MRS. IS. Prince Hagen will excuse me. [Exit, left.]
HAGEN. [Goes to table, centre, and sits opposite ISMAN.] Well?
IS. Prince Hagen, what do you want with me?
HAGEN. [Surprised.] Why. the pleasure of your company.
IS. I mean in the Street.
HAGEN. Oh! Have you been hit?
IS. Don't mock me. You have used your resources deliberately to ruin me. You have followed me. you have taken every railroad in which I am interested, and driven it to the wall. And I ask you, man to man, what do you want?
HAGEN. [After some thought.] Isman, listen to me. You remember four months ago I offered you a business alliance?
IS. I had no idea of your resources then. Had I known, I should not have rejected your offer. Am I being punished for that?
HAGEN. No, Isman. it isn't punishment. Had you gone into the alliance with me it would have been just the same. It was my purpose to get you into my power.
IS. Oh!
HAGEN. To bring you here. to make you sit down before me, and ask, What do you want?. And so I will tell you what I want, man to man! [A pause.] I want your daughter.
IS. [Starts.] What!
HAGEN. I want your daughter.
IS. Good God!
HAGEN. Do you understand now?
IS. [Whispering.] I understand!
HAGEN. Isman, you are a man of the world, and we can talk together. I love your daughter, and I wish to make her my wife.
IS. And so you ruined me!
HAGEN. Four months ago I was an interloper and an adventurer. In a month or two I shall be the master of your financial and political world. Then I had nothing to offer your daughter. Now I can make her the first lady of the land.
IS. But, man, we don't sell our children. not in America.
HAGEN. Don't talk to me like a fool, Isman. I never have anything to do with your shams.
IS. But the girl! She must consent!
HAGEN. I'll attend to that. Meantime, I want you to know what I mean.
On the day that your daughter marries me I will put you at the head of my interests, and make you the second richest man in America. You understand?
IS. [Weakly.] I understand.
HAGEN. Very well. And don't forget to tell your wife about it. [He rises.]
IS. Is that all?
HAGEN. No; one thing more. Your daughter is not here to-night.
IS. No.
HAGEN. I wish her to come.
IS. But. she is indisposed!
HAGEN. That is a pretext. She did not want to come.
IS. Possibly.
HAGEN. Tell her to come.
IS. [Startled.] What? Now? It is too late!
HAGEN. Nonsense. Your home is only a block away. Telephone to her.
IS. [Dismayed.] But. she will not be ready.
HAGEN. Tell her to come! Whatever she is wearing, she will outshine them all. [ISMAN hesitates a moment, as if to speak, then goes off, right, half dazed; the other watches him, laughing silently to himself.] That's all right! [Sees Calkins.] Ah, Calkins!
CALKINS. [Enters with an armful of papers.] Here are the morning papers, Prince.
HAGEN. Ah! [Takes them.] Still moist! Did you think I wanted them that badly?
CAL. Promptness never harms.
HAGEN. [Opening papers.] That's true. Ah, they hardly knew which was more important. the ball or the panic! We filled them up pretty full. Did you see if they followed the proofs?
CAL. There are no material changes.
HAGEN. Ha! Ha! Cartoons! Prince Hagen invites the Four Hundred with one hand and knocks them down with the other! Pretty good! Pretty good! What's this? Three millions to decorate his palaces. half a million for a single ball?
CAL. I suppose they couldn't credit the figures.
HAGEN. Humph! We'll educate them! [Sweeps papers out of the way.] So much for that! Were all the orders for the London opening gone over?
CAL. All correct, Prince.
HAGEN. Very good! That's all. [CAL. exit.] They're all anxious about London. I can see it! Ah, Gerald!
GER. [Enters, right.] Hello!
HAGEN. [Smiling.] You see, they came to my party!
GER. Yes.
HAGEN. They smile and chatter. they bow and cringe to me. and I have not preached any of your Christian virtues, either!
GER. No. I grant it. It's a very painful sight. [After a pause.] That was a pleasant fancy. to have a panic on the eve of your ball!
HAGEN. It wasn't nearly as bad as I meant it to be. Wait and see today's!
GER. What's the end of it all?
HAGEN. The end? Why have an end? I didn't make this game. I play it according to other men's rules. I buy and sell stocks, and make what money I can. The end may take care of itself.
GER. It's rather hard on the helpless people, isn't it?
HAGEN. Humph! The people! [After a pause.] Gerald, this world of yours has always seemed to me like a barrel full of rats. There's only room for a certain number on top, and the rest must sweat for it till they die.
GER. It's not a very pleasant image to think of.
HAGEN. I don't think of it. I simply happen to find myself on top, and I stay there and enjoy the view. [Seats himself at table.] As a matter of fact, Gerald, one of the things I intend to do with this world is to clean it up. Don't imagine that I will tolerate such stupid waste as we have at present. everybody trying to cheat everybody else, and nobody to keep the streets clean. It's as if a dozen mere should go out into a field to catch a horse, and spend all their time in trying to keep each other from catching it. When I take charge they'll catch the horse.
GER. [Drily.] And you'll ride him.
HAGEN. And I'll ride him. [Laughs.]
GER. [After a pause.] At first I couldn't make out why you bothered with this Society game. Now I begin to understand. You wanted to see them!
HAGEN. I wanted to watch them wriggle! I wanted to take them, one by one, and strip off their shams! Take that fellow Rutherford, the steel man! Or Plimpton, the coal baron, casting his eyes up to heaven, and singing psalms through his nose! The instant I laid eyes on that whining old hypocrite, I hated him; and I vowed I'd never rest again till I'd shown him as he is. a coward and a knave! And I tell you, Gerald, before I get through with him. Ah, there he is!
PLIM. [Off.] Hello, Isman!
HAGEN. Come. [Draws back with GERALD.]
IS. [Entering, right, with PLIMPTON and RUTHERFORD.] Any word yet?
PLIM. Nothing yet!
RUTH. Such a night as this has been!
IS. If the thing keeps up today the Exchange will have to close. there will be no help for it.
PLIM. We are in the hands of a madman!
RUTH. We must have a conference with him. we must find out what he wants.
IS. Did you speak to him, Plimpton?
PLIM. I tried to. I might as well have butted my head against a stone wall. "I have money," he said, "and I wish to buy and sell stocks.
Isn't that my right?"
RUTH. He's a fiend! A fiend!
PLIM. He smiled as he shook my hand. and he knows that if coal stocks go down another ten points I'll be utterly ruined!
IS. Terrible! Terrible!
PLIM. [To RUTHERFORD.] Rutherford, have you learned any more about where his money comes from?
RUTH. I meant to tell you. I've had another report. The mystery deepens every hour. It's always the same thing. the man takes a train and goes out into the country; he gathers all the wagons for miles around, and goes to some place in the woods. and there is a pile of gold, fifty tons of it, maybe, covered over with brush. Nobody knows how it got there, nobody has time to ask. He loads it into the wagons, takes it aboard the train, and brings it to the Sub-treasury.
IS. The man's an alchemist! He's been manufacturing it and getting ready.
RUTH. Perhaps. Who can tell? All I know is the Sub-treasury has bought over two billion dollars' worth of gold bullion in the last four months. and what can we do in the face of that?