bit of it for me!
GER. Tell me the story.
EST. Why, you know, Lord Alderdyce had heard about this wild fellow,
Steve O'Hagen, who's made such a sensation this campaign. And he's
interested in our election and wanted to hear O'Hagen speak. He said
he had a friend who'd arrange for us to be introduced to him; and so
we went down there. And there was a most frightful crowd . . . it was
an outdoor meeting, you know. We pushed our way into a saloon, where
the mob was shouting around this O'Hagen. And then he caught sight of
us . . . and Gerald, from the moment he saw me he never took his eyes
off me! Never once!
GER. [Smiling.] Well, Estelle . . . you've been looked at before.
EST. Ah, but never like that!
GER. What sort of a man is he?
EST. He's small and dark and ugly . . . he wore a rough reefer and cap
. . . but Gerald, he's no common man! There's something strange and
terrible about him . . . there's a fire blazing in him. The detective
who was with us introduced us to him . . . and he stood there and
stared at me! I tried to say something or other . . . "I've been so
interested in your speech, Mr. O'Hagen." And he laughed at me . . .
"Yes, I've no doubt." And then suddenly . . . it was as if he leaped
at me! He pointed his finger straight into my face, and his eyes
fairly shone. "Wait for me! I'll be with you! I'm coming to the top!"
GER. Good God!
EST. Imagine it! I was simply paralyzed! "Mark what I tell you," he
went on . . . "it'll be of interest to you some day to remember it.
You may wait for me! I'm coming! You will not escape me!"
GER. Why . . . he's mad!
EST. He was like a wild beast. Everybody in the place was staring at
us as he rushed on. "You have joy and power and freedom . . . all the
privileges of life . . . all things that are excellent and beautiful.
You are born to them . . . you claim them! And you come down here to
stare at us as you might at some strange animals in a cage. You
chatter and laugh and go your way . . . but remember what I told you .
. . I shall be with you! You cannot keep ME down! I shall be master of
you all!"
GER. Incredible!
EST. And then in a moment it was all over. He made a mocking bow to
the party . . . "It has given me the greatest pleasure in the world to
meet you!" And with a wild laugh he went out of the door . . . and the
crowd in the street burst into a roar that was like a clap of thunder.
[A pause.] Gerald, what do you think he meant?
GER. My dear, you've been up against the class-war. It's rather the
fashion now, you know.
EST. Oh, but it was horrible! I can't get it out of my mind. We heard
some of his speech afterwards . . . and it seemed as if every word of
it was meant for me! He lashed the crowd to a perfect fury . . . I
think they'd have set fire to the city if he'd told them to. What do
you suppose he expects to do?
GER. I can't imagine, I'm sure.
EST. I should like to know more about him. He was never raised in the
slums, I feel certain.
GER. Steve O'Hagen. The name sounds Irish.
EST. I don't think he's Irish. He's dark and strange- looking . . .
almost uncanny.
GER. I shall go down there and hear him the first chance I get. And
now, I guess I'd best get out, if I want to dodge old Plimpton.
EST. Yes . . . and Rutherford, too. Isn't it a bore! I think they are
perfectly odious people.
GER. Why do you suppose mother invited them?
EST. Oh, it's a business affair . . . they have forced their way into
some deal of father's, and so we have to cultivate them.
GER. Plimpton, the coal baron! And Rutherford, the steel king! I
wonder how many hundred millions of dollars we shall have to have
before we can choose our guests for something more interesting than
their Wall Street connections!
EST. I think I hear them. [Listens.] Yes . . . the voice. [Mocking
PLIMPTON'S manner and tone.] Good evening, Miss Isman. I guess I'll
skip it!
[Exit right.]
GER. And I, too!
[Exit left.]
RUTHERFORD. [A stout and rather coarse-looking man, enters, right,
with PLIMPTON.] It's certainly an outrageous state of affairs,
Plimpton!
PLIMPTON. [A thin, clerical-looking person, with square-cut beard.]
Disgraceful! Disgraceful!
RUTH. The public seems to be quite hysterical!
PLIMP. We have got to a state where simply to be entrusted with great
financial responsibility is enough to constitute a man a criminal; to
warrant a newspaper in prying into the intimate details of his life,
and in presenting him in hideous caricatures.
