[Without answering her.] But I advise you to take care, Miss Wangel! For you don't know him rightly yet.
[Ardently.] Oh, no one knows him as I do!
[Laughs in exasperation.] Thank him, when he has held me down year after year! When he made father disbelieve in me—made me disbelieve in myself! And all merely that he might—!
[As if divining something.] That he might—? Tell me at once!
That he might keep her with him.
[With a start towards him.] The girl at the desk.
Yes.
[Threateningly, clenching her hands.] That is not true! You are telling falsehoods about him!
I would not believe it either until to-day—when she said so herself.
[As if beside herself.] What did she say? I will know! At once! at once!