SCENE 4

Geske.  Henrich!

Henrich (off stage).  Hey!

(Enter Henrich.)

Geske.  Henrich! you must not answer like that after this.  Don’t you know what has happened to us?

Henrich.  No, I don’t know.

Geske.  My husband has been made burgomaster.

Henrich.  What of?

Geske.  What of?  Of Hamburg!

Henrich.  The deuce you say!  That certainly is the devil’s own jump for a tinker!

Herman.  Henrich, speak with more respect.  You must know that you are now the lackey of a man of prominence.

Henrich.  Lackey!  Then I don’t advance nearly so much!

Herman.  You shall advance in time.  You may even be a reutendiener some day.  Only keep still.  Your duty for a few days is to act as lackey until I can get a servant.—­He can wear my brown coat, my dear, till we get a livery.

Geske.  But I am afraid it will be much too long for him.

Herman.  Of course it is too long, but a man must help himself as best he can when he’s in a hurry.

Henrich.  Good Lord!  It goes down to my heels.  I shall look like a
Jewish priest.

Herman.  Listen, Henrich—­

Henrich.  Yes, master.

Herman.  You rascal!  Don’t address me by any such title any more; from henceforth, when I call, you answer “Mr. Burgomaster!” and when any one comes to ask after me, you may say, “Burgomaster von Bremenfeld is at home.”

Henrich.  Must I say that whether your Honor is at home or not?

Herman.  What nonsense!  When I am not at home, you must say, “Burgomaster von Bremenfeld is not at home;” and when I do not wish to be at home, you shall say, “The burgomaster is not giving audience to-day.”—­Listen, my dear, you must make some coffee immediately, so that you will have something to entertain the councillors’ wives with when they come.  For our reputation will from now on depend on having people say, “Burgomaster von Bremenfeld gives good counsel, and his wife good coffee.”  I am so much afraid, my dear, that you will make some mistake before you get accustomed to the position that you have attained.—­Henrich, run get a tea-table and some cups, and tell the girl to run out and get fourpence’ worth of coffee—­one can always buy more later.—­You make it a rule, my dear, not to talk much until you learn to carry on refined conversation.  You must not be too humble, either, but stand upon your dignity, and strive in every way to get the old tinkering habits out of your head, and try to imagine that you have been a burgomaster’s wife for years.  In the morning a tea-table must be set for callers, and in the afternoon a coffee-table, and that can be used for cards.  There is a game that they call Allumber;