[_Throws LEONARD"S letter to him._]
SECRETARY (_reads_).
As cashier, I--your brother--thief--very sorry--but out of consideration for my office, I cannot help it--[_To CLARA._] He wrote you that on the very day your mother died? For he adds his condolence on her sudden death!
CLARA.
I suppose so!
SECRETARY.
The Devil take him! Great G.o.d, the cats, snakes and other monsters which, so to speak, slipped through Thy fingers at Creation, so delighted Beelzebub that he imitated Thy patterns--but he finished them off better than Thou didst; he put them in a human skin, and now they stand in rank and file with the rest of Thy humanity, and one does not recognize them until they begin to scratch and sting!
[_To CLARA._]
But it is well, indeed it is fine!
[_He tries to embrace her._]
Come! Forever! With this kiss--
CLARA (_sinks into his arms_).
No, not forever! Only to keep me from falling--but no kiss!
SECRETARY.
Girl, you do not love him, you have your release--
CLARA (_gloomily, straightening herself up again_).
And yet I must go to him, I must throw myself on my knees before him and cry out: "Behold my father"s white hairs! Take me!"
SECRETARY.
Unhappy girl! Do I understand you?
CLARA.
Yes!
SECRETARY.
No man can overlook that! Think of having to cast down one"s eyes before a man into whose face one would like to spit!
[_He presses CLARA wildly to him._]
Poor, poor girl!
CLARA.
Go now, go!
SECRETARY (_to himself, brooding_).
Or else one would have to shoot the dog who knows of it. Oh, that he had some courage about him! That he would stand up and fight! That one could force him to it! I should not be afraid of missing him!
CLARA.
I beg of you!
SECRETARY (_going_).
As soon as it grows dark!
[_He returns and grasps CLARA"s hand._]
Girl, you stand before me--[_He turns away._]
Thousands of your s.e.x would have kept it a secret with shrewd cunning, and only in an hour of sweet forgetfulness would have confided it coaxingly to the ear and soul of their husbands. I feel what I owe you!
CLARA (_alone_).
Oh, my heart, lock yourself up! Crush yourself together so that not another drop of that blood may escape which would kindle again the congealing life in my veins! For a moment a feeling akin to hope arose in you again! Now for the first time I am conscious of it!
[_Laughs._]
No! No man can, overlook that! And if--could you yourself overlook it?
Would you have had the courage to grasp a hand that--No! no! Such evil courage you would not have! You would with your own hands have to lock yourself into your h.e.l.l, if any one tried to open the door from the outside. You are forever--Oh, alas, that the pain is intermittent, that the piercing agony sometimes ceases! That is the reason why it lasts so long! The tortured man imagines he is resting when the torturer merely pauses to get his breath. It is like a drowning man"s catching his breath on the waves, when the current that has drawn him under spews him forth again only to seize him once more and draw him down. He has nothing but a double, futile fight for life!--
Well, Clara?--Yes, father, I am going! Your daughter will not drive you to self-destruction! Soon I shall be the wife of that man, or--G.o.d! No!
I do not go begging for happiness--it is misery, the deepest misery that I beg for! You will give me my misery!--Away! Where is the letter?
[_She takes it._]
Three wells you pa.s.s on your way to him! You must not halt at any of them, Clara--you have not yet the right to do that!
[_Exit._]
ACT III
SCENE I
_LEONARD"S Room._