only way I could have kept you
to myself. The old girlhood love was opening its eyes again, and I could
not close them quickly enough!

CLARA.

When I got home, I found my mother ill, mortally ill. She had been
stricken suddenly, as if by an invisible hand. My father had wanted to
send for me, but she would not consent to his doing so, not wishing to
interrupt my happiness. And how I felt when I heard that! I held myself
aloof, I did not dare to touch her, I trembled! She took it for childish
anxiety and motioned me over to her; when I slowly drew near her, she
held me down and kissed my desecrated mouth. I lost control of myself; I
wanted to confess to her, to cry out what I thought and felt: It is my
fault that you are lying there! I tried to do so, but tears and sobs
choked my voice. She reached for my father's hand, and said with a
blissful glance at me: What a heart!

LEONARD.

She is well again. I have come to congratulate her, and--what do you
think?

CLARA.

What?

LEONARD.

To ask your father for your hand.

CLARA.

Oh!

LEONARD.

Don't you want me to?

CLARA.

Want you to? It will mean my death, if I do not become your wife pretty
soon! But you do not know my father! He does not understand why we are
in such a hurry--he cannot understand why, and we cannot tell him why!
And he has declared a hundred times that he will never give his daughter
to any man unless he has not only, as he says, love in his heart for
her, but also bread in his cupboard for her. He will say: Wait another
year or two, my son.--And what will be your answer?

LEONARD. You foolish girl, that difficulty is disposed of! I have the
position now--I am cashier!

CLARA.

You cashier? And the other applicant, the pastor's nephew?

LEONARD.

Was drunk when he came to the examination, bowed to the stove instead of
to the burgomaster, and when he sat down knocked three cups off the
table. You know how hot-headed the old fellow is. "Sir!" he exclaimed
angrily, but he restrained himself and bit his lip. Nevertheless his
eyes glared through his spectacles like the eyes of a serpent about to
spring, and his whole body became rigid. Then we started computing and,
ha! ha!--my rival computed with a multiplication table of his own
invention that gave entirely new results. "He's way off in his
reckoning!" said the burgomaster, and, glancing in my direction, held
out his hand to me with the appointment. It smelled terribly of tob