"Karl!"
The sight of Hildegarde at this moment neither angered nor pleased him.
He permitted her hand to lay upon his arm.
"My head aches," he said, as if replying to the unspoken question in her eyes.
"Karl, why not give it up?" she pleaded.
"Give it up? What! when I have come this far, when I have gone through what I have? Oh, no! Do not think so little of me as that."
"But it is a dream!"
He shook off her hand angrily. "If there is to be any reckoning I shall pay, never fear. But it will not, shall not fail!"
She would have liked to weep for him. "I would gladly give you my eyes, Karl, if you might see it all as I see it. Ruin, ruin! Can you touch this money without violence? Ah, my God, what has blinded you to the real issues?"
"I have not asked you to share the difficulties."
"No. You have not been that kind to me."