PLIM. No wonder that prices went up to the skies!
RUTH. I had the White House on the 'phone this afternoon. We can demonetize gold. the government can refuse to buy any more.
IS. But then what would become of credit?
PLIM. [Vehemently.] No, no. that will not help! [Gazes about nervously.] There's only one thing. [Whispers.] That man must be killed!
RUTH. [Horrified.] Ah!
IS. No.
PLIM. Just that! Nothing else will help! And instantly. or it will be too late.
IS. Plimpton!
PLIM. He must not be alive when the Exchange opens this morning!
RUTH. But how?
PLIM. I don't know. but we must find a way! We owe it as a public duty. the man is a menace to society. Rutherford, you are with me?
RUTH. By God! I am!
IS. You're mad!
PLIM. You don't agree with me?
IS. It's not to be thought of! You're forgetting yourself, Plimpton.
., PLIM. [Gazing about.] This is no place to discuss it. But I tell you that if there is no support from London.
RUTH. [Starting.] Come. perhaps there may be word! [They start left.] We may beat them yet. who can tell?
[PLIMPTON, RUTHERFORD and ISMAN go off.]
HAGEN. [Emerges with GERALD from shadows, shaking with laughter.] Hat ha! ha! Love and self-sacrifice! You see, Gerald!
GER. Yes. I see! [Looks right. then starts violently.] My sister!
HAGEN. Ah!
GER. What does this mean?
HAGEN. [To ESTELLE, who enters, right, evidently agitated.] Miss Isman!
EST. My father said.
HAGEN. Yes. Won't you sit down?
EST. [Hesitatingly.] Why. I suppose so.
HAGEN. [To GERALD.] Will you excuse us, please, Gerald?
GER. [Amazed.] Why, yes. but Estelle.
EST. [In a faint voice.] Please go, Gerald.
GER. Oh! very well. [Exit, left.]
EST. You wished to see me.
HAGEN. Yes. [Sitting opposite.] How do you like it all?
EST. It is very beautiful.
HAGEN. Do you really think so?
EST. [Wondering.] Don't you?
HAGEN. No.
EST. Truly?
HAGEN. No.
EST. Then why did you do it?
HAGEN. To please you.
EST. [Shrinks.] Oh!
HAGEN. [Fixes his gaze on her, and slowly leans across table; with intensity.] Haven't you discovered yet that you are mine?
EST. [Half rising.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. How long will it be before you know it?
EST. How dare you?
HAGEN. Listen. I am a man accustomed to command. I have no time to play with conventions. I cannot dally and plead. But I love you.
I cannot live without you! And I will shake the foundations of the world to get you!
EST. [Staring, fascinated; whispers.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. All this. [waving his hand] I did in the hope that it would bring you here. so that I might have a chance to tell you.
Simply for that one purpose. I have broken the business world to my will. that also was to make you mine!
EST. [Wildly.] You have ruined my father!
HAGEN. Your father has played this game, and his path is strewn with the rivals he has ruined. He knows that, and you know it. Now I have played the game; and I have beaten him. It took me one day to bring him down. [Laughs.] It will take me less time to put him back again.
EST. But why, why?
HAGEN. Listen, Estelle. I came to this civilization of yours, and looked at it. It seemed to me that it was built upon knavery and fraud
that it was altogether a vile thing. rotten to the core of it! And I said I would smash it, as a child smashes a toy; I would toss it about. as your brother the poet tosses his metaphors. But then I saw you, and in a flash all that was changed. You were beautiful. you were interesting. You were something in the world worth winning. something I had not known about before. But you stood upon the pinnacle of Privilege. you gathered the clouds about your head. How should I climb to you?
EST. [Frightened.] I see!
HAGEN. I came to your home. I was turned from the door. So I set to work to break my way to you.
EST. I see!
HAGEN. And that is how I love you. You are all there is in the game to me. I bring the world and lay it at your feet. It is all yours. You do not like what I do with it, perhaps. Very well. take it and do better. The power is yours for the asking! Power without end! [He reaches out his arms to her; a pause.] You do not like my way of lovemaking, perhaps. You find me harsh and rude. But I love you. And where, among the men that you know, will you find one who can feel for you what I feel. who would dare for you what I have dared? [Gazes at her with intensity.] Take your time. I have no wish to hurry you.
But you must know that, wherever you go, my hand is upon you. All that
I do, I do for the love of you.
EST. [Weakly.] I. you frighten me!
HAGEN. All the world I lay at your feet! You shall see.
PLIM. [Off left.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. [Starting.] Ah!
PLIM. [Enters, running, in great agitation, with a telegram.] Prince
Hagen!
HAGEN. Well?
PLIM. I have a report from London. The market has gone all to pieces!
HAGEN. Ah!
PLIM. Pennsylvania coal is down twenty-five points in the first half hour. I'm lost. everything is lost!
RUTH. [Running on.] Prince Hagen! Steel is down to four! And the Bank of England suspends payments! What…
PLIM. What do you want with us? What are you trying to do?
RUTH. [Wildly.] You've crushed us! We're helpless, utterly helpless!
PLIM. Have you no mercy? Aren't you satisfied when you've got us down?
RUTH. Are you going to ruin everybody? Are you a madman?
PLIM. What are you trying to do? What do you want?
HAGEN. [Has been listening in silence. Suddenly he leaps into action, an expression of furious rage coming upon his face. His eyes gleam, and he raises his hand as if to strike the two.] Get down on your knees!
PLIM. Ha!
RUTH. What?
HAGEN. [Louder.] Get down on your knees! [PLIMPTON sinks in horror.
PRINCE HAGEN turns Upon RUTHERFORD.] Down!
RUTH. [Sinking.] Mercy!
HAGEN. [As they kneel before him, his anger vanishes; he steps back.]
There! [Waving his hand.] You asked me what I wanted? I wanted this.
to see you there. upon your knees! [To spectators, who appear right and left.] Behold!
RUTH. Oh! [Starts to rise.]
HAGEN. [Savagely.] Stay where you are!. To see you on your knees!
To hear you crying for mercy, which you will not get! You pious plunderers! Devourers of the people! Assassins of women and helpless children! Who made the rules of this game. you or I? Who cast the halo of righteousness about it. who sanctified it by the laws of
God and man? Property! Property was holy! Property must rule! You carved it into your constitutions. you taught it in your newspapers, you preached it from your pulpits! You screwed down wages, you screwed up prices. it must be right, because it paid! Money was the test. money was the end! You were business men! Practical men! Don't you know the phrases? Money talks! Business is business!
The gold standard. ha, ha, ha! The gold standard! Now someone has come who has more gold than you. You were masters. now I am the master! And what you have done to the people I will do to you! You shall drink the cup that you have poured out for them. you shall drink it to the dregs!
PLIM. [Starting to rise.] Monster!
HAGEN. Stay where you are! Cringe and grovel and whine! [Draws a
Nibelung whip from under his coat.] I will put the lash upon your backs! I will strip your shams from you. I will see you as you are! I will take away your wealth, that you have wrung from others!
Before I get through with you you shall sweat with the toilers in the trenches! For I am the master now! I have the gold! I own the property! The world is mine! You were lords and barons. you ruled in your little principalities! But I shall rule everywhere. every- thing. all civilization! I shall be king! King! [With exultant gesture.] Make way for the king! Make way for the king!