BEERMANN [patronizingly]. You'll get used to high living soon enough. BOLLAND [to Dobler]. How long have you been in the city now? DOBLER. Two years. BOLLAND. And before that you were in ... eh? FRAU BOLLAND. You must excuse him Herr Dobler. Why in Unterschlettenbach, dear ... You know that! BOLLAND [correcting himself]. Certainly. Bit of literary history. Mighty interesting place that Unterschlettenbach ... eh? DOBLER. Hardly, Herr Kommerzienrat. Poor and unsanitary. Most of its inhabitants are miners. BOLLAND. Fancy that! And I never knew it. Full of miners! Tell me though, what do you think of our set here ...? How do you like this well-to-do circle ... the big city ... wealthy surroundings? DOBLER [lighting a cigar]. I like it well enough. But I think I will always feel out of place here. BOLLAND. Can't get used to it? DOBLER. Everything is so different. It seems to me at times as though I had suddenly entered a beautiful house while outdoors my old comrade was awaiting me patiently--the open road. FRAU BOLLAND. Isn't that won--derful? So very re-a-lis-tic-ally put! I can just picture it. Oh Herr Dobler ... I must tell you: your novel--my husband and I talk about it all day long. BOLLAND. Tell me though--did you yourself experience the life of that young man you describe? DOBLER. It's the story of my youth. BOLLAND. But it's somewhat colored by poetic imagination? DOBLER. N---o. BOLLAND. For instance, you have never actually starved? DOBLER. Oh, yes. There's no imagination in that. BOLLAND. Just the way you describe it--so that everything turned red? DOBLER. Everything had a pink color. On one occasion I did not eat anything for four and one-half days. FRAU BEERMANN [compassionately]. You poor thing! FRAU BOLLAND. That's exceedingly interesting! BOLLAND. Do tell us all about it! Then you saw dancing fires? DOBLER. Yes. Everything danced before my eyes, and I saw it all through a hazy veil, and towards the end my hearing was affected. BOLLAND. You don't say so? Your hearing also? DOBLER. When any one spoke to me it sounded as if he stood a great distance off--a great distance. FRAU BOLLAND. Our set never dreams of such things. BEERMANN. How did it all turn out? DOBLER. What do you mean? BEERMANN. Well, in the end you got something to eat again? DOBLER. Finally I fainted; I was found lying in a meadow, and was taken to the hospital. FRAU BEERMANN [sighing]. Are such things still possible in our day? FRAU BOLLAND. What can you expect--of these idealists! DR. HAUSER. They deserve nothing better. BEERMANN. And after you were in the hospital--how did you get out? DOBLER. As soon as I got stronger. Later on I became a printer--found a position--studied and published my book. BEERMANN. That's all in your novel, I know. But the part where you describe how you were a tramp--that's not true? DOBLER. Yes, I "hoboed" almost a whole year. FRAU BOLLAND. "Hoboed!" Fancy that! How unique!