Page:Poet Lore, volume 25, 1914.djvu/582

 say about us? Everybody knows now that we are moving, and besides, you’d forfeit a month’s rental in the new house.

Iustus.—How practical you are.

Theresa.—We’ll be through with everything before evening. Only let’s get away from here.

Iustus.—For my part! (He puts away the newspaper, rises and goes into the adjoining room. continues her work. Presently  returns with hat and overcoat and goes over to the hearth and lights a cigar.) There’s another thing!

Theresa.—Yes, dear?

Iustus (taking a paper out of his pocket).—I found this on my desk this morning. D. Cernik sends me his immediate resignation.

Theresa (surprised).—Resignation?

Iustus.—Yes—stupid fellow—his style and all, is insulting.

Theresa (suppressing her nervousness).—That’s why you lost your appetite this noon.

Iustus.—Bah! Nonsense. But to leave me after ten years suddenly—without the slightest cause. And he has not enough decency to come straight to me and tell me like a man. He writes it and puts it on my desk and goes.

Theresa.—He probably will want to open his own office now.

Iustus.—Then I could understand his motive, but he does not.

Theresa.—Where is he going?

Iustus.—He says he is going to America.

Theresa (stops in her work and repeats very slowly).—To America.

Iustus.—Evidently, he is insane. But whatever he does is immaterial to me. It’s only that I was so dependent upon him. He was so reliable and, as a rule, he did not talk much. I can’t bear a prattling fool. In that way Gustav was perfect—even if he was not a good worker, he did not talk. God knows whom I’ll get. Some fellow who’ll talk politics, literature, drama and what not, from morning till night.