And your wealth permits you the greatest freedom of movement in this
respect.
HOFFMANN
Yes, thank God. I have already bought a villa with a very large park in
the neighbourhood of Hirschberg. Only I thought that my wife too ...
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[_Pulls at his moustache and stares at the floor. Thoughtfully._] Why
don't you buy a villa somewhere else for your wife?
[_HOFFMANN shrugs his shoulders._
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[_As before._] Could you not, perhaps, engage the interest of your
sister-in-law for the task of bringing up this child?
HOFFMANN
If you knew, doctor, how many obstacles ... and, after all, she is a
young, inexperienced girl, and a mother _is_ a mother.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
You have my opinion. Good morning.
HOFFMANN
[_Overwhelming the doctor with excessive courtesy._] Good morning. I am
extremely grateful to you ...
[_Both withdraw through the middle door._
_HELEN enters. Her handkerchief is pressed to her mouth; she is
sobbing, beside herself, and lets herself fall on the sofa in the
foreground to the left. After a few moments, HOFFMANN reenters, his
hands full of newspapers._
HOFFMANN
Why, what is that? Tell me, sister, are things to go on this way much
longer? Since I came here not a day has passed on which I haven't seen
you cry.
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