RUTH. I can sympathize with you, Plimpton . . . these government
investigations are certainly a trial. [Laughing.] I've had my turn at
them . . . I used to lie awake nights trying to remember what my
lawyers had told me to forget!
PLIMP. Ahem! Ahem! Yes . . . a rather cynical jest! I can't say
exactly . . .
MRS. IS. [In doorway, right.] Ah, Mr. Plimpton! How do you do? And Mr.
Rutherford?
PLIMP. Good evening, Mrs. Isman.
RUTH. Good evening, Mrs. Isman.
MRS. IS. You managed to tear yourself away from business cares, after
all!
PLIMP. It was not easy, I assure you.
MRS. IS. Won't you come in?
RUTH. With pleasure.
[Exit, right, with MRS. ISMAN, followed by PLIMPTON.]
GER. [Enters, left.] That pious old fraud! [Sits in chair.] Well, I'm
safe for a while!
[Sprawls at ease and reads.]
HICKS. [Enters, centre.] A gentleman to see you, Mr. Gerald.
GER. Hey? [Takes card, looks, then gives violent start.] Prince Hagen!
[Stands aghast, staring; whispers, half dazed.] Prince Hagen!
HICKS. [After waiting.] What shall I tell him, sir?
GER. What . . . what does he look like?
HICKS. Why . . . he seems to be a gentleman, sir.
GER. How is he dressed?
HICKS. For dinner, sir.
GER. [Hesitates, gazes about nervously.] Bring him here . . . quickly!
HICKS. Yes, sir.
GER. And shut the door afterwards.
HICKS. Yes, sir.
[Exit.]
GER. [Stands staring.] Prince Hagen! He's come at last!
[Takes the faded telegrams from his pocket; looks at them; then goes
to door, right, and closes it.]
HICKS. [Enters, centre.] Prince Hagen.
HAGEN. [Enters; serene and smiling, immaculately clad.] Ah, Gerald!
GER. [Gazing.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. You are surprised to see me!
GER. I confess that I am.
HAGEN. Did you think I was never coming back?
GER. I had given you up.
HAGEN. Well, here I am . . . to report progress.
GER. [After a pause.] Where have you been these two years?
HAGEN. Oh, I've been seeing life . . .
GER. You didn't like the boarding school?
HAGEN. [With sudden vehemence.] Did you think I would like it? Did you
think I'd come to this world to have my head stuffed with Latin
conjugations and sawdust?<
br />
GER. I had hoped that in a good Christian home . . .
HAGEN. [Laughing.] No, no, Gerald! I let you talk that sort of thing
to me in the beginning. It sounded fishy even then, but I didn't say
anything . . . I wanted to get my bearings. But I hadn't been twenty-
four hours in that good Christian home before I found out what a
kettleful of jealousies and hatreds it was. The head master was an old
sap-head; and the boys! . . . I was strange and ugly, and they thought
they could torment and bully me; but I fought 'em . . . by the Lord, I
fought 'em day and night, I fought 'em all around the place! And when
I'd mastered 'em, you should have seen how they cringed and toadied!
They hated the slavery they lived under, but not one of them dared
raise his hand against it.
GER. Well, you've seen the world in your own way. Now are you ready to
go back to Nibelheim?
HAGEN. Good God, no!
GER. You know it's my duty to send you back.
HAGEN. Oh, say! My dear fellow!
GER. You know the solemn promise I made to King Alberich.
HAGEN. Yes . . . but you can't carry it out.
GER. But I can!
HAGEN. How?
GER. I could invoke the law, if need be. You know you are a minor . . .
HAGEN. My dear boy, I'm over seven hundred years old!
GER. Ah, but that is a quibble. You know that in our world that is
only equal to about eighteen . . .
HAGEN. I have read up the law, but I haven't found any provision for
reducing Nibelung ages to your scale.
GER. But you can't deny . . .
HAGEN. I wouldn't need to deny. The story's absurd on the face of it.
You know perfectly well that there are no such things as Nibelungs!
