l go with you to the treasury to get the money."

"I will not write the receipt," said Marie, gently but firmly. Her
mother, in the act of rising, sank back upon the divan; and the general,
apparently quite occupied with his leg, stopped rubbing, and raised his
red, bloated face to his daughter in astonishment. "Did I understand
rightly your words, that you would not write the receipt?"

"Yes, mother, I said so; I cannot and will not write it," replied Marie,
gently.

"And why cannot you, and will you not write it?" said her mother,
scornfully.

"Because I have no right to the money, and cannot take it, mother, as I
will never be the wife of the man you intend me to marry."

The general sprang with a savage curse from his arm-chair, and would
have rushed to his daughter, but his wife pushed him back into his seat,
and approached Marie, who rose, regarding her mother with a firm, sad
expression. "Why can you not be the wife of the man we have chosen for
you? Answer me, WHY you cannot?"

"You know, mother," she replied, and gradually her voice assumed a more
decided tone, her cheeks reddened, and an inspired expression beamed
from her eyes, and pervaded her whole being--"you know, mother, that
I can never be the wife of Herr Ebenstreit, for I do not love him. I
despise and abominate him, because he is a man without honor; he knows
that I do not love him, and yet he insists upon marrying me. If it were
not so, if I did not despise and abominate him, I would not receive his
suit and marry him."

"Why not?" cried the general, shaking his fist at his daughter.

"Why not?" cried the mother, with a cold, icy glance, void of pity or
anger.

Marie encountered these looks with beaming eyes. "Because I am betrothed
to another," and the words came like a cry of joy from her
heart--"because I am engaged to my beloved Moritz!"

"Shameless, obstinate creature, have we not forbidden it?" cried her
father.

"Stop!" interrupted his wife, with a commanding wave of her hand, which
silenced the obedient husband immediately. "It belongs to me to question
her, for I am her mother, and my daughter owes me submission and
obedience above all things.--Answer me, Marie, did you not know that we
had forbidden you to speak to this man, or have any communication with
him? Did you not know that I, your mother, had menaced you with a
curse if you married this man, or even spoke to the miserable, pitiable
creature?"

"Mother," cried Marie