“Yes, drawn up by my notary, and both of our names are signed to it.”
“It is a fraud!” cried Ebenstreit. “I will protest against it.”
“Do it, and you will find it a vain effort. I promised to pay your debt if you would put your name to the document then placed before you, which you did. Ask the Marquis Treves how I paid your debts: he will answer you that he has given me the money.”
“I had the honor to pay to the baroness one hundred thousand dollars, as she rightly informs you.”
“Yes,” continued Marie, “the marquis is the present possessor of this house and all that it contains—furniture, statues, and pictures; also the equipages and silver. To my mother I sent my diamonds, costly laces, and dresses, to indemnify her for the annuity which Herr von Ebenstreit settled upon her as purchase-money which he cannot pay, now that he is ruined.”
“Marquis,” cried Ebenstreit, pale with anger, “have you really bought this house and its contents?”
“I have done so, and the one hundred thousand dollars the baroness has paid over to Herr Splittgerber.”
“Oh! I am ruined,” groaned Ebenstreit—“I am lost!” and, covering his face with his hands, he rushed from the room.
Marie gazed at him with a sad expression, saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, you now know to whom this house belongs. You can no longer say that I am the daughter whom the late General von Leuthen sold to a rich man. I am free!”
At this moment a side-door opened, and Frau von Leuthen was heard saying to old Trude: “Let me in! it is in vain to hold me back. I will have an explanation from my daughter, and learn what all this means.” As she pushed herself into the room, she exclaimed: “Ah, it is a fete day! There is the baroness in all her glory and splendor. She is not crazed, as I feared this morning, when she sent me all her ornaments and fine dresses and laces, with a note, sealed with black, inscribed upon it, ‘Will Of the Baroness Ebenstreit von Leuthen.’ I opened it, and read: ‘I give to my mother my precious ornaments, laces, and dresses, to secure to her the pension which she has lost.—Marie. ‘I came here to learn if my daughter were dead, and what the conclusion of this lost pension may be, and I find—”