HOFFMANN

[_Arises. With a.s.sumed coldness._] D'you know, your behaviour to-day is really quite peculiar.

HELEN

[_Approaches him._] You have just one end in view. [_Almost whispering._]

But you have very different weapons from father and from my stepmother, or from my excellent betrothed--oh, quite different. They are all lambs, all of them, compared to you. Now, now, suddenly, that has become clear as day to me.

HOFFMANN

[_With hypocritical indignation._] Helen, you seem really not to be in your right mind; you're, suffering under a delusion.... [_He interrupts himself and strikes his forehead._] Good Lord, of course! I see it all.

You have ... it's very early in the day, to be sure, but I'd wager ...

Helen! Have you been talking to Alfred Loth this morning?

HELEN

And why should I not have been talking to him? He is the kind of man before whom we should all be hiding in shame if things went by rights.

HOFFMANN

So I was right!... That's it ... Aha ... well, to be sure ... then I have no further cause for surprise. So he actually used the opportunity to go for his benefactor a bit. Of course, one should really be prepared for things of that kind.

HELEN

Do you know, I think that is really caddish.

HOFFMANN

I'm inclined to think so myself.

HELEN

He didn't breathe one syllable, not one, about you.

HOFFMANN

[_Slurring HELEN'S argument._] If things have reached that pa.s.s, then it is really my duty, my duty, I say, as a relative toward an inexperienced young girl like you ...

HELEN

Inexperienced girl! What is the use of this pretence?

HOFFMANN

[_Enraged._] Loth came into this house on my responsibility. Now I want you to know that he is, to put it mildly, an exceedingly dangerous fanatic--this Mr. Loth.

HELEN

To hear you saying that of Mr. Loth strikes me as so absurd, so laughably absurd!

HOFFMANN

And he is a fanatic, furthermore, who has the gift of muddling the heads not only of women, but even of sensible people,

HELEN

Well, now, you see, that again strikes me as so absurd. I only exchanged a few words with Mr. Loth and ever since I feel a clearness about things that does me so much good ...

HOFFMANN

[_In a rebukeful tone._] What I tell you is by no means absurd!

HELEN

One has to have a sense for the absurd, and that's what you haven't.

HOFFMANN

[_In the same manner._] That isn't what we're discussing. I a.s.sure you once more that what I tell you is not at all absurd, but something that I must ask you to take as actually true ... I have my own experience to guide me. Notions like that befog one's mind; one rants of universal brotherhood, of liberty and equality and, of course, transcends every convention and every moral law.... In those old days, for the sake of this very nonsense, we were ready to walk over the bodies of our parents to gain our ends ... Heaven knows it. And he, I tell you, would be prepared, in a given case, to do the same thing to-day.

HELEN

And how many parents, do you suppose, walk year in and out over the bodies of their children without anybody's ...

HOFFMANN

[_Interrupting her._] That is _nonsense_! Why, that's the end of all....

I tell you to take care, in every ... I tell you emphatically, in _every_ respect. You won't find a trace of moral scrupulousness in that quarter.

HELEN

Oh, dear, how absurd that sounds again. I tell you, when once you begin to take notice of things like that ... it's awfully interesting.

HOFFMANN

You may say what you please. I have warned you. Only I will tell you quite in confidence: at the time of that incident I very nearly got into the same d.a.m.nable mess myself.

HELEN

But if he's such a dangerous man, why were you sincerely delighted yesterday when he ...

HOFFMANN

Good Lord, I knew him when I was young. And how do you know that I didn't have very definite reasons for ...

HELEN

Reasons? Of what kind?