"No, I tell you."
"Then I shall go straightway to Herr Dernburg and reveal everything to him. Your game is lost; give it up!"
"Do you think so?" asked Oscar, wild with rage. "Do not boast until the end comes, Herr Egbert Runeck. Whatever may come of it, I'll not yield to you."
"And that is your last word?"
"My last--I stay!"
Egbert silently turned to the door, which, the next minute, had closed behind him.
Wildenrod was alone. Slowly he went up to his desk, and took down from the wall a revolver that he held for a long while in his hand. The way that his father had once taken, when every resource failed, was not to survive the disgrace of ruin. Here a deeper disgrace was to be expiated! The pale gleaming of the barrel of the pistol seemed to point out the same path to the son. But again strong love of life awoke in the man to whom life and its belongings had ever been more enticing than honor. Must he, indeed, give up the game as lost? He laid down the weapon and was soon lost in somber reverie, out of which he suddenly roused himself, as if by main force, and rigid determination was stamped upon his darkened countenance.
"To Maia!" said he with spirit. "I shall see whether her love for me will stand this test. If she gives me up--well, then, there is still plenty of time to speak one last word with this last friend here!"