"Everything, everything! My friends, my liberty, the right God gives to every woman—to love whom she will! And you, my uncle, rob me of these things! What if I should tell you that marriage with me is now impossible?"—her lips growing thin.
"I should not be very much surprised."
"Please look at this, then, and you will understand why I can not marry Doppelkinn." She thrust the bogus certificate into his hands.
The duke read it carefully, not a muscle in his face disturbed. Finally he looked up with a terrifying smile.
"Poor, foolish child! What a terrible thing this might have turned out to be!"
"What do you mean?"
"Mean? Do you suppose anything like this could take place without my hearing of it? And such a dishonest unscrupulous rascal! Some day I shall thank the American consul personally for his part in the affair. I was waiting to see when you would produce this. You virtually placed your honor and reputation, which I know to be above reproach, into the keeping of a man who would sell his soul for a thousand crowns."
The girl felt her knees give way, and she sat down. Tears slowly welled up in her eyes and overflowed, blurring everything.
The duke got up and went over to his desk, rummaging among the papers. He returned to the girl with a letter.
"Read that, and learn the treachery of the man you trusted."