"You know me," he said, in a rough voice, which betrayed too great an indulgence in stimulants, and nightly dissipation, and in the rude manner only found amongst uneducated persons, destitute of good breeding. "You know me and you know I will have my wishes attended to. I must have twelve hundred gulden, and have them by to-morrow," he cried, stamping with his foot on the ground.
The young lady played with a bow on her dress; its rosy colour was not softer nor brighter than her small finger tips, and she replied without altering her position or looking at her husband, in an almost hissing voice:--
"Then gamble luckily, or cheat some of the people who trust you with their business on the Bourse."
"Your sneers are lost upon me," he said, with feigned indifference; "I believe we may both spare ourselves the trouble of displaying our wit. I am practical, and above all things a man of business," he added, with a cruel laugh; "you know our compact, and you know under what conditions I, your rightful lord and master, shut my eyes to proceedings to which I might strongly object--if some day it should please me to do so."
She did not move a muscle, but the slight blush which passed over her beautiful white brow, showed some inward emotion.
Without in the least modifying her tone, she said coldly:--
"You also know how easy it would be for me to free myself from the chains with which you threaten me. You must know me well enough to feel sure that my conversion to Protestantism would not give me a moment's uneasiness, if I wished to obtain a separation."
"I do not think religious compunctions would ever trouble you," he said, scornfully.
"Well, then," she said, calmly, without looking up, "I only continue to endure this heavy chain, because I wish to avoid scandal, and because I do not wish a creature"--and this she said with unbounded contempt--"whose name I bear, to fall into the lowest depths of vulgar crime. These are my only reasons for enduring and maintaining you. Take care of making the chain heavier than it is. As to what you are pleased to term our compact, on my side it has been punctually fulfilled. Have you not regularly received what I promised you?"
"I am not talking about that," replied Herr Balzer, rudely; "I am saying what I want, to meet unavoidable debts, and I must have twelve hundred gulden and you must get them for me,--you can do it easily. Your little Uhlan lieutenant is an inexhaustible gold-mine," he continued, with a low laugh.