Scene Fourth
A park in front of the grammar school. Melchior, Otto, George, Robert, Hans Rilow and Lämmermeier.
Melchior.
Can any of you say where Moritz Stiefel is keeping himself?
George.
It may go hard with him!——Oh, it may go hard with him!
Otto.
He’ll keep on until he gets caught dead to rights.
Laemmermeier.
Lord knows, I wouldn’t want to be in his skin at this moment!
Robert.
What cheek! What insolence!
Melchior.
Wha——Wha——what do you know?
George.
What do we know?——Now, I tell you——
Laemmermeier.
I wish I hadn’t said anything!
Otto.
So do I——God knows I do!
Melchior.
If you don’t at once——
Robert.
The long and the short of it is, Moritz Stiefel has broken into the Board Room.
Melchior.
Into the Board Room——?
Otto.
Into the Board Room. Right after the Latin lesson.
George.
He was the last. He hung back intentionally.
Laemmermeier.
As I turned the corner of the corridor, I saw him open the door.
Melchior.
The devil take——
Laemmermeier.
If only the devil doesn’t take him.
George.
Perhaps the Rector didn’t take the key.
Robert.
Or Moritz Stiefel carries a skeleton key.
Otto.
That may be possible.
Laemmermeier.
If he has luck, he’ll only be kept in.
Robert.
Besides getting a demerit mark in his report!
Otto.
If this doesn’t result in his being kicked out.
Hans Rilow.
There he is!
Melchior.
White as a handkerchief.
(Moritz comes in in great agitation.)
Laemmermeier.
Moritz, Moritz, what have you done!
Moritz.
Nothing——nothing——
Robert.
You’re feverish!
Moritz.
From good fortune——from happiness——from jubilation——
Otto.
You were caught!
Moritz.
I am promoted!——Melchior, I am promoted! Oh, I don’t care what happens now!——I am promoted!——Who would have believed that I should be promoted!——I don’t realize it yet!——I read it twenty times!——I couldn’t believe it——Good Lord, it’s so!——It’s so; I am promoted! (Laughing.) I don’t know——I feel so queer——the ground turns around——Melchior, Melchior, can you realize what I’ve gone through?
Hans Rilow.
I congratulate you, Moritz——Only be happy that you got away with it!
Moritz.
You don’t know, Hans, you can’t guess, what depends on it. For three weeks I’ve slunk past that door as if it were a hellish abyss. To-day I saw it was ajar. I believe that if some one had offered me a million——nothing, oh nothing, could have held me.——I stood in the middle of the room,—I opened the report book——ran over the leaves——found——and during all that time——I shudder——
Melchior.
——During all that time?
Moritz.
During all that time the door behind me stood wide open. How I got out——how I came down the steps, I don’t know.
Hans Rilow.
Is Ernest Röbel promoted, too?
Moritz.
Oh, certainly, Hans, certainly!——Ernest Röbel is promoted, too.
Robert.
Then you can’t have read correctly. Counting in the dunce’s stool, we, with you and Robert, make sixty-one, and the upper class-room cannot accommodate more than sixty.
Moritz.
I read it right enough. Ernest Röbel is given as high a rating as I am—both of us have conditions to work off.——During the first quarter it will be seen which of us has to make room for the other. Poor Röbel!——Heaven knows, I’m not afraid of myself any longer. I’ve looked into it too deeply this time for that.
Otto.
I bet five marks that you lose your place.
Moritz.
You haven’t anything. I won’t rob you.——Lord, but I’ll grind from to-day on!——I can say so now——whether you believe it or not——It’s all the same now——I——I know how true it is; if I hadn’t been promoted I would have shot myself.
Robert.
Boaster!
George.
Coward!
Otto.
I’d like to see you shoot yourself!
Laemmermeier.
Box his ears.
Melchior.
(Gives him a cuff.)
Come, Moritz, let’s go to the forester’s house!
George.
Do you believe his nonsense?
Melchior.
What’s that to you? Let them chatter, Moritz! Come on, let’s go to town.
(Professors Hungergurt and Knochenbruch pass by.)
Knochenbruch.
It is inexplicable to me, my dear colleague, how the best of my scholars can fail the very worst of all.
Hungergurt.
To me, also, professor.