I
telegraph to you? Heart failure, is what Doctor Bodenstein said. He
went to bed at ten o'clock that night, as always; it was night before
last, the first holiday.

PAUL. Didn't he call at all? Did he not succeed in making himself heard
at all?

AUNT CLARA. Not a word! From that time on, no mortal heard another
sound from him.

PAUL (covers his face with his hands, then hesitatingly). Do you think
he still thought of me?

AUNT CLARA. The departed thought of you very often especially lately
when thoughts of death were coming to him, I am certain of that.

PAUL. And did he not want to see me once more?

AUNT CLARA. He said nothing about that.

PAUL. Nothing, Aunt Clara? Nothing? Think!

AUNT CLARA. He _said_ nothing.

PAUL (excited). But he _thought_ it. And did not have time to do it!
Now he is taking it down into his grave with him. [Pause.]

AUNT CLARA. I was going to ask you, Paul ...?

PAUL. Well? (He stands before her at the fireplace.)

AUNT CLARA. What kind of a man can that be who came with you?

PAUL. Glyszinski?

AUNT CLARA. Why yes, the one I took up stairs, the young man?

PAUL. Heavens, he is a friend of ours. Particularly of Hella.

AUNT CLARA. Of your wife? Why, Paul!

PAUL (smiling). Oh, Auntie! There is no danger in him. You need not
have any scruples about that. Hella indeed crams her head with thoughts
quite distinct from love. She never did suffer from that.

AUNT CLARA. But to think that he just came along? Did you invite him?

PAUL (shrugging his shoulders). Well, what is a man to do? He lives
with us.

AUNT CLARA (more and more astonished). He lives with you?

PAUL. We keep house together, yes. And so he wanted to come with us,
and Hella was also of the opinion that we could not exactly desert him.
He is likely to do some fool thing. You know he is always doing fool
things ... It _wasn't_ very agreeable to me, I must confess. But it
_would_ not do to leave him at home. When Hella takes a thing like that
into her head ...

AUNT CLARA. Don't be offended, Paul, I can't get that through my head
... Aren't you the master of your house?

PAUL (smiling). Master of my house?... No, Auntie, Hella would never
put up with that and on that point I am forced to agree with her.

AUNT CLARA. The things that one does get to hear in one's old age! I'm
too dense for that.

PAUL. Well you see. Aunt Clara, these are views that are not exactly
understood in the country. One has to work