, or the son who restricted
her wishes, whom she had never understood, and against whom her heart
had long been hardened. But it could not be and, losing all self-control
and dignity, she shrieked aloud, tore the blue headband from her hair
and, repeating the "never" constantly as if she had gone out of her
senses, gasped: "Never, never, never, so long as I live!"

As she spoke she rushed to her startled husband, pointed to her
son-in-law, who still held his wife in a close embrace, and in a
half-stifled voice commanded Herr Casper to strike down the gambler,
robber, spendthrift, and kidnapper of children, or drive him out of the
house like some savage, dangerous beast. Then she ordered Isabella to
leave the profligate who wanted to drag her down to ruin; and when her
daughter refused to obey, she burst into violent weeping, sobbing and
moaning till her strength failed and she was really attacked with one of
the convulsions she had often feigned, by the advice of her own mother,
to extort from her husband the gratification of some extravagant wish.

Indignant, yet full of sincere sympathy, Herr Casper supported his wife,
whose queenly beauty had once fired his heart, and in whose embrace
he had imagined that he would be vouchsafed here below the joys of the
redeemed. As she rested her head, with its long auburn tresses, still so
luxuriant, upon his shoulder, exquisite pictures of the past rose before
the mental vision of the elderly man; but the spell was quickly broken,
for the kerchief with which he wiped her face was dyed red from her
rouged cheeks.

A bitter smile hovered around his well-formed, beardless lips, and the
man of business remembered the vast sums which he had squandered to
gratify the extravagant wishes of the mother and daughter, and show
these countesses that he, the burgher, in whose veins ran noble blood,
understood as well as any man of their own rank how to increase the
charm of life by luxury and splendour.

While he supported his wife, and the old countess was seeking to relieve
her, Isabella also prepared to hasten to her mother's assistance, but
her husband stopped her with resistless strength, whispering: "You know
that these convulsions are not dangerous. Come with me to the children.
I want to bid them farewell. Show me in this last hour, at least, that
these women are not more to you than I." He released her as he spoke,
and the mental struggle which for a short time made her bosom heav