HOFFMANN

There's an element of truth in all that. Of course, I could give you a
very different notion of how those things hung together. Perhaps they
knew a few more of these edifying anecdotes.

LOTH

There was one thing, I am bound to tell you, that seemed to excite them
particularly: they computed what an enormous business you were doing in
coal now, and they called you--well, it wasn't exactly flattering. In
short they asserted that you had persuaded the stupid farmers of the
neighbourhood, over some champagne, to sign a contract by which the
exploitation of all the coal mined on their property was turned over to
you at a ridiculously small rental.

HOFFMANN

[_Touched on the raw, gets up._] I'll tell you something, Loth ... Pshaw,
why concern oneself with it at all. I vote that we think of supper. I'm
savagely hungry--yes, quite savagely.

[_He presses the button of an electric connection, the wire of which
hangs down over the sofa in the form of a green cord. The ringing of
an electric bell is heard._

LOTH

Well, if you want to keep me here, then have the kindness ... I'd like to