he knew
her. But Teresa herself relieved him from his embarrassment. With a calm
and cold look, she said, "I have a few words to say to you, and if you
have leisure to quit your guests for a moment or two, be so good as to
take me where we may not disturb the company."

Papa Meyer at once accepted this proposal, and, opening the door before
her, led her into one of the remoter rooms. They had scarcely closed the
door, when a merry laugh arose from the midst of the company which they
had just quitted. Papa Meyer thereupon drew Aunt Teresa still further
away. Even he was not quite so simple as not to know why the young
people in there laughed so uproariously at this old-fashioned spinster
of a bygone generation.

Papa Meyer, when he did address Aunt Teresa, tried to assume his most
friendly air.

"Won't you take a seat, my dear kinswoman? Oh, what a pleasure it is to
see you at last!"

"I have not exactly come here to bandy compliments," replied Teresa,
dryly, "and it is not necessary to sit down for the sake of the few
words I have come to say. I can say them just as well standing up. For
two years we have not seen each other. During that time you have placed
a pretty considerable distance between us, and your mode of life has
been such as to make it impossible for all eternity for us ever to
approach one another again. This I fancy will not very greatly astonish
you, and the knowledge that this is so has given me the courage to say
it. You have chosen for your four daughters, one after the other, the
same career. Don't speak. It is better to be silent about such things,
and I beg you will not interrupt me. I shall not reproach you. You are
the master of your own actions. You have one daughter who is twelve
years old; in a short time she will be a marriageable girl. I have not
come to this house to make a scene, nor do I wish to preach about
morality, or religion, or God, or maidenly innocence, subjects which
great men and grand gentlemen simply sneer at as the stock-in-trade of
hypocrites. I will therefore tell you in a couple of words why I have
come. All I ask is that you deliver over to me your youngest daughter. I
will engage to bring her up honourably as a respectable middle-class
girl should be brought up. Her mind is still uncorrupted, she is still
in the hands of God, and I will undertake to the day of my death to
preserve her reputation. All I require of you is that neither you
yourself, nor any member of