She is not much better dressed than a washerwoman: naked, red arms,
blue cotton-skirt and bodice, red dotted kerchief. She is in the
early forties; her face is hard, sensual, malignant. The whole figure
is, otherwise, well preserved._
MRS. KRAUSE
[_Screams._] The hussies!... That's right!... The vicious critters!...
Out with you! We don't give nothin'!... [_Half to MIELE, half to LOTH._]
He can work, he's got arms. Get out! You don't get nothin' here!
LOTH
But Mrs.... Surely you will ... my name is Loth ... I am ... I'd like to
... I haven't the slightest in....
MIELE
He wants to speak to Mr. Hoffmann.
MRS. KRAUSE
Oho! beggin' from my son-in-law. We know that kind o' thing! He ain't got
nothin'; everything he's got he gets from us. Nothin' is his'n.
[_The door to the right is opened and HOFFMANN thrusts his head in._
HOFFMANN
Mother, I must really beg of you! [_He enters and turns to LOTH._] What
can I ... Alfred! Old man! Well, I'll be blessed. You? That certainly is
... well, that certainly is a great notion!
[_HOFFMANN is thirty-three years old, slender, tall, thin. In his
dress he affects the latest fashion, his hair is carefully tended; he
wears costly rings, diamond-studs in his shirt-front and charms on
his watch chain.
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