RODRIGO--And do you know what would have become of you if you hadn’t sold for two millions the tuppenny paper your father ran? You’d have hitched up with the stringiest sort of ballet-girl and been to-day a stable-boy in the Humpelmeier Circus. What work do you do? You’ve written a drama of horrors in which my bride’s calves are the two chief figures and which no high-class theater will produce. You walking pajamas! You fresh ragbag, you! Two years ago I balanced two saddled cavalry-horses on this chest. How that’ll go now, after this [_clasping his bald head_], is a question sure enough. The foreign girls will get a fine idea of German art when they see the sweat come beading thru my tights at every fresh kilo-weight! I shall make the whole auditorium stink with my exhalations! ALVA--You’re weak as a dish-clout! RODRIGO--Would to God you were right! or did you perhaps intend to insult me? If so, I’ll set the tip of my toe to your jaw so that your tongue’ll crawl along the carpet over there! ALVA--Try it! [_Steps and voices outside._] Who is that...? RODRIGO--You can thank God that I have no public here before me! ALVA--Who can that be! RODRIGO--That is my beloved. It’s a full year now since we’ve seen each other. ALVA--But how should they be back already! Who can be coming there? I expect no one. RODRIGO--Oh, the devil, unlock it! ALVA--Hide yourself! RODRIGO--I’ll get behind the portières. I’ve stood there once before, a year ago. [_Disappears, right._ ALVA _opens the rear door, whereupon_ ALFRED HUGENBERG _enters, hat in hand_.] ALVA--With whom have I--.... You? Aren’t you----? HUGENBERG--Alfred Hugenberg. ALVA--What can I do for you? HUGENBERG--I’ve come from Münsterburg. I ran away this morning. ALVA--My eyes are bad. I am forced to keep the blinds closed. HUGENBERG--I need your help. You will not refuse me. I’ve got a plan ready.--Can anyone hear us? ALVA--What do you mean? What sort of a plan? HUGENBERG--Are you alone? ALVA--Yes. What do you want to impart to me? HUGENBERG--I’ve had two plans already that I let drop. What I shall tell you now has been worked out to the last possible chance. If I had money I should not confide it to you; I thought about that a long time before coming.... Don’t you want to let me explain my scheme to you? ALVA--Will you kindly tell me just what you are talking about? HUGENBERG--She cannot possibly be so indifferent to you that I must tell you that. The evidence =you= gave the coroner helped her more than everything the defending counsel said. ALVA--I beg to decline the supposition. HUGENBERG--You would say that; I understand that, of course. But all the same you were her best witness. ALVA--=You= were! You said my father was about to force her to shoot herself. HUGENBERG--He was, too. But they didn’t believe me. I wasn’t put on my oath. ALVA--Where have you come from now? HUGENBERG--From a reform-school I broke out of this morning. ALVA--And what do you have in view?