Bar. Excellent! I promise myself much from this little artifice. If the mild look of the mother fails, the innocent smiles of these his own children will surely find the way to his heart. [Taps at the Lodge door, the Stranger comes out.] Charles, I wish you joy.
Stra. Of what?
Bar. You have found her again.
Stra. Show a bankrupt the treasure which he once possessed, and then congratulate him on the amount!
Bar. Why not, if it be in your power to retrieve the whole?
Stra. I understand you: you are a negociator from my wife. It won't avail.
Bar. Learn to know your wife better. Yes, I am a messenger from her; but without power to treat. She, who loves you unutterably, who without you never can be happy, renounces your forgiveness; because, as she thinks, your honour is incompatible with such a weakness.
Stra. Pshaw! I am not to be caught.
Bar. Charles! consider well—
Stra. Steinfort, let me explain all this. I have lived here four months. Adelaide knew it.