My dear lady, it was my duty to carry out what you and Fräulein Margot desired--and what, in short, the circumstances demanded.
Frau v. Yburg.
Oh, I know! My God, how well I realise it! And what a task you've accomplished! No--when I remember how much persuasion, how much subtle reasoning, how much-- Ah, and how I've suffered these three years! See, my hair is quite gray!--And I still can't understand it! I still look upon the girl as if she were a stranger, a mysterious being who has lost her way and accidentally come to me. I--I who was brought up so strictly, watched, and carefully tended all my life, kept worlds away from any taint of the unconventional-- And she, too-- No, on that point, I can't reproach myself. And yet--this horror! No, I shall never, never understand it! Ah, and to have to bear it all alone! Oh, yes, I had to do that. My husband, with his long army training, would have forced him to fight--and then we should all have been dragged in the dust. Margot's life--our position in society--everything! Ah, if you hadn't been here, Herr Ebeling! Do you remember how I came to you? I think I was half dead from wretchedness! With the letter to him in my hand, the letter that I had taken from her as she lay distracted in my arms! Do you remember?
Ebeling.
Oh, don't speak of it! As I read that handwriting--still so childish--and that helpless, stammering question: "What has happened to me?"--God knows, everything turned black before my eyes! Oh! it's too horrible!
Frau v. Yburg.
And then you yourself said to me, "You're right--the blackguard must. I'll make him."
Ebeling.
I said it in the heat of the first great indignation. Please take that into consideration. After I went to work, I religiously kept to my programme to leave all threats and violence out of the question. Not only because-- Ah, as I've come to feel now, such a calm method of procedure would be impossible. But then I had to keep in mind that a new life--I don't venture to say a happy one--was to be gained through me. To-day, some one is grateful to me--the very one who at first opposed me most violently--that poor, wretched wife.
Frau v. Yburg.