Scene of the play, the parlor of a small private dwelling in a village.
(Margaret discovered crocheting – has a pamphlet.)
MARGARET. (Solus.) Dear, dear! it’s dreary enough, to have to study this impossible German tongue: to be exiled from home and all human society except a body’s sister in order to do it is just simply abscheulich. Here’s only three weeks of the three months gone and it seems like three years. I don’t believe I can live through it, and I’m sure Annie can’t. (Refers to her book, and rattles through, several times, like one memorizing:) Entschuldigen Sie, mein Herr, können Sie mir vielleicht sagen, um wie viel Uhr der erste Zug nach Dresden abgeht? (Makes mistakes and corrects them.) I just hate Meisterschaft! We may see people; we can have society; yes, on condition that the conversation shall be in German, and in German only – every single word of it! Very kind – oh, very! when neither Annie nor I can put two words together, except as they are put together for us in Meisterschaft or that idiotic Ollendorff! (Refers to book, and memorizes: Mein Bruder hat Ihren Herrn Vater nicht↖ gesehen, als er gestern in dem Laden des deutschen Kaufmannes war.) Yes, we can have society, provided we talk German. What would such a conversation be like! If you should stick to Meisterschaft, it would change the subject every two minutes; and if you stuck to Ollendorff, it would be all about your sister’s mother’s good stocking of thread, or your grandfather’s aunt’s good hammer of the carpenter, and who’s got it, and there an end. You couldn’t keep up your interest in such topics. (Memorizing: Wenn irgend möglich – möchte ich noch heute Vormittag dort ankommen, da es mir sehr daran gelegen ist, einen meiner Geschäftsfreunde zu treffen.) My mind is made up to one thing: I will be an exile, in spirit and in truth; I will see no one during these three months. Father is very ingenious – oh, very! thinks he is, anyway. Thinks he has invented a way toforce us to learn to speak German. He is a dear good soul, and all that; but invention isn’t his fash’. He will see. (With eloquent energy.) Why, nothing in the world shall – Bitte, können Sie mir vielleicht sagen, ob Herr Schmidt mit diesem Zuge angekommen ist? Oh, dear, dear George – three weeks! It seems a whole century since I saw him. I wonder if he suspects that I – that I – care for him – j-just a wee, wee bit? I believe he does. And I believe Will suspects that Annie cares forhim a little, that I do. And I know perfectly well that they care forus. They agree↖ with all our opinions, no matter what they are; and if they have a prejudice, they change it, as soon as they see how foolish it is. Dear George! at first he just couldn’t abide cats; but now, why, now he’s just all for cats; he fairly welters in cats. I never saw such a reform. And it’s just so withall his principles: he hasn’t got one that he had before. Ah, if all men were like him, this world would – (Memorizing: Im Gegentheil, mein Herr, dieser Stoff ist sehr billig. Bitte, sehen Sie sich nur die Qualität an.) Yes, and what didthey go to studying German for, if it wasn’t an inspiration of the highest and purest sympathy! Any other explanation is nonsense – why, they’d as soon have thought of studying American history. (Turns her back, buries herself in her pamphlet, first memorizing aloud, until Annie enters, then to herself, rocking to and fro, and rapidly moving her lips, without uttering a sound.)
(Enter Annie, absorbed in her pamphlet – does not at first see Margaret.)
ANNIE. (Memorizing.) Er liess mich gestern früh rufen, und sagte mir dass er einen sehr unangenehmen Brief von Ihrem Lehrer erhalten hatte. (Repeats twice aloud, then to herself, briskly moving her lips.)
MA
