"I am your daughter----"
"You speak of love so familiarly--you seem to know it at twenty better than I at fifty. You love!" she cried suddenly, "and thence comes this obstinacy!"
Mataswintha blushed and was silent.
"Speak," cried her angry mother; "confess it or deny it."
Mataswintha cast down her eyes and still kept silence. She had never looked more beautiful.
"Will you deny the truth? Are you afraid, you, a daughter of the Amelungs?"
The girl proudly raised her eyes.
"I am not afraid and I do not deny the truth. Yes, I love."
"And whom, unhappy girl?"
"Not even a god could force me to tell that!"