[_Peeling an egg._] Milk--brrr! Horrible! [_Helping himself to salt and pepper._] By the way, Loth, what brings you into these parts? Up to now I've forgotten to ask you. LOTH [_Spreading butter on a roll._] I would like to study the local conditions. HOFFMANN [_Looking up sharply._] That so?... What kind of conditions? LOTH To be precise: I want to study the condition of your miners. HOFFMANN Ah! In general that condition is a very excellent one, surely. LOTH Do you think so?--That would be a very pleasant fact ... Before I forget, however. You can be of some service to me in the matter. You will deserve very well of political economy, if you ... HOFFMANN I? How exactly? LOTH Well, you have the sole agency for the local mines? HOFFMANN Yes; and what of it? LOTH It will be very easy for you, in that case, to obtain permission for me to inspect the mines. That is to say: I would like to go down into them daily for at least a month, in order that I may gain a fairly accurate notion of the management. HOFFMANN [_Carelessly._] And then, I suppose, you will describe what you've seen down there? LOTH Yes, my work is to be primarily descriptive. HOFFMANN I'm awfully sorry, but I've nothing to do with that side of things. So you just want to write about the miners, eh? LOTH That question shows how little of an economist you are. HOFFMANN [_Whose vanity is stung._] I beg your pardon! I hope you don't think ... Why? I don't see why that isn't a legitimate question?... And, anyhow: it wouldn't be surprising. One can't know everything. LOTH Oh, calm yourself. The matter stands simply thus: if I am to study the situation of the miners in this district, it is of course unavoidably necessary that I touch upon all the factors that condition their situation. HOFFMANN Writings of that kind are sometimes full of frightful exaggerations. LOTH That is a fault which I hope to guard against. HOFFMANN That will be very praiseworthy. [_He has several times already cast brief and searching glances at HELEN, who hangs with naive devoutness upon LOTH'S lips. He does so again now and continues._] I say ... it's just simply too queer for anything--how things will suddenly pop into a man's mind. I wonder how things like that are brought about in the brain? LOTH What is it that has occurred to you so suddenly? HOFFMANN It's about you.--I thought of your be--... No, maybe it's tactless to speak of your heart's secrets in the presence of a young lady. HELEN Perhaps it would be better for me to.... LOTH Please stay. Miss Krause! By all means stay, at least as far as I'm concerned. I've seen for some time what he's aiming at. There's nothing in the least dangerous about it. [_To HOFFMANN._] You're thinking of my betrothal, eh? HOFFMANN Since you mention it yourself, yes. I was, as a matter of fact, thinking of your betrothal to Anna Faber. LOTH That was broken off, naturally, when I was sent to prison. HOFFMANN