"It's not true, Herr, that they are going to take you away?" she sobbed. "If it is, I will starve myself and freeze to death."
"No, it's not true; but get up, Regina."
"Master; ah, my dear, dear master!" and she pressed her forehead against his knee.
"Boleslav von Schranden, do you deny it now?"
"Deny what?" he asked. "That this poor unhappy girl whom you have denounced and ostracised regards me as her rescuer and saviour, because I am the first who for years has spoken a kind word to her? Or would you have me deny that this same unhappy girl has endeared herself to me, because she is the only human being on God's earth who has clung to me in my hour of need, when every one else has forsaken me? I should be an ungrateful ruffian if I did not value her after all she has done for me. I never asked her to share my solitude among the ruins. It is not so comfortable or lively up there, and all my goodness to her has consisted in my allowing her to sacrifice herself for me. I have not been able to supply her with pleasures. There has been no unlawful intimacy between us. If she prefers to be my body-slave to being stoned and harried to death, that is no concern of any one's in the world, least of all of you Schrandeners, and of that despicable drunkard who prostituted his own flesh and blood."
Gently prompted by old Merckel, the carpenter recommenced playing the rôle of injured father.
"Oh my daughter! my poor, misguided daughter!" he groaned.
"Do your duty," urged the landlord; "reclaim her."
"Come, my child; come back to your brokenhearted, deserted father. He has taken to drink through grief ... driven to it. He will only make two more coffins; one for himself and one for----"
He stretched out his dirty hand to her, which, shuddering, she violently repulsed.