Pause. GERDA seats herself.
MASTER. What did those papers say? That I was too old?
GERDA'S silence indicates assent.
MASTER. Well, that was nothing but the truth, so that need not trouble you. In my answer I said the very same thing and asked the Court to set you free again.
GERDA. You said, that——
MASTER. I said, not that I was, but that I was about to become too old for you!
GERDA. [Offended] For me?
MASTER. Yes.—I couldn't say that I was too old when we married, for then the arrival of the child would have been unpleasantly explained, and it was our child, was it not?
GERDA. You know that, of course! But——
MASTER. Do you think I should be ashamed of my age?—Of course, if I took to dancing and playing cards at night, then I might soon land in an invalid's chair, or on the operating-table, and that would be a shame.