But the energetic girl did not succumb many minutes to this fearful agitation, she raised herself and tried to escape from his arms.
"You are saved, Count Arnau---Farewell!"
He stood as if struck by lightning.
"Gertrud, for heaven's sake, what does this mean?"
"I leave this house at once. Do not hold me back, I must go."
"And do you really imagine," cried Hermann, "that I will let you go? Oh, your incomprehensibleness does not alarm me any longer. You have given a right over you by this sacrifice which I shall know how to use."
Gertrud looked earnestly at him for a moment.
"No," said she at last, "with this sacrifice I have torn every tie between us for ever. What has happened does not exist for the world, and the daughter of the thief, Brand, can never be the wife of Count Arnau."
He took both her hands gently--
"Gertrud, not this bitterness. Can you not credit me with the power of protecting my wife before idle tongues?"