That wasn't very nice of your.... LOTH It was, at least, honest in her! The letter in which she broke with me showed her true face. Had she shown that before she would have spared herself and me, too, a great deal. HOFFMANN And since that time your affections haven't taken root anywhere? LOTH No. HOFFMANN _Of_ course! I suppose you've capitulated along the whole line--forsworn marriage as well as drink, eh? Ah, well, _a chacun son gout_. LOTH It's not my taste that decides in this matter, but perhaps my fate. I told you once before, I believe, that I have made no renunciation in regard to marriage. What I fear is this, that I won't find a woman who is suitable for me, HOFFMAN That's a big order, Loth! LOTH I'm quite serious, though. It may be that one grows too critical as the years go on and possesses too little healthy instinct. And I consider instinct the best guarantee of a suitable choice. HOFFMANN [_Frivolously._] Oh, it'll be found again some day--[_laughing_]--the necessary instinct, I mean. LOTH And, after all, what have I to offer a woman? I doubt more and more whether I ought to expect any woman to content herself with that small part of my personality which does not belong to my life's work. Then, too, I'm afraid of the cares which a family brings. HOFFMANN Wh-at? The cares of a married man? Haven't you a head, and arms, eh? LOTH Obviously. But, as I've tried to tell you, my productive power belongs, for the greater part, to my life's work and will always belong to it. Hence it is no longer mine. Then, too, there would be peculiar difficulties ... HOFFMANN Listen! Hasn't some one been sounding a gong? LOTH You consider all I've said mere phrase-making? HOFFMANN Honestly, it does sound a little hollow. After all, other people are not necessarily savages, even if they are married. But some men act as though they had a monopoly of all the good deeds that are to be done in the world. LOTH [_With some heat._] Not at all! I'm not thinking of such a thing. If you hadn't abandoned your life's work, your happy material situation would be of the greatest assistance ... HOFFMANN [_Ironically._] So that would be one of your demands, too? LOTH Demands? How? What? HOFFMANN I mean that, in marrying, you would have an eye on money. LOTH Unquestionably. HOFFMANN And then--if I know you at all--there's quite a list of demands still to come. LOTH So there is. The woman, for instance, must have physical and mental health. That's a _conditio sine qua non_. HOFFMANN [_Laughing._] Better and better! I suppose then that a previous medical examination of the lady would be necessary. LOTH [_Quite seriously_.] You must remember that I make demands upon myself too. HOFFMANN