g when the prisoners of respected families are
discharged, I'll slip in the door. He'll lock-up behind me and ask me
what I'm after, and I'll ask him to let me out again in the evening.
And before it gets light, I'm up in the attic.

ALVA. How did you escape from the reform-school?

HUGENBERG. Jumped out the window. I need two hundred marks for the
rascal to send his family to the country.

RODRIGO. (_Stepping out of the portieres, right._) Will the Herr
Baron have coffee in the music-room or on the veranda?

HUGENBERG. Where does that man come from? Out of the same door! He
jumped out of the same door!

ALVA. I've taken him into my service. He is dependable.

HUGENBERG. (_Grasping his temples._) Fool that I am! Oh, fool!

RODRIGO. Oh, yah, we've seen each other here before! Cut away now to
your vice-mamma. Your kid brother might like to uncle his brothers
and sisters. Make your sir-papa the grandfather of his children!
You're the only thing we've missed. If you once get into my sight in
the next two weeks, I'll beat your bean up for porridge.

ALVA. Be quiet, you!

HUGENBERG. I'm a fool!

RODRIGO. What do you want to do with your fire? Don't you know the
lady's been dead three weeks?

HUGENBERG. Did they cut off her head?

RODRIGO. No, she's got that still. She was mashed by the cholera.

HUGENBERG. That is not true!

RODRIGO. What do you know about it! There, read it: here! (_Taking
out a paper and pointing to the place._) "The murderess of Dr.
Schoen...." (_Gives Hugenberg the paper. He reads:_)

HUGENBERG. "The murderess of Dr. Schoen has in some incomprehensible
way fallen ill of the cholera in prison." It doesn't say that she's
dead.

RODRIGO. Well, what else do you suppose she is? She's been lying in
the churchyard three weeks. Back in the left-hand corner behind the
rubbish-heap where the little crosses are with no names on them,
there she lies under the first one. You'll know the spot because the
grass hasn't grown on it. Hang a tin wreath there, and then get back
to your nursery-school or I'll denounce you to the police. I know the
female that beguiles her leisure hours with you!

HUGENBERG. (_To Alva._) Is it true that she's dead?

ALVA. Thank God, yes!--Please, do not keep me here any longer. My
doctor has forbidden me to receive visitors.

HUGENBERG. My future is worth so little now! I would gladly have
given the last scrap of what life is worth to me for her happiness.
Heigh-ho! On