Not even if I ask you, Melchior? MELCHIOR. Are you out of your senses? WENDLA. I've never been beaten in my life! MELCHIOR. If you can ask for such a thing---- WENDLA. Please----please---- MELCHIOR. I'll teach you to say please! (_He hits her._) WENDLA. Oh, Lord, I don't notice it in the least! MELCHIOR. I believe you----through all your skirts---- WENDLA. Then strike me on my legs! MELCHIOR. Wendla! (_He strikes her harder._) WENDLA. You're stroking me! You're stroking me! MELCHIOR. Wait, witch, I'll flog Satan out of you! (_He throws the switch aside and beats her with his fists so that she breaks out with a frightful cry. He pays no attention to this, but falls upon her as if he were crazy, while the tears stream heavily down his cheeks. Presently he springs away, holds both hands to his temples and rushes into the depths of the wood crying out in anguish of soul._) ACT II SCENE FIRST. _Evening in Melchior's study. The window is open, a lamp burns on the table.--Melchior and Moritz on the divan._ MORITZ. Now I'm quite gay again, only a little bit excited.----But during the Greek lesson I slept like the besotted Polyphemus. I'm astonished that the pronunciation of the ancient tongue doesn't give me the earache.----To-day I was within a hair of being late----My first thought on waking was of the verbs in μι----Himmel--Herrgott--Teufel-- Donnerwetter, during breakfast and all along the road I conjugated until I saw green.----I must have popped off to sleep shortly after three. My pen made a blot in the book. The lamp was smoking when Mathilde woke me; the blackbirds in the elder bushes under the window were chirping so happily----and I felt so inexpressibly melancholy. I put on my collar and passed the brush through my hair.----One feels it when one imposes upon nature. MELCHIOR. May I roll you a cigarette? MORITZ. Thanks, I don't smoke.----If it only keeps on this way! I will work and work until my eyes fall out of my head.----Ernest Röbel has failed three times since vacation; three times in Greek, twice with Knochenbruch; the last time in the history of literature. I have been first five times in this lamentable conflict, and from to-day it does not bother me!----Röbel will not shoot himself. Röbel has no parents who sacrifice everything for him. If he wants he can become a soldier, a cowboy or a sailor. If I fail, my father will feel the blow and Mamma will land in the madhouse. One can't live through a thing like that!----Before the examination I begged God to give me consumption that the cup might pass me by untouched. He passed me by, though to-day His aureole shines in the distance, so that I dare not lift my eyes by night or day.----Now that I have grasped the bar I shall swing up on it. The natural consequence will be that I shall break my neck if I fall. MELCHIOR.