It might have cost only a word.----(_He calls_)----Ilse?----Ilse!---- Thank God she doesn't hear me any more.----I am not in the humor.----One needs a clear head and a happy heart for it.----What a lost opportunity!----I would have said that I had many crystal mirrors over my bed----that I had trained an unbroken filly----that I had her proudly march in front of me on the carpet in long black silk stockings and black patent leather shoes, long black gloves, black velvet about her neck----had strangled her in a moment of madness with my cushions. I would laugh when the talk turned on passion----I would cry out!----Cry out!----Cry out! It is you, Ilse!----Priapia!----Loss of memory!----That takes my strength!----This child of fortune, this sunny child----this joyous maiden on my dolorous path!----O!----O!------ ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- (_In the bushes by the bank._) Have I found it again unwillingly--the seat of turf. The mulleins seem to have grown since yesterday. The outlook between the willows is still the same----The water runs as heavy as melted lead. I mustn't forget. (_He takes Frau Gabor's letter from his pocket and burns it._)----How the sparks fly--here and there, downward and upward----souls!----shooting stars! Before I struck a light one could see the grass and a streak on the horizon.----Now it is dark. Now I shall never return home again. ACT III SCENE FIRST. _The Board Room--On the walls pictures of Pestalozzi and Jean Jacques Rousseau._ _Professors Affenschmalz, Knüppeldick, Hungergurt, Knochenbruch, Zungenschlag and Fliegentod are seated around a green-covered table, over which are burning several gas jets. At the upper end, on a raised seat, is Rector Sonnenstich. Beadle Habebald squats near the door._ SONNENSTICH. Has any gentleman something further to remark?----Gentlemen! We cannot help moving the expulsion of our guilty pupil before the National Board of Education; there are the strongest reasons why we cannot: We cannot, because we must expiate the misfortune which has fallen upon us already; we cannot, because of our need to protect ourselves from similar blows in the future; we cannot, because we must chastise our guilty pupil for the demoralizing influence he exerted upon his classmates; we cannot, above all, because we must hinder him from exerting the same influence upon his remaining classmates. We cannot ignore the charge--and this, gentlemen, is possibly the weightiest of all----on any pretext concerning a ruined career, because it is our duty to protect ourselves from an epidemic of suicide similar to that which has broken out recently in various grammar schools, and which until to-day has mocked all attempts of the teachers to shackle it by any means known to advanced education----Has any gentleman something further to remark? KNÜPPELDICK.