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 faces against these new preachers of license and infidelity. we must go back to the oldtime 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 selfrenunciation! 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 selfsacrifice! 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?
MIMI. Alberich.
HAGEN. Alberich?
MIMI. He is dead!
HAGEN. [With wild start.] Dead!
MIMI. Yes. he died last night!
HAGEN. [Turns pale and staggers; then leaps at Mimi, clutching him by the arm.] No! NO!
MIMI. It is true.
HAGEN. My God! [A look of wild, drunken rapture crosses his face; he clenches his hands and raises his arms.] Ha, ha, ha!
MIMI. [Shrinks in horror.] Prince Hagen!
HAGEN. He is dead! He is dead! [Leaps at mimi.] The gold?
MIMI. The gold is yours.
HAGEN. Ha, ha, ha! It is mine! It is mine! [Begins pacing the floor wildly.] Victory! Victory! VICTORY! Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha! [Spreads out his arms, with a triumphant shout.] I have them! By God! Isman!
Plimpton and Rutherford! Estelle! I have them all! It is triumph! It is glory! It is the world! I am King! I am King! King! KING! [Seizes MIMI and starts centre; the music rises to climax.] To Nibelheim! To Nibelheim! [Stands stretching out his arms in exultation; a wild burst of music.] Make way for Hagen! Make way for Hagen!
[CURTAIN]
ACT III
[The conservatory is a study in green and gold, with strange tropical plants having golden flowers. There are entrances right and left. In the centre, up-stage, is a niche with a gold table and a couple of gold chairs, and behind these a stand with the "coronation cup"; to the right the golden throne from Nibelheim, and to the left a gold fountain splashing gently.] [At rise: The stage is empty. The strains of an orchestra heard from ball-room, left.]
MRS. BAGLEY-WILLIS. [Enters, right, with DE WIGGLESTON RIGGS; she wears a very low-cut gown, a stomacher and tiara of diamonds, and numerous ropes of pearls.] Well, Wiggie, he has made a success of it!
DE WIGGLESTON RIGGS. [Petit and exquisite.] He was certain to make a success when Mrs. Bagley-Willis took him up!
MRS. B.-W. But he wouldn't do a single thing I told him. I never had such a protege in my life!
DE W. R. Extraordinary!
MRS. B.-W. I told him it would be frightfully crude, and it is. And yet, Wiggie, it's impressive, in its way. nobody can miss the feeling. Such barbaric splendor!
DE W. R. The very words! Barbaric splendor!
MRS. B.-W. I never heard of anything like it. the man simply poured out money. It's quite in a different class from other affairs.
DE W. R. [Holding up his hands.] Stupefying!
MRS. B.-W. And did you ever know the public to take such interest in a social event? People haven't even stopped to think about the panic in Wall Street.
DE W. R. I assure you, Mrs. Bagley-Willis, it begins a new epoch in our social history. [To LORD ALDERDYCE, who enters, left, with GERALD.] How do you do, Lord Alderdyce?
MRS. B.-W. Good evening, Lord Alderdyce. Good evening, Gerald.
LORD A. Good evening, Mrs. Bagley-Willis. Good evening, Mr. Riggs.
GERALD. Good evening, Wiggie! [DE W. R. and MRS. B.-W. move toward left.] I suppose that old lady's taken to herself all the credit for this evening's success!
LORD A. Well, really, you know, wasn't it. ah. quite a feat to make society swallow this adventurer?
GERALD. How can anybody stay away? When a man spends several millions on a single entertainment people have to come out of pure curiosity.
LORD A. To be sure! I did, anyway!
GER. [Gazing about.] Think of buying all the old Vandergrift palaces at one swoop!
LORD A. Oh, really!
GER. This palace was one of the landmarks of the city; all its decorations had been taken from old palaces in Italy. And he tore everything off and gave it away to a museum, and he made it over in three months!