not reply, but
turned her face slowly away from him and stared at the window.

In his heart Borgert was thankful to her for receiving his
communication with such composure, and not with the screams and
hysterical sobbings which women habitually employ on occasions of the
kind.

And as he regarded attentively her pale profile, clear-cut against the
light, and saw a tear glistening in her eye, a passionate emotion,
largely pity for this suffering creature by his side, so pathetic in
her dumb resignation, took hold of him, and he drew her into his arms.

Then she murmured:

"Take me along, George!"

In amazement Borgert stared at her.

"For heaven's sake, how did you get such thoughts? How can I do that?"

"Oh, George, you do not know. I cannot bear my life here any longer.
Let me go with you, I beseech you."

"But that is not to be dreamt of. Will there not be scandal enough
when I disappear? And then take you along? Impossible."

"In that case I shall go alone. I must leave here--I _must_."

"But why all this so suddenly? What has come to you?"

Frau Leimann gave vent to her suppressed feelings by a violent fit of
sobbing. "My husband has beaten me with his clenched fist--see, here
are the marks!--because the bailiff had called on me. His treatment of
me has become worse and worse of late, and now my hatred, my dislike
of him has reached a point where I can no longer see him around me,
breathe the same air he breathes; and then,--another thing," and here
she broke into weeping again, "I have no money--there is nothing with
which I can pay my debts; something--some great misfortune will
come--I'm sure of it, George, if I do not leave him peaceably."

Borgert had great pains to quiet the excited woman.

He reflected. After all, her idea was not such a bad one. If she
really had made up her mind fully to leave her husband, she might as
well go with him; for in that case he would at least have somebody by
his side to whom he could speak, to whom he could open his
heart,--somebody who would be in the same situation as himself. And
when Frau Leimann once more implored him with a tearful voice, he
whispered:

"Then come with me. We shall leave to-morrow night."

They began to make plans, and he said:

"Let us talk this matter over sensibly. First, how will you get away
from here without being observed by your husband?"

"He is leaving for Berlin to-morrow morning. He has official matters
to attend to there