An' on top o' that an-n-nother o' B-Bordeaux--an' I wan't
drunk by half.
LOTH
[_To HOFFMANN._] Oh no. You know well enough that it was I who took you
fellows home when you'd been taking too much. And I still have the same
tough old system. No, I'm not afraid on that account.
HOFFMANN
Well, then, what is it?
HELEN
Yes, why is it really that you don't drink? Do tell us!
LOTH
[_To HOFFMANN._] In order to satisfy you then: I do not drink to-day, if
for no other reason but because I have given my word of honour to avoid
spirituous liquors.
HOFFMANN
In other words, you've sunk to the level of a temperance fanatic.
LOTH
I am a total abstainer.
HOFFMANN
And for how long, may one ask, have you gone in for this--
LOTH
For life.
HOFFMANN
[_Throws down his knife and fork and half starts up from his chair._]
Well, I'll be ... [_He sits down again._] Now, frankly, you must forgive
me, but I never thought you so--childish.
LOTH
You may call it so if you please.
HOFFMANN
But how in the world did you get into that kind of thing?
HELEN
Surely, for such a resolution you must have a very weighty cause--it
seems so to me, at least.
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