Aaron.
Didn't he commit himself morally? Very well! Then he goes and finds that he has been tricked by a venial under-magistrate, for the sake of thirty guilders; and he finds that it was no marriage at all! The girl is reduced merely to the position of his mistress——
Well, doesn't that dispose of her? Doesn't that rid him of responsibility?
Aaron.
Yes; but it is a high moral consideration that occupies me. The boy found that he could rid himself of his burden; the discovery came when he had been looking about for a week, and finding nothing but poverty, privation and despair on every side; no one would lend him money; none of his former friends would speak to him; there was only the choice between an absolutely hopeless struggle and running away. He ran! And I say a young man who has thus been tried and found wanting is no man to be my daughter's husband!
Sachel.
O! Because Rafael has had one mistress is he not good enough to be your daughter's husband?
Rosa.
What do you mean! What do you mean, Sachel! [The two men rise, affecting surprise.] It is a lie! It is a cruel lie!