"Me, they mean me!" Bontzye assured himself again, and yet had not the courage to give a glance at the Heavenly Court.
He listens to the advocate further:
"He kept silent also when his protector became bankrupt and did not pay him his wages.
"He kept silent when his wife ran away from him, leaving him a child at the breast.
"He was silent also fifteen years later, when the child had grown up and was strong enough to throw him out of the house."
"Me, they mean me!" Now he is sure of it.
———
"He kept silent even," began the angelic advocate once more in a still softer and sadder voice, "when the same philanthropist paid all his creditors their due but him—and even when (riding once again in a carriage with rubber tires and fiery horses) he knocked Bontzye down and drove over him.
"He kept silent. He did not even tell the police who had done for him."
———