I don't want to offer no opinion about that. That's your affair; that don't concern me. 'S far as I'm concerned, I gave the people to understand what I am. When people want to get rid o' me, they got to take the consequences. That's what Pastor Friderici had better remember. I saw through his game.--But to come to the point, as I'm in a hurry, as you see. Everything's goin' very 'well--but cash is needed--cash! MRS. FIELITZ But Fielitz ain't willin'. SCHMAROWSKI Mr. Fielitz will have to be! MRS. FIELITZ He's still thinkin' about that corner shop o' his. Can't you keep a bit o' space for it? SCHMAROWSKI Can't be done! How'd I end if I begin that way? You got sense enough to see that yourself. No. There wasn't no such agreement. We can't be thinkin' o' things like that.--A banker is comin' to this dinner, Mrs. Fielitz, an' I ought to know what to expect exactly. Everything is bein' straightened out now. If I'm left to stick in the mud now...! MRS. FIELITZ I'll see to it. Don't bother. SCHMAROWSKI Very well. An' now there's something else. Have you heard anything from Rauchhaupt again? MRS. FIELITZ Yes, I hears that he don't want to hold his tongue an' that he goes about holdin' us up to contempt. That's the same thing like with Wehrhahn. I never did nothin' but kindnesses to Rauchhaupt. An' now he comes here day in an' day out an' makes a body sick an' sore with his old stories that never was nowhere but in his head. Maybe ... my goodness ... a man like that ... he c'n go an' keep on an' on, till, in the end ... well, well ... SCHMAROWSKI Don't be afraid, Mrs. Fielitz. Things don't go no further now that the noise is quieted down.--By the way, I see that the carpenters are assemblin'. I got to go over there an' rattle off my bit o' speech. It's just this: if Rauchhaupt should come in again, you just question him carefully a little. There's a new affair bein' started. Got a political side to it. Immense piece o' business. 'Course I got my finger in that pie, as I has in all the others now. We'd like to get Rauchhaupt's land ... He bought it for a song in the old days. If we c'n get it--the whole of it an' not parcelled--there'd be a cool million in it. MRS. FIELITZ An' here I got two savin's bank books. SCHMAROWSKI Thank you. Just what I need. There are times when a man can't be sparin' o' money ... MRS. FIELITZ The girl is comin'. Hurry an' slip 'em into your pocket. _SCHMAROWSKI hastily puts the bankbooks into his pocket, nods to MRS. FIELITZ and withdraws rapidly._ MRS. FIELITZ [_Half rising from her chair and looking anxiously out through the window._] If only they don't go' an' make trouble this day. There's a great crowd o' people standin' around. _LEONTINE returns with the three bottles of wine and the glasses._ LEONTINE Mama! Mama! He's downstairs again. That fool of a Rauchhaupt is down there. MRS. FIELITZ [_Frightened._] Who? LEONTINE Rauchhaupt. He's comin' in right behind me.