Creditors and Pariah | Page 5

dear friend--I hate to speak of it, but you
are already showing the first symptoms of epilepsy.
ADOLPH. [Agitated] I! How can you tell?
GUSTAV. Because I have watched the symptoms in a younger brother
of mine who had been worshipping Venus a little too excessively.
ADOLPH. How--how did it show itself--that thing you spoke of?
[During the following passage GUSTAV speaks with great animation,
and ADOLPH listens so intently that, unconsciously, he imitates many
of GUSTAV'S gestures.]
GUSTAV. It was dreadful to witness, and if you don't feel strong
enough I won't inflict a description of it on you.
ADOLPH. [Nervously] Yes, go right on--just go on!
GUSTAV. Well, the boy happened to marry an innocent little creature
with curls, and eyes like a turtle-dove; with the face of a child and the
pure soul of an angel. But nevertheless she managed to usurp the male
prerogative--
ADOLPH. What is that?
GUSTAV. Initiative, of course. And with the result that the angel
nearly carried him off to heaven. But first he had to be put on the cross
and made to feel the nails in his flesh. It was horrible!
ADOLPH. [Breathlessly] Well, what happened?
GUSTAV. [Lingering on each word] We might be sitting together
talking, he and I--and when I had been speaking for a while his face
would turn white as chalk, his arms and legs would grow stiff, and his
thumbs became twisted against the palms of his hands--like this. [He
illustrates the movement and it is imitated by ADOLPH] Then his eyes
became bloodshot, and he began to chew-- like this. [He chews, and
again ADOLPH imitates him] The saliva was rattling in his throat. His
chest was squeezed together as if it had been closed in a vice. The
pupils of his eyes flickered like gas-jets. His tongue beat the saliva into
a lather, and he sank--slowly--down--backward--into the chair--as if he
were drowning. And then---
ADOLPH. [In a whisper] Stop now!

GUSTAV. And then--Are you not feeling well?
ADOLPH. No.
GUSTAV. [Gets a glass of water for him] There: drink now. And we'll
talk of something else.
ADOLPH. [Feebly] Thank you! Please go on!
GUSTAV. Well--when he came to he couldn't remember anything at
all. He had simply lost consciousness. Has that ever happened to you?
ADOLPH. Yes, I have had attacks of vertigo now and then, but my
physician says it's only anaemia.
GUSTAV. Well, that's the beginning of it, you know. But, believe me,
it will end in epilepsy if you don't take care of yourself.
ADOLPH. What can I do?
GUSTAV. To begin with, you will have to observe complete
abstinence.
ADOLPH. For how long?
GUSTAV. For half a year at least.
ADOLPH. I cannot do it. That would upset our married life.
GUSTAV. Good-bye to you then!
ADOLPH. [Covers up the wax figure] I cannot do it!
GUSTAV. Can you not save your own life?--But tell me, as you have
already given me so much of your confidence--is there no other canker,
no secret wound, that troubles you? For it is very rare to find only one
cause of discord, as life is so full of variety and so fruitful in chances
for false relationships. Is there not a corpse in your cargo that you are
trying to hide from yourself?-- For instance, you said a minute ago that
you have a child which has been left in other people's care. Why don't
you keep it with you?
ADOLPH. My wife doesn't want us to do so.
GUSTAV. And her reason? Speak up now!
ADOLPH. Because, when it was about three years old, it began to look
like him, her former husband.
GUSTAV. Well? Have you seen her former husband?
ADOLPH. No, never. I have only had a casual glance at a very poor
portrait of him, and then I couldn't detect the slightest resemblance.
GUSTAV. Oh, portraits are never like the original, and, besides, he
might have changed considerably since it was made. However, I hope it
hasn't aroused any suspicions in you?

ADOLPH. Not at all. The child was born a year after our marriage, and
the husband was abroad when I first met Tekla--it happened right here,
in this very house even, and that's why we come here every summer.
GUSTAV. No, then there can be no cause for suspicion. And you
wouldn't have had any reason to trouble yourself anyhow, for the
children of a widow who marries again often show a likeness to her
dead husband. It is annoying, of course, and that's why they used to
burn all widows in India, as you know.--But tell me: have you ever felt
jealous of him--of his memory? Would it not sicken you to meet him
on a walk and hear him, with his eyes on your Tekla, use