VERONIKA
Ah, yet could I laugh,
Piper, yet could I laugh, for one true word,—
But not of all men.
PIPER
Then of whom?
VERONIKA
Of Kurt.
PIPER
Bah, Kurt the Councillor! a man to curse.
VERONIKA
He is my husband.
PIPER
[shortly]
Thine? I knew it not.
Thine? But it cannot be. He could not father
That little Jan,—that little shipwrecked Star.
VERONIKA
Oh, then you love him? You will give him back?
PIPER
The son of Kurt?
VERONIKA
No, not his son! No, no.
He is all mine, all mine. Kurt's sons are straight,
And ruddy, like Kurt's wife of Hamelin there,
Who died before.
PIPER
And you were wed. . .