"And that is why you have brought him?"
"I thought I would make it simple for you, Johanna."
Again silence reigned. Then Johanna said, with averted eyes--
"Why do you stand at the door? You may come nearer if you like."
"Thank you," whispered Felicitas. She approached an armchair with quaking knees, and clung to the back for support.
"Speak out," said Johanna. "What has brought you here?"
"Necessity," murmured Felicitas--"the necessity of my soul."
Johanna laughed out loud. "Really, your phrases are as good as ever. And what can I do for your soul's necessity?"
"Despise and scout me," said Felicitas. "You have the right; but believe me when I say that I am no longer what I was.... I am not the same as I was when you cast me off. Then I was cowardly and bad. To-day I come back to you purified and courageous, and the reason that I stand before you thus, Johanna, is"--her face lighted with enthusiasm--"is because he, in the two years of our married life, has made me what I am. I owe it to him."
Johanna shrugged her shoulders. She thought of the gossip in everybody's mouth about the flirtations of the fair chatelaine of Uhlenfelde.