Page:Ivan Cankar - Hlapci.pdf/71

 Doctor. You are unhealthy. . . This cup makes your hands shake. . . This common and unclean lifestyle has broken into your soul and damaged it badly. . . For you fail to live, you cannot live! A human being is a human only: wine and bread come first, all the rest is just a shadow. Belief and so on are just a coat; not even a coat – barely an umbrella! I am a doctor as well, you know – it helps one's health, especially digestion, to convert every year or two. . . So to say, to refresh one's own belief; much like blood must change.

Jerman. This wisdom is naught! . . . It is not what I ask for. Do tell me, doctor; I plead. Say I treated them another way. . . Do you understand?

Doctor. Let's assume a different treatment by you. ..

Jerman. Could you pledge, can you write me a paper: I would have prolonged my mother's life by a day; at least by an hour?

Lojzka. Not a word! Don't you dare utter. ..

Zdravnik: What do I know. . . If I think it all through. ..

Jerman. At least for an hour? For a moment?

Doctor. There is a certain possibility.

Jerman. Thank you! Accompanies the doctor on their way to the door, showing them the way out. After they say goodbye by the door, Jerman returns; takes on a coat. I'm leaving for the Pastor. Lojzka, stand here as a guard.

Geni. Stands up. I'll accompany you to the parish.

Jerman. Accompany me – a faithless man – by the dark?