Page:Poet Lore, volume 35, 1924.pdf/383

 Klementina.—Cast aside this false mask of composure! At last wake up, and look around you! This last disaster comes knocking at our door like the blow of the last nail into a coffin.

Dr. Svoboda.—I will exert every effort, use every remaining resource, to save the estate. If that is utterly impossible, then I will sell it as soon as the election is over!

Klementina.—An estate laid waste who will buy it after the election, even for the amount of its debts? The executioner’s annuity may surprise us at any moment, and the notes held by Lewi may ruin us even sooner! (Fervently.) My relative, my husband listen! (Takes him by the hand.) Do not set up strange and far-off interests in opposition to your closest ones, in opposition to the salvation of your wife and family! See, by your defiance I am no longer enraged, only crushed and over-whelmed. I do not threaten nor even complain. I only beg you to have mercy on us, and humbly entreat you not to abandon us to this pitiless doom. I am your wife, the mother of your children. And I moreover take myself to task because I now realize that my wastefulness, my lack of consideration, have hastened the doom which is about to overtake us all. But I will be more conscientious—in the future you will find me different striving to make amends for my remissness in the past. Just take mercy upon us this one time, sell the estate to save us spare me the humiliation of begging from my relatives a piece of bread and a roof to shelter my head—or perhaps the misery of dying in the streets, a veritable beggar!

Dr. Svoboda (In desperation).—Klementina, forgive me, forgive! Your tears and lamentations almost deprive me of my very reason! But I cannot act otherwise!

Klementina (Turning on him at his last words in deep agitation).—Then we are all lost. I did not realize that the destruction of your entire family would be so easy for you. You are a monster, not a man—a monster without a heart or soul!

(Enter and .)

Dr. Svoboda.—Neufeld! You scoundrel! What insolence is this. Out, out with you!

Jaroslav (Suppressing his inward rage)—Compose yourself, father. If there is no spot within you that is vulnerable to the