PAUL. Protect Hella?... (He gets up.) Do you know! One is impelled to feel sorry for you! (He turns away and walks through the hall.) GLYSZINSKI. Well! PAUL. Yes, you have no idea how far you are off the track. That's the reason. GLYSZINSKI. Thanks for your sympathy! PAUL. You are badly off the track, and will hardly get on again, unless you are warned in time. Whether or not that will do you any good, is your affair. GLYSZINSKI (agitated). But what does all of this mean? I don't understand you. PAUL (very seriously). In a word, that means: look out for women who are like Hella! Look out for that ilk! That tells the whole story! The whole story! GLYSZINSKI (jumps up). And you expect me to follow that advice? PAUL. Do not follow it, but don't be surprised later on if you find yourself in the position in which I am today. It has taken me ten to twelve years to arrive at it. Half of that time will suffice for you. GLYSZINSKI. Why that is sheer nonsense! Your position is estimable enough. PAUL. I am a bankrupt! That's all! GLYSZINSKI (greatly excited). Imagination, pure imagination! You have your position! You have a name in the movement! PAUL (bitterly). Oh yes! This movement! GLYSZINSKI. I wish I were that far along! PAUL. Possibly you are, without knowing it. But as for myself, when I was of your age and began to fly the track, the aforesaid _track_, I was quite another fellow! Today as I rode through the snow knee-deep, that became quite clear to me! I saw myself as I had been once upon a time and then realized what had later become of me! All the strength! All the life! All the color! All lost! All gone!... Colorless and commonplace! That is the outcome! (He sinks down in complete collapse.) GLYSZINSKI (very uncomfortably). And you blame Hella for all that? HELLA (a pen behind her ear, puts in her head and calls). Glyszinski! Doctor! Why don't you come in! I want you to help me write a number of letters. I shall dictate to you. (Withdraws again.) GLYSZINSKI (with precipitation). Immediately, madam. (He runs to the right.) PAUL (raising his finger). You have been warned! GLYSZINSKI (already at the door on the right). Some other time! I have no time now! [Goes off, the door closes again and is bolted on the other side.] PAUL (looks after him, then, after a pause). He is going the same course! (Takes a few steps through the hall, remains standing before the portraits on the wall, looks up at them for a long while, breathes deeply and says, only just audibly): The Warkentins bring no luck!... And they _have_ no luck!... [He steps across to the spinet which is open, sits down, and softly strikes a number of chords. AUNT CLARA comes in quickly from the right, looks around.] PAUL (sitting at the spinet). Well, Aunt Clara? (He lowers his hands from the keys.) AUNT CLARA (cautiously). It is well that you are here, my boy! (She approaches.) PAUL (absent-minded). Is there anything?...