles ... and, after all, she is a young, inexperienced girl, and a mother _is_ a mother.

DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG

You have my opinion. Good morning.

HOFFMANN

[_Overwhelming the doctor with excessive courtesy._] Good morning. I am extremely grateful to you ...

[_Both withdraw through the middle door._

_HELEN enters. Her handkerchief is pressed to her mouth; she is sobbing, beside herself, and lets herself fall on the sofa in the foreground to the left. After a few moments, HOFFMANN reenters, his hands full of newspapers._

HOFFMANN

Why, what is that? Tell me, sister, are things to go on this way much longer? Since I came here not a day has pa.s.sed on which I haven't seen you cry.

HELEN

Oh!--what do _you_ know? If you had any sense for such things you'd be surprised that you ever saw me when I didn't cry!

HOFFMANN

That isn't clear to me.

HELEN

Oh, but it is to me!

HOFFMANN

Look here, something must have happened!

HELEN

[_Jumps up and stamps her foot._] Ugh ... but I won't bear it any longer ... it's got to stop! I won't endure such things any more! I don't see why ... I ...

[_Her sobs choke her._

HOFFMANN

Won't you tell me at least what the trouble is, so that I ...

HELEN

[_Bursting out with renewed pa.s.sion._] I don't care what happens to me!

Nothing worse _could_. I've got a drunkard for a father, a beast--with whom his ... his own daughter isn't safe.--An adulterous step-mother who wants to turn me over to her lover ... And this whole life.--No, I don't see that anyone can force me to be bad in spite of myself. I'm going away! I'll run away! And if the people here won't let me go, then ...

rope, knife, gun ... I don't care! I don't want to take to drinking brandy like my sister.

HOFFMANN

[_Frightened, grasps her arm._] Nellie, keep still, I tell you; keep still about that.

HELEN

I don't care; I don't care one bit! I ... I'm ashamed of it all to the very bottom of my soul. I wanted to learn something, to be something, to have a chance--and what am I now?

HOFFMANN

[_Who has not released her arm, begins gradually to dram the girl over toward the sofa. The tone of his voice now takes on an excessive softness, an exaggerated, vibrant gentleness._] Nellie! Ah, I know right well that you have many things to suffer here. But be calm...! You need not tell one who knows. [_He puts his right hand caressingly upon her shoulder and brings his face close to hers._] I can't bear to see you weep. Believe me--it hurts me. But don't, don't see things in a worse light than is needful--; and then: have you forgotten, that we are both--you and I--so to speak--in the same position?--I have gotten into this peasant atmosphere--do I fit into it? As little as you do yourself, surely.

HELEN

If my--dear little mother had suspected this--when she ... when she directed--that I should be--educated at Herrnhut! If she had rather ...

rather left me at home, then at least ... at least I wouldn't have known anything else, and I would have grown up in this corruption, But now ...

HOFFMANN

[_Has gently forced HELEN down upon the sofa and now sits, pressed close, beside her. In his consolations the sensual element betrays itself more and more strongly._] Nellie! Look at me; let those things be. Let me be your consolation, I needn't talk to you about your sister. [_He embraces her more firmly. Pa.s.sionately and feelingly._] Oh, if she were what you are!... But as it is ... tell me: what can she be to me? Did you ever hear of a man, Nellie, of a cultured man whose wife--[_he almost whispers_]--is a prey to such an unhappy pa.s.sion? One is afraid to utter it aloud: a woman--and--brandy ... Now, do you think I am any happier?...

Think of my little Freddie! Well, am I, when all's said, any better off than you are?... [_With increasing pa.s.sion._] And so, you see, fate has done us one kindness anyhow. It has brought us together. And we belong together. Our equal sorrows have predestined us to be friends. Isn't it so, Nellie?

[_He puts his arms wholly around her. She permits it but with an expression which shows that she forces herself to mere endurance. She has grown quite silent and seems, with quivering tension of soul, to be awaiting some certainty, some consummation that is inevitably approaching._

HOFFMANN

[_Tenderly._] You should consent to my plan; you should leave this house and live with us. The baby that is coming needs a mother. Come and be a mother to it; otherwise--[_pa.s.sionately moved and sentimentally_]--it will have no mother. And then: bring a little, oh, only a very little brightness into my life! Do that! Oh, do that!

[_He is about to lean his head upon her breast. She jumps up, indignant. In her expression are revealed contempt, surprise, loathing and hatred._

HELEN

Oh, but you are, you are ... Now I know you thoroughly! Oh, I've felt it dimly before. But now I am certain.

HOFFMANN

[_Surprised, put out of countenance._] What? Helen ... you're unique--really.

HELEN

Now I know that you're not by one hair's breadth better ... indeed, you're much worse--the worst of them all here!