(
Fluently
) Perhaps he felt you didn't expect an answer to your question.
Â
BERGNER
Â
Can't he answer for himself?
Â
JANNINGS
I speak for him.
Â
BERGNER
Are you more powerful than he is?
Â
JANNINGS
Why? I mean, why do you ask?
Â
BERGNER
Because you speak for him. (JANNINGS
is taken aback. He looks at
GEORGE,
who returns the glance.
JANNINGS
stammers. Pause
. BERGNER
quickly
) Does he please you? (JANNINGS
nods absentmindedly.
) Naturally, as your friend he can't help but please you.
Â
JANNINGS
More powerful? Yes ⦠Yes, why not? (
To
GEORGE) Right? I speak for you, therefore you have to listen to what I say! (GEORGE
nods playfully.
) You're not my friend! If someone has something to say here, it's me! (
Pause
. JANNINGS
and
GEORGE
begin to play
. JANNINGS
drops into the fauteuil and stretches out his feet.
) The boots! (GEORGE
quickly steps up to him, gets down on one knee, and puts on
JANNINGS'S
boots.)
The tea! (GEORGE
quickly pours into a cup; hands him the cup.) The sugar!
(GEORGE
offers him the sugar bowl.
JANNINGS
takes a piece with the sugar tongs and lets it drop elegantly into the cup.) A spoon!
(GEORGE
hands him a spoon. Both grin, are close to giggling.
JANNINGS
stirs once
snappily with the spoon
.) The newspaper! (GEORGE
is already by the newspaper table and back
.) My glasses!
Â
GEORGE
(
Blurts out
) But you don't wear glasses!
Â
JANNINGS
(
Snorts
.) The mustard! The hairbrush! The â¦
(He hesitates.)
Â
GEORGE
(
Assists him
.) The photo album! The pincers!
Â
JANNINGS
(
With a surgeon's gesture
) The scalpel! The scissors!
Â
GEORGE
A permanentâand make it snappy!
Â
JANNINGS
(
Reaching blindly behind him with gestures of an auto mechanic
.) The pliers! The monkey wrench! The soldering iron!
Â
GEORGE
Hand over all your moneyâand be quick about it, if you please!
Â
JANNINGS
The sun!
Â
GEORGE
(
Hesitates
.) Why the sun?
Â
JANNINGS
(
Fatigued by the game
) The sun has come up.
Â
GEORGE
(
Confused
) Why? I mean, why do you say that?
Â
JANNINGS
(
Snaps at him.
) Those are
my words
! (
As if exhausted
) I don't know why.
Â
GEORGE
(
Confused, but indifferent
) Your saying so doesn't change anything. (
The last words he has spoken to himself
.)
Â
(
In fact, the dawn light did change gradually some time ago to a normal stage light.
Finally one hears
VON STROHEIM. )
Â
VON STROHEIM
Wrong! Entirely wrong! (He gets up quickly.
BERGNER
has turned toward him; whereas she previously had turned away from the others as if disappointed.)
I'll show you how it should be done!
Â
(
Pause. All prepare to watch.
Â
VON STROHEIM
takes a slow look around as if he is about to pick out someone
. GEORGE
and
JANNINGS
draw in their heads when his glance passes them. Finally
VON STROHEIM
examines
PORTEN.
Since he has his back to the audience, the fact that he is looking at her can only be gleaned from her response to him. First she leans forward, sits upright. Then she rises like a sleepwalher, walks toward
VON STROHEIM,
stops in front of him. Standing before him, she wants to take off his dressing gown, but then steps behind him and take it off from behind; while doing so, she does not seem to touch him. She walks to the tapestry door behind which the vacuum cleaner is stored, hangs the coat inside, takes out a wine-red smoking jacket;
back again behind
VON STROHEIM,
she spreads it out and he slips into it; again they do not touch one another. GEORGE, as spectator, coughs.
)
Â
JANNINGS
Psst!
Â
(PORTEN
pulls
VON STROHEIM'S
cuffs from under his jacket sleeves. Pause.
VON STROHEIM
now describes a quarter circle with his hand, signaling
PORTEN
to stand in front of him. She obeys immediately and, in doing so, makes sure never to turn her back to him. She stops in front of him. He beckons her with his index finger to come closer. Pause.
JANNINGS,
eagerly watching, points with a similar circular movement of his hand at the cigar box
. GEORGE,
also enthralled, has noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye and obeys blindly by handing
JANNINGS
the box from the table, still watching the two. Then he realizes what he has done and is quite startled. He looks toward
JANNINGS.
They look at one another rather startled and immediately turn back to the action.
VON STROHEIM
pulls
PORTEN
closer to him by the stole. Playfully he steps a little to the side so that
PORTEN
is completely visible too. He grabs her with his index finger under the chin and lifts her face. Pause. He strokes the back of her head. Pause. He pats her fondly on the shoulder. Pause. He drums with two fingers on her cheek. Pause. He snaps his fingers against her teeth. Pause. He pulls her lower eyelid down with his finger. Pause. He gives her a pat on the behind so that she goes half down on her knees. Pause. GEORGE coughs
.)
