Page:Poet Lore, volume 35, 1924.pdf/374

Siegdorf.—Yes, Doctor, and you cannot act more wisely than I. In fact, you would receive even a larger offer, as your estate is worth twice as much as mine was. Sell it, sell it!

Dr. Svoboda.—Thank you, Baron, for your advice, but my estate is not for sale today.

Siegdorf.—Ah, that is a pity! You are throwing money away! After election, nobody will want to buy an estate! But where is my friend, Jaroslav? I must tell him the news. Today we will both be merry. He will take colossal delight in my idea!

Dr. Svoboda.—I pray you . . .

(Klementina bows. Siegdorf bows to both and walks away.)

Klementina.—Baron Siegdorf is an example . . . you may profit by doing likewise.

Dr. Svoboda (Dryly).—I see in him as plainly as though I were gazing into a mirror, all the infamy I should have fallen into had I done the same.

Klementina.—You are closing your eyes to the fate of your wife and your children. You would, then, abandon us to our fate with the certain knowledge that destruction awaits us all?

Dr. Svoboda.—Klementina!

Klementina.—Yes, that will be the inevitable result of your decision. Then what answer can you give to Scheffel? He is waiting for it today. Kytka also wants your reply. If you are thinking of your children, tell them what you have in view for their future.

(Walks off toward the left.)

Dr. Svoboda—My children! Their whole future, in which I took as keen a pleasure and delight as I might take in my own second youth! To save them means the betrayal of my convictions, to be loyal to myself means their ruin! Only Anezka is able to help us now—only she, and she alone! And if she will not help, (despairingly) what then, what then?

(Enter Klementina with Anezka and Filipina.)