Wolfram (bursting into anger).
My God! My God! All in vain! I’ve never let a servant go, that I’ve once taken into my house. I’ve paid each one double wages and winked at all sorts of carelessness, to purchase their silence, and yet—Oh the false, ungrateful creatures! Oh my poor children! ’Twas for your sakes alone that I tried to conceal it.
Clara.
Don’t blame your servants. They’re innocent enough. Ever since that day the house next door was burned down, when your wife stood at the open window and laughed and clapped and puffed her cheeks and blew at the flames to fan them, people have had to choose between calling her a she-devil or a madwoman. And hundreds of people saw that.
Wolfram.
That is true. Well, since the whole town knows my misfortune, it would be folly to ask you to keep it quiet. Listen to me, then. This theft, that your brother is in prison for, was due to insanity.
Clara.
Your own wife——
Wolfram.
I’ve known for a long time that she, who once was the noblest and kindest of women, had turned malicious and spiteful. She rejoices when she sees an accident, if a maid breaks a glass or cuts her finger. But I only discovered to-day, when it was too late, that she steals things about the house, hides money, and destroys papers. I had lain down on the bed and was just dozing off, when I saw her come quietly up to me and stare at me to see if I was asleep. I closed my eyes tight, and then she took my keys out of my waistcoat, that I’d hung over the chair, opened the desk, took some money out, locked the desk again, and put the key back. I was horrified, but I controlled myself and kept quiet. She left the room and I went after her on tip-toe. She went right to the top of the house and threw the money into an old chest of my grandfather’s that stood empty there. Then she looked nervously about her on all sides, and hurried away without seeing me. I lit a candle and looked through the chest, and found there my youngest daughter’s doll, a pair of the maid’s slippers, an account book, some letters and unfortunately—or God be praised, which?—right at the bottom I found the jewels!