[GERALD gasps.] And besides, you're a poet, and everybody knows you're
crazy. Fancy what the newspaper reporters would do with such a yarn!
[Cheerfully.] Come, old man, forget about it, and let's be friends.
You'll have a lot more fun watching my career. And besides, what do
you want? I've come back, and I'm ready to follow your advice.
GER. How do you mean?
HAGEN. You told me to stay in school until I'd got my bearings in the
world. And then I was to have a career. Well, I've got my education
for myself . . . and now I'm ready for the career. [After a pause.]
Listen, Gerald. I said I'd be a self-made man. I said I'd conquer the
world for myself. But of late I've come to realize how far it is to
the top, and I can't spare the time.
GER. I see.
HAGEN. And then . . . besides that . . . I've met a woman.
GER. [Startled.] Good heavens!
HAGEN. Yes. I'm in love.
GER. But surely . . . you don't expect to marry!
HAGEN. Why not? My mother was an earth-woman, and her mother, also.
GER. To be sure. I'd not realized it. [A pause.] Who is the woman?
HAGEN. I don't know. I only know she belongs in this world of yours.
And I've come to seek her out. I shall get her, never fear!
GER. What are your plans?
HAGEN. I've looked this Christian civilization of yours over . . . and
I'm prepared to play the game. You can take me up and put me into
Society . . . as you offered to do before. You'll find that I'll do
you credit.
GER. But such a career requires money.
HAGEN. Of course. Alberich will furnish it, if you tell him it's
needed. You must call Mimi.
GER. Mimi is here now.
HAGEN. [Starting.] What!
GER. He is in the house.
HAGEN. For what?
GER. He came to look for you.
HAGEN. What is the matter?
GER. I don't know. He wants you to return to Nibelheim.
HAGEN. Find him. Let me see him!
GER. All right. Wait here.
[Exit left.]
HAGEN. What can that mean?
EST. [Enters, right, sees PRINCE HAGEN, starts wildly and screams.]
Ah! [She stands transfixed; a long pause.] Steve O'Hagen! [A pause.]
Steve O'Hagen! What does it mean?
HAGEN. Who are you?
EST. I live here.
HAGEN. Your name?
EST. Estelle Isman.
HAGEN. [In a transport of amazement.] Estelle Isman! You are Gerald's
sister!
EST. Yes.
HAGEN. By the gods!
EST. [Terrified.] You know my brother!
HAGEN. Yes.
EST. You . . . Steve O'Hagen!
HAGEN. [Gravely.] I am Prince Hagen
EST. Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. A foreign nobleman.
EST. What . . . what do you mean? You were on the Bowery!
HAGEN. I came to this country to study its institutions. I wished to
know them for myself . . . therefore I went into politics. Don't you
see?
EST! [Dazed.] I see!
HAGEN. Now I am on the point of giving up the game and telling the
story of my experiences.
EST. What are you doing here . . . in this house?
HAGEN. I came for you.
EST. [Stares at him.] How dare you?
HAGEN. I would dare anything for you! [They gaze at each other.] Don't
you understand?
EST. [Vehemently.] No! No! I am afraid of you! You have no business to
be here!
HAGEN. [Taking a step towards her.] Listen . . .
EST. No! I will not hear you! You cannot come here!
[Stares at him, then abruptly exit, centre.]
HAGEN. [Laughs.] Humph! [Hearing voices.] Who is this?
RUTH. [Off right.] I don't agree with you.
IS. Nor I, either, Plimpton. [Enters with PLIMPTON and RUTHERFORD;
sees HAGEN.] Oh . . . I beg your pardon.
HAGEN. I am waiting for your son, Sir.
IS. I see. Won't you be seated?
HAGEN. I thank you. [Sits at ease in chair.]
PLIM. My point is, it's as Lord Alderdyce says . . . we have no
hereditary aristocracy in this country, no traditions of authority . .
. nothing to hold the mob in check.
IS. There is the constitution.
PLIM. They may over-ride it.
IS. There are the courts.
PLIM. They may defy the courts.
RUTH. Oh, Plimpton, that's absurd!
PLIM. Nothing of the kind, Rutherford! Suppose they were to elect to
office some wild and reckless demagog . . . take, for instance, that
ruffian you were telling us about . . . down there on the Bowery . . .
[HAGEN starts, and listens] and he were to defy the law and the
courts? He is preaching just that to the mob . . . striving to rouse
the elemental wild beast in them! And some day they will pour out into
this avenue . . .
RUTH. [Vehemently.] Very well, Plimpton! Let them come! Have we not
the militia and the regulars? We could sweep the avenue with one
machine gun . . .
PLIM. But suppose the troops would not fire?
RUTH. But that is impossible!
PLIM. Nothing of the kind, Rutherford! No, no . . . we must go back of
all that! It is in the hearts of the people that we must erect our
defenses. It is the spirit of this godless and skeptical age that is
undermining order. We must teach the people the truths of religion. We
must inculcate lessons of sobriety and thrift, of reverence for
constituted authority. We must set our fa
ces against these new
preachers of license and infidelity . . . we must go back to the old-
time faith . . . to love, and charity, and self-sacrifice . . .
HAGEN. [Interrupting.] That's it! You've got it there!
IS. [Amazed.] Why . . .
PLIM. Sir?
HAGEN. You've said it! Set the parsons after them! Teach them heaven!
Set them to singing about harps and golden crowns, and milk and honey
flowing! Then you can shut them up in slums and starve them, and they
won't know the difference. Teach them non-resistance and self-
renunciation! You've got the phrases all pat . . . handed out from
heaven direct! Take no thought saying what ye shall eat! Lay not up
for yourselves treasures on earth! Render unto Caesar the things that
are Caesar's!
IS. Why . . . this is preposterous!
PLIM. This is blasphemy!
HAGEN. You're Plimpton . . . Plimpton, the coal baron, I take it. I
know you by your pictures. You shut up little children by tens of
thousands to toil for you in the bowels of the earth. You crush your
rivals, and form a trust, and screw up prices to freeze the poor in
winter! And you . . . [to RUTHERFORD] you're Rutherford, the steel
king, I take it. You have slaves working twelve hours a day and seven
days a week in your mills. And you mangle them in hideous accidents,
and then cheat their widows of their rights . . . and then you build
churches, and set your parsons to preach to them about love and self-
sacrifice! To teach them charity, while you crucify justice! To trick
them with visions of an imaginary paradise, while you pick their
pockets upon earth! To put arms in their hands, and send them to shoot
their brothers, in the name of the Prince of Peace!
RUTH. This is outrageous!
PLIM. [Clenching his fists.] Infamous scoundrel!
RUTH. [Advancing Upon HAGEN.] How dare you!
HAGEN. It stings, does it? Ha! Ha!
PLIM. [Sputtering.] You wretch!
IS. This has gone too far. Stop, Rutherford! Calm yourself, Plimpton.
Let us not forget ourselves! [To PRINCE HAGEN, haughtily.] I do not
know who you are, sir, or by what right you are in my house. You say
that you are a friend of my son's . . .
HAGEN. I claim that honor, sir.
IS. The fact that you claim it prevents my ordering you into the
street. But I will see my son, sir, and find out by what right you are
here to insult my guests. [Turning.] Come, Plimpton. Come, Rutherford
. . . we will bandy no words with him!
[They go off, centre.]
HAGEN. [Alone.] By God! I touched them! Ha, ha, ha! [Grimly.] He will
order me into the street! [With concentrated fury.] That is it! They
shut you out! They build a wall about themselves! Aristocracy!
[Clenching his fast.] Very well! So be it! You sit within your
fortress of privilege! You are haughty and contemptuous, flaunting
your power! But I'll breach your battlements, I'll lay them in the
dust! I'll bring you to your knees before me!
[A silence. Suddenly there is heard, very faintly, the Nibelung theme.
It is repeated; HAGEN starts.]
MIMI. [Enters, left.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. Mimi!
MIMI. At last!
HAGEN. [Approaching.] What is it?
MIMI. [Beckons.] Come here.
HAGEN. [In excitement.] What do you want?
MIMI. You must come back!
HAGEN. What do you mean?
MIMI. The people want you.
HAGEN. What for?
MIMI. They need you. You must be king.
HAGEN. [Wildly.] Ha?