Aunt Thekla was weeping. "Poor boy!" she whispered to herself. Johanna's heart beat fast. Magelone smiled, half in scorn, half flattered. After a pause Otto went on, turning to Aunt Thekla: "Gambling debts must, as you know, be paid within four-and-twenty hours. I had nothing, and only knew of one way out of the difficulty; that is, I gave a note. If it is not paid in a week——" He broke off and looked gloomily on the ground; then added, "When the invitation to Vienna came, I instantly concluded that grandpapa would accept it, and I determined in his absence to apply to you, dear aunt. You will not leave me in the lurch."
The old lady sighed. "Certainly not, if my few hundreds can help you——"
"I need nearly three thousand thalers," Otto interrupted her.
"Three thousand!" cried Aunt Thekla. "Wretched boy! Never in my life have I had so much at once."
"The bailiff would give you the money at any time," said the young man; "and if grandpapa were angry at first——"
"Otto, what are you thinking of?" his aunt interposed, hastily. "It would be actual robbery! I will not listen to such a thing. Moreover, the bailiff never would do it."
Otto changed colour. "Then there is nothing for it but to send a bullet through my brains," he said in an undertone, as if to himself.
Aunt Thekla again burst into tears. "If I could only help you!" she said. "But if I stake everything that I have, my money, my few trinkets, my laces——" Suddenly a thought occurred to her. "Magelone, you can help!" she cried. "Your beautiful pearl necklace,—Löbel Wolf will certainly advance you the needed sum upon it, and when Johann Leopold comes back he will redeem it."
For a moment Magelone was speechless with terror. Her pearl necklace, the only thing she had been able to save from the wreck of her fortune, must it, too, go? She could not let it if she would, for had she not vowed, when money, plate, trinkets, everything, in short, had been swallowed up in paying poor Willfried's debts, never, never again, even for the dearest being on earth, to offer up such a sacrifice? But of course she could not explain this now, when Otto, Aunt Thekla, and Johanna were all looking at her so expectantly. A happy thought came to her aid. "Gladly—gladly would I give it up," she stammered, and the tone of her voice, the tears in her eyes, must convince her hearers how sincere was her regret that she could not do so, "if I only had the necklace; but I was anxious about its safety, and I gave it to grandpapa, who locked it in his safe."
"But how would my Christmas-gift do?" cried Johanna. "If it is worth so much——"