WEHRHAHN Well, I'll be blessed! Is that true? And, of course, you don't even know the numbers! My gracious, but you're careless people! One ought to think of such things! But that does no good now. Fielitz, do you hear me! One ought to take some thought.--Now he's beginning to howl too! Do you understand me? The place for ready money is a bank! And anyhow--the whole business! One doesn't leave one's property alone like that! One shouldn't leave it quite unprotected, especially with such a crowd in the neighbourhood as we have here! FIELITZ I ... aw ... who'd ha' thought o' such a thing, your honour? WEHRHAHN Why don't you lay that clock down? FIELITZ I'm a peaceable man, your honour. I--I--I--I--Oh, Lordy, Lordy! I can't tell you nothin', how that there thing happened.--I'm on good terms with people; I don't quarrel with nobody ... I has made mistakes in my life. That happens when a man ain't got no good companions. But that people should go an' treat me this way! No, I ain't never deserved that. MRS. FIELITZ [_Weeping._] Fielitz, what has I always been tellin' you? Who's right now, eh? Tell me that: who's right now? You didn't make no enemies on _our_ account. Them's very different stories--them is. An' I guess Mr. von Wehrhahn knows somethin' about that! FIELITZ Aw, mother, keep still. That there, that was my dooty. [_EDE, half seriously, half in jest, makes a threatening gesture behind FIELITZ. WEHRHAHN observes this._ WEHRHAHN Look here, you there! What's that you did? You stood behind Fielitz and shook your fist over his head. EDE Maybe I'm weak in the chest, but I don't rightly know. WEHRHAHN Listen: I'll tell you something. The place for insane people is the asylum. But if you behave with any more impudence, you'll first be taken to gaol!--I didn't understand you quite rightly, Mrs. Fielitz. You insinuated something just now. Have you any suspicions in that direction? I don't care to express myself more clearly. But do you suspect a--how shall I express it--an act of, so to speak, political reprisal? In that case you must be absolutely open. We shall then certainly get to the bottom of it. MRS. FIELITZ No, no, no! I ain't got no suspicion. I'd rather go an' beg on the public roads. I don't want to accuse no human being. I don't know. I can't make nothin' of it at all. That's what I says again an' again. I don't know nothin'.--Everythin' was locked up. We went away. The kitchen fire was out; the top o' the oven was cold. Well, how did it happen? I can't understand it, nohow. I don't know. But you see, that a feller like that there feller c'n sit here an' make insinerations--that does hurt a body right to the soul! WEHRHAHN