[_Taking off his wallet himself._] It's by the merest chance that I've come upon you. [_He places his wallet on the table in the foreground._ HOFFMANN Sit down. You must be tired. Do sit down--please! D'you remember when you used to come to see me you had a way of throwing yourself full-length on the sofa so that the springs groaned. Sometimes they broke, too. Very well, then, old fellow. Do as you used to do. [_MRS. KRAUSE'S face has taken on an expression of great astonishment. She has withdrawn. LOTH sits down on one of the chairs that stand around the table in the foreground._ HOFFMANN Won't you drink something? Whatever you say? Beer? Wine? Brandy? Coffee? Tea? Everything's in the house. [_HELEN comes reading from the conservatory. Her tall form, somewhat too plump, the arrangement of her blond, unusually luxuriant hair, the expression of her face, her modern gown, her gestures--in brief, her whole appearance cannot quite hide the peasant's daughter._ HELEN Brother, you might.... [_She discovers LOTH and withdraws quickly._] Oh, I beg pardon. [_Exit._ HOFFMANN Stay here, do! LOTH Your wife? HOFFMANN No; her sister. Didn't you hear how she addressed me? LOTH No. HOFFMANN Good-looking, eh? But now, come on. Make up your mind. Coffee? Tea? Grog? LOTH No, nothing, thank you. HOFFMANN [_Offers him cigars._] Here's something for you then. No!... Not even that? LOTH No, thank you. HOFFMANN Enviable frugality! [_He lights a cigar for himself and speaks the while._] The ashes ... I meant to say, tobacco ... h-m ... smoke of course ... doesn't bother you, does it? LOTH No. HOFFMANN Ah, if I didn't get that much ... Good Lord, life anyhow!--But now, do me a favour; tell me something. Ten years--you've hardly changed much, though--ten years, a nasty slice of time. How's Schn ... Schnurz? That's what we called him, eh? And Fips, and the whole jolly bunch of those days? Haven't you been able to keep your eye on any of them? LOTH Look here, is it possible you don't know? HOFFMANN What? LOTH That he shot himself. HOFFMANN Who? Who's done that sort o' thing again? LOTH Fips. Friedrich Hildebrandt. HOFFMANN Oh come, that's impossible. LOTH It's a fact. Shot himself in the Grunewald, on a very beautiful spot on the shore of the Havelsee. I was there. You have a view toward Spandau. HOFFMANN Hm. Wouldn't have believed it of him. He wasn't much of a hero in other ways. LOTH That's the very reason why he shot himself.--He was conscientious, very conscientious. HOFFMANN Conscientious? I don't see. LOTH That was the very reason ... otherwise he would probably not have done it. HOFFMANN I'm still in the dark. LOTH Well, you know what the colour of his political views was? HOFFMANN Oh, yes--green. LOTH