My
name is Loth.
_HELEN bows. Her gesture smacks of the dancing school._
HOFFMANN
[_His voice is heard through the closed door._] My dear people: don't be
formal! I'll be with you in a moment. Loth, my sister-in-law, Helen
Krause! And, sister, my friend, Alfred Loth! Please consider yourselves
introduced.
HELEN
Oh, what a way of....
LOTH
I don't take it ill of him. As I have often been told, I am myself more
than half a barbarian when correct manners are concerned. But if I
intruded upon you, I....
HELEN
Not in the least; oh, not in the least, believe me. [_A pause of
constraint._] Indeed, indeed, it is most kind of you to have looked up my
brother-in-law. He often complains that ... rather, regrets that the
friends of his youth have forgotten him so entirely.
LOTH
Yes, it just happened so this time. I've always been in Berlin and
thereabouts and had no idea what had become of Hoffmann. I haven't been
back in Silesia since my student days at Breslau.
HELEN
And so you came upon him quite by chance.
LOTH
Yes, quite--and, what is more, in the very spot where I've got to pursue
my investigations.
HELEN
Investigations in Witzdorf! In this wretched little hole.
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