Â
JANNINGS
Psst!
Â
(VON STROHEIM
turns
PORTEN
around, so that she stands with her back to him and walks back a step
.
Pause
. GEORGE
coughs. Still sitting,
JANNINGS
gives him a kick
. GEORGE,
standing by the table, jerks forward a little; but
PORTEN,
as if she had been kicked, tumbles across the stage toward the sofa and remains lying in front of it. In fact,
VON STROHEIM
had already lifted his knee to administer a kick. Pause. Startled, they all look at each other. Pause.
)
Â
BERGNER
It's nice to watch when something is beginning to function smoothly. It's like watching a sale: move after move. Here the goods, there the money! Here the money, there the goods! Or like listening to two people talking: first the question, then the reply. Someone holds out his hand, the other shakes it. How are you, I'm fine! How do you like him, I think he's okay! Someone gets up, you're already leaving? Someone sighs, and you pat him. Oh, that's beautiful!
Â
(VON STROHEIM
slowly lowers his leg, turns around slightly dazed.
PORTEN
pulls herself up on the sofa and sits down, her face half turned away.
GEORGE
sits down bewildered in the fauteuil.
JANNINGS
looks at the boot with which he kicked him. He punches his leg and upper arm a few times
. GEORGE,
too, fiercely pinches his arm once.
BERGNER
sighs. She walks up to
VON STROHEIM,
then stops short. He comes toward her, then stops. She takes his hand, puts it on her breast. She caresses herself with his hand until he begins to caress her.
PORTEN
suddenly gets up and runs toward the table.
GEORGE,
who from her viewpoint is sitting behind the table, stands up unintentionally
. BERGNER
and
VON STROHEIM
let go of each other and watch.
)
Â
GEORGE
(
Asks
) What would you like? (
The words slipped out.
)
PORTEN
(
Like a customer
) Do you carry gas pistols?
Â
GEORGE
Gas pistols? You mean “tear-gas pistols”?
Â
PORTEN
Aren't you the salesman? (GEORGE
makes no reply.)
You were sitting behind the table and got up when I came in; you're the salesman, aren't you?
Â
GEORGE
(
Looks at
JANNINGS,
who signifies to him to agree with her.)
The salesman? You mean I am “the salesman”? Well, why shouldn't I be the salesman? I asked you, didn't I, “What would you like?” What would you like? A weapon perhaps, for the way home after dark?
Â
PORTEN
A tear-gas pistol!
Â
GEORGE
(
To
JANNINGS,
who sits as if he were the boss in his fauteuil.)
Do we carry tear-gas pistols?
Â
(JANNINGS
pulls a small riding crop out of his boot and hands it to
GEORGE,
who puts it on the table.
PORTEN
looks at it without touching it.)
Â
JANNINGS
(
Sits with his face turned away from her.)
This riding crop will do the trick too.
Â
GEORGE
A riding crop like this will do the trick too.
Â
PORTEN
I want
this
one.
Â
JANNINGS
Is she our first customer today?
Â
GEORGE
(
Translates.
) A customer like you should be treated like the first customer of the day. It's yours!
Â
PORTEN
(
Takes the crop.
) Is it a good one?
Â
GEORGE
First-rate.
Â
PORTEN
Can I believe you?
Â
GEORGE
What reason would I have to trick you? (
She hands the crop back to him, and he slashes through the air with it. One can hear the sound. Then he slaps the crop on the table.
) Just imagine the sound in the dark! (
He hands her the crop
.)
Â
(PORTEN
repeats what he did, producing the same sounds. The crop still in her hand, she pulls up her dress as far as the hip and pulls a large note of stage money out of her garter belt. She puts the note on the table and also places the crop next to it.
Â
GEORGE,
astonished, hands the crop back to her, then takes a few coins out of his pants pocket and puts them on the table. While he is looking for banknotes in his other pockets,
PORTEN
takes the coins; but when he continues to search, she puts the coins back on the table.
JANNINGS
gets up and flashes a few notes, which he counts into her hand one by one. He closes her fingers one by one over the notes; the last fingerâit is the index fingerâshe closes, very slowly, herself. It seems that she beckons him to
come to her. At the same time they look into each other's eyes. Everyone is holding his breath.
PORTEN
pushes the bills into her bodice; then slowly withdraws her hand, making it evident that the hand is now empty; touches her upper lip with the tongue; and, gently flipping the crop back and forth, looks so long at the two salesmen that
GEORGE
shifts his weight from one leg to the other and shouts indecently loud at
VON STROHEIM: “Do you belong together?” VON STROHEIM
and
PORTEN
give each other a fleeting glance, then look away. A second glance: they look at each other as though for the first time.)