MRS. SPILLER Forest, game and women--as his Excellency the Minister von Schadendorf often used to say. KAHL 'N d-day after t-t'morrow we're g-goin' t' have p-pigeon sh-sh-shooting. LOTH What is that--pigeon shooting? HELEN Ah, I can't bear such things. Surely it's a very merciless sport. Rough boys who throw stones at window panes are better employed. HOFFMANN You go too far, Helen. HELEN I don't know. According to my feeling it's far more sensible to break windows, than to tether pigeons to a post and then shoot bullets into them. HOFFMANN Well, Helen, after all, you must consider ... LOTH [_Using his knife and fork with energy._] It is a shameful barbarity. KAHL Aw! _Them_ few pigeons! MRS. SPILLER [_To LOTH._] Mr. Kahl, you know, has m-more than two-hundred of them in his dove-cote. LOTH All hunting is barbarity. HOFFMANN But an ineradicable one. Just now, for instance, five hundred live foxes are wanted in the market, and all foresters in this neighbourhood and in other parts of Germany are busy snaring the animals. LOTH What are all those foxes wanted for? HOFFMANN They are sent to England, where they will enjoy the honour of being hunted from their very cages straight to death by members of the aristocracy. LOTH Mohammedan or Christian--a beast's a beast. HOFFMANN May I pass you some lobster, mother? MRS. KRAUSE I guess so. They're good this here season. MRS. SPILLER Madame has such a delicate palate. MRS. KRAUSE [_To LOTH._] I suppose you ain't ever et lobsters neither, Doctor? LOTH Yes, I have eaten lobsters now and then--in the North, by the sea, in Warnemuende, where I was born. MRS. KRAUSE [_To KAHL._] Times an' times a person don't know what _to_ eat no more. Eh, William. KAHL Y-y're r-right there, cousin, G-God knows. EDWARD [_Is about to pour champagne into LOTH'S glass._] Champagne, sir. LOTH [_Covers his glass with his hand._] No, thank you. HOFFMANN Come now, don't be absurd. HELEN What? Don't you drink? LOTH No, Miss Krause. HOFFMANN Well, now, look here, old man. That is, you must admit, rather tiresome. LOTH If I were to drink I should only grow more tiresome. HELEN That is most interesting, Doctor. LOTH [_Untactfully._] That I grow even more tiresome when I drink wine? HELEN [_Somewhat taken aback._] No, oh, no. But that you do not drink ... do not drink at all, I mean. LOTH And why is that particularly interesting? HELEN [_Blushing._] It is not the usual thing. [_She grows redder and more embarrassed._ LOTH [_Clumsily._] You are quite right, unhappily. MRS. KRAUSE [_To LOTH._] It costs us fifteen shillin's a bottle. You needn't be scared to drink it. We gets it straight from Rheims; we ain't givin' you nothin' cheap; we wouldn't want it ourselves. MRS. SPILLER Ah, you can believe--m-me, Doctor: if his Excellency, the Minister von Schadendorf, had been able to keep _such_ a table ... KAHL I couldn't live without my wine. HELEN