"That is just what I was going to speak about," interrupted Miss Mary, glad to have avoided taking up the subject herself, still overlooking that it was exhausted in advance by the commissioner.
"I have not come here to exercise charity; I am here to teach the people how to get along without charity."
"You are at the bottom a heartless person, although you appear to be otherwise."
"And you would show your big heart at my expense without being willing to offer a yard of the trimming from your gown."
"I hate you! I hate you!" burst out the girl with a hideous expression on her face. "Surely I know who you are, I know all, all, all!"
"Well, why not leave me then?" asked the commissioner in a steel cold tone.
"I shall leave you! I shall!" cried she and approached the door, but without going.
The commissioner, who had taken a seat at the table, took up a pen and began to write to avoid all temptation of taking up a conversation, which was ended, as everything had been said.
He heard, as in a dream, sobbing and how the door closed, how steps sounded in the hall, and squeakings of the stairs.
When he awoke and read the paper, over which his pen had been flying, he saw that the word Pandora was written there so many times, that he could calculate that a long while had passed since the scene was